The Art of Seduction

 

During the pandemic I read The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, a researcher by trade who’d worked in the publishing industry. The book itself was, as you’d expect, very well researched. Full of real-life historical examples from all over the world and from a wide range of time periods, 48 Laws puts forward this series of rules for attaining power. It describes how to enact them, and what pitfalls await when you transgress them. 

I started to notice these laws had been applied by managers over the years. I figured Greene might be onto something. He may not be a psychologist / sociologist himself, but he seems well-versed in the area. I whipped through it in a few weeks. 

Greene may not be a business owner, nor a psychologist, but he’s a good researcher with incredible worldwide historical knowledge. He also seems to understand people, one of the key skills that can move you forward in any sphere in life. Delving into his bibliography, I noticed he’d written The Art of Seduction. I really wanted to see what his take was in particular. How strong was Greene’s game? 

I eventually bought it in January 2025. This book was the same size as The 48 Laws – around 450 big pages with small text – and I hammered through the first one really quickly, so surely… 

This time, the book started to feel like a huge slog instead of a rollercoaster of human behaviour. The level of detail seemed so intense and so broad, that it was difficult to imagine how to apply the stories to my own life: especially when the examples range from Prince Albert courting Queen Victoria in 1800s England, and Casanova rampaging through 1700s Europe. How does this apply to a 40-something clumsy bachelor stumbling through overpriced cocktail bars in contemporary Manchester? I really had to work hard to pluck out the specific advice being dished out within the stories. 

This gets even harder when Greene uses biblical passages and passes them off as fact. Also, Greene questionably celebrates some eyebrow-raising individuals. Revered seducer Casanova courted a 17-year-old when he was 21. (But then, look who’s talking. Didn’t I?) A lengthy passage celebrates renowned seducer and actor Erroll Flynn, who in 1942 was tried for the statutory rape of a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old. (He was acquitted, but still.) Along with cocaine addiction, malaria and tuberculosis, Flynn was much more of a mess than his heroic Hollywood image would suggest. 

The examples tend to come from people who are either fictional or already dead. There are no interviews with living, contemporary renowned seducers. There are no references to Neil Strauss (author of The Game) or David DeAngelo (of Double Your Dating) or any other big names in that field. An interview with someone like Billy Bob Thornton – successful actor but regular looking bloke – would have been highly insightful, seeing as he bagged Tomb Raider herself Angelina Jolie, and had her visibly hanging off his every word.

 

Smattered through the weighty book, there are moments of genuine insight about keeping things light-hearted, keeping an environment close knit, avoiding hesitancy or familiarity, and essentially avoiding fretting over yourself by focussing your attention on the other person. There are nuggets that are genuinely helpful, I guess to both genders. 

Essentially, though, the book is lacking that modern-day, real-world relevance. How can I use this smorgasbord of advice when I’m stood in a swanky cocktail bar in Manchester talking to a semi drunk girl who I can hardly hear over the bass? How exactly do you ‘use a spiritual lure’ in a journaling event in a vegan restaurant? There are no breakdowns of different environments – the workplace, the club, the gym or other sports groups, the high street – all of which, I gather, need different approaches. 

In essence, the book reads more like a history of seduction attempts – fictional and factual - rather than an actual how-to guide. A lot of hard work (I spent about a year and a half reading it) for little payoff.