Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love (Paperback)

by Elizabeth Prioleau (Author) "The seductress..." (more)
Key Phrases: other seductresses, belles laides, owl goddess, New York, Mae West, Lola Montez (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Prioleau's captivating debut is a fervid self-help tract well-disguised as a history. "Seductresses are in fact the liberated women incarnate," asserts the author in her opening chapter. "They're the stealth heroines of history. The first feminists." It's a persuasive argument, which Prioleau pounds home with massive fists full of quotations, attributions and texts from anthropology, religion, psychology, history, art, literature, music and anything else she can get her hyperintellectual hands on. Modern women have lost their goddess-centered groove, the Manhattan College professor asserts, and as a consequence the entire race is going to hell in a male-dominated, bimbo-focused handbasket. If only women would search their collective unconscious for their archetypal Goddess roots, they'd realize modern feminism has rendered them joyless, and the reality TV/Barbie look-alike trends are hooey. Rather, women of any age (there's a chapter on "silver foxes") or looks (another chapter on "homely sirens") are multiorgasmic, brilliant, joyous power mavens who possess everything to bring a man to his willing knees and keep both genders happy and sated. Telling wonderfully peripatetic tales of self-possessed sirens and seductresses throughout the eons, Prioleau makes a strong case for women to take back their ancestral birthright of sexy wholeness (though the problems of non-middle-class women, like poverty, among others, never enter her worldview). Whether one buys her argument or not, it's wildly engaging reading and faultless scholarship.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The Washington Post

"The seductress is one of the most potent female personas in existence," writes Betsy Prioleau in the preface to this book. Well, hear, hear, and tell us all about it, honey.

Ms. Betsy seems just the woman for the job of lauding the seductress. Armed with a PhD from Duke and a Southern-belle mother (she was "Miss Valentine of Richmond, Virginia," daughter notes proudly), she's got the brains and the roots to tackle the siren's enormous historical import.

One settles in with Seductress, eager to be, yes, seduced, and quickly finds Prioleau's verve infectious. She exalts "ladies of strut and accomplishment" and "that numinous shazam we call charisma." On a mission to prove that seduction is more chosen pursuit than exploitation of god-given hotness, she dedicates herself to celebrating the women whom she calls "world-beaters." These include non-beauties, seniors, intellectuals, artists and two "commanda" types -- politically active women and adventurers.

Stressing that androgyny, nonconformity and self-actualization are major factors in the attractiveness of these women, Prioleau is clearly out to send a message that one can, if one dares, balance love, work and self-fulfillment. Such encouragement is to be applauded, as modern women need to believe that we can excel intellectually and materially and still have men falling at our feet.

Bolstered by the author's moxie, the reader is revved for the journey. So, after all the boosterism, where is she headed? On a historical voyage with dazzling characters. We meet, in biographical sketches, such beguilers as Wallis Windsor, Cleopatra, Josephine Baker, violinist Violet Gordon Woodhouse, Gloria Steinem (that's right) and, of course, Mae West -- several chapters worth, a veritable Who's Who of hot mamas through the ages. Here's Emilie du Chatelet (1706-1749), one of Prioleau's "scholar-sirens," making her entrance for a meal with her lover Voltaire after a hard day of intellectual labor: "Emilie descended the staircase for these dinners in full court dress, her hair upswept and decked with diamonds, her hands bejeweled and stained with ink. As dumbwaiters (the first in France) delivered courses of gourmet food, Emilie and Voltaire jockeyed volubly for attention. They fired off erudite screeds, argued at top volume, traded bon mots and insults in gutter French, then stopped abruptly and burst into laughter."

The reader starts out eager to hit all the stops on the star map of Seductressville, but as the trek lurches on, one finds oneself in the mode of a grumpy toddler held hostage in a car seat: "Are we there yet?!" The road, it turns out, is littered with man-bashing. It's hard to stomach Prioleau's claim that men "cut and run at the drop of a diaper . . . binge out on casual infidelity, wife trade-ins, and hit-and-run sex." Geez, with men like that, why bother even snapping a garter to keep them? Anyone can grasp Prioleau's feminist motive of -- say it with me now -- "empowerment," but to clamber on top, must a girl sink her stiletto heel into the eye of the fellow beneath her?

At various points in the book one catches not only a whiff of reverse sexism but also an air of superiority. There's something false in her dismissal of a "Gen Y tide of postfeminist sex avengers" who can be seen bar- and bed-hopping at colleges around the U. S. of A. If she's trying to pump up the next generation of the sisterhood, the Mean Mommy glare doesn't exactly help. She notes some gains -- "we've cleansed the temple of cipher wives and dumb floozies" -- but suggests that the "Lilith model," a "passé remnant of old-guard male-dominated societies," needs to be exorcised while women "recall the sex goddesses."

That goes beyond maternal censure to just plain ick. The book's 1990s-style You-Go-Girl-ism is constantly undercut by this queer sort of ars seductiva McCarthyism. Maybe the author is reaching for a particular rarefied demographic -- one that might fit in a bit of seduction before dashing off to Pilates, say, or to a Garrison Keillor show. She's got her passport to sexual emancipation in one hand and her jumbo can of Flooz-Be-Gone in the other. Taste is a woman's prerogative, certainly, but Prioleau is less likable for her snootiness.

While we should look to the past for guideposts to the future, one can't help but wonder why so few modern-day women are profiled in this book. Do the seductresses operating today fail to meet the author's standards? What gives?

As a historical survey, the book is digestible, smart and quite quotable. As a guide or inspiration, it's a clunker. Seductress is sort of a studied iteration of Jill Conner Browne's sassy Sweet Potato Queens books -- it boasts all of the possibilities, but only a fraction of the fun.

Brimming with pithy quotes, biographical examples, sources, suggested reading and fancy-girl theorizing, Seductress is nothing if not thorough. The time-pressed shouldn't feel guilty about passing it by, however, as Prioleau's ruby-slippers message could fit inside a fortune cookie: With a little charm and a dash of pizzazz, an independent, brainy gal can get some.

Sad to say, that's still news we smart cookies can use.

Reviewed by Lily Burana

Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (October 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143034227
• ISBN-13: 978-0143034223
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #161,395 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Educational entertainment in the realm of female entitlement, December 7, 2004

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love (Hardcover)

In SEDUCTRESS author Betsy Prioleau attempts to restore feminine sexual power to modern women. She examines the wiles of historical seductresses in a meticulous treatment of their histories. Intense research is a hallmark of her authoritative guide to sexual sovereignty.

Early in the book she puts down myths about the sexuality of the historical seductress with voluminous facts that substantiate her theories. She categorizes the seductresses into six prototypes. The first insidious falsehood is that seductresses must be young and beautiful, but she dispels the myth with stories of very ugly enchantresses of the past. Age is a second misnomer, with celebrated allure of "old dames." The third myth centers on the intellectuality of a real seductress, with intelligence winning out over stupidity. Inspiration and artistic endeavor allowed women to build careers, tearing away the vapid housewife myth. Real seductresses were "movers and shakers," playing heavy parts in the world of government. Lastly, she explores the seductress as wildly adventurous and rakishly professional.

Prioleau next explains the art of seduction: physical art, dress and ornamentation, hygiene and cosmetic usage, artful detail of setting, body language and music, lustful experience with sex, psychological affectation, intimacy and ego enhancement for the male, along with comedy as an aphrodisiac, festivity and dramatic impact. Seduction is now, according to Prioleau, with a look at the past. The learning curve is open to every woman. "Ladies choice," she proposes.

SEDUCTRESS sets forth an archetype for the sex goddesses in ancient history, with a chapter moving from goddess mythology, through the divinity of Inanna to the Greek love goddess Aphrodite. She is described as a "lioness on the loose in the Olympian firmament." History treats her with scorn but she survives in mysticism and fairy tales. Her decline is followed by the demonic Lillith, the two-faced vision of beauty and fiery serpentine demonism.

The author writes in the meat of SEDUCTRESS with passion about Belles Laides, her so-called homely sirens. Isabella Stewart Gardiner, known as Belle, stated, "Never ever behave with pride, self-confidence, and self-conceit." Wallis Simpson, the divorced siren who caused David Windsor to abdicate the British throne, is another less than beautiful personality described. A chapter titled "Silver Foxes" is a word picture of the elder seductress such as Diane de Poiters, George Sand of the nineteenth century, and Colette, the modern aging siren. Mae West takes a big bite of this chapter, adding the categories of money and status to adulation reserved for sexual prowess.

Siren-scholars, artists, political divas and adventurers unfold in the bulk of the book. Their lives are a checklist for the women of today, to develop a new seductress prototype in the fast-paced twenty-first century world that paints sex as an act rather than an art. Prioleau suggests that women can become happier, sexier and more vital. Generous lists of notes, suggested readings and an index substantiate the author's research on her educational and stimulating topic. Difficult to categorize as a self-help book, SEDUCTRESS offers enlightenment and entertainment in the realm of female entitlement.

--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad

33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book!, November 2, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love (Hardcover)

I don't rate many books 5 stars but this book is well written, organized, and interesting. It backs up my personal theory that I have developed over my life which is that "The most important thing a woman can do is truly get to know herself and pursue her personal passions." She needs to be strong enough so that when she falls deeply in love, she doesn't loose part of herself in the process. I also have to second the author's theory in the book that a woman's looks don't really matter, she can have whoever she wants if she has a joy of living and some of the other qualities of women profiled in the book. I'm an average looking woman who is currently quite overweight but lately I've rediscovered my joy of living, my sense of humor, and the pleasure of interesting conversation... and I see men years younger than me light up in my presence and so-called-playboys (men who normally have women falling at their feet) act like little nervous boys when I'm around. However the one theory this author puts forth in the book that I really disagree with is that reproduction and sexuality should be considered as completely unlinked human needs/desires. I believe a woman can be empowered, sexy, AND be a nurturing mother! In fact I think there are many examples in her own book that contradict this prejudiced theory of hers.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome and empowering!, October 27, 2006

By	Erica N. Herron "Erica" (MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I think what many of the previous reviewers found offensive was that the author turned the sexual double standard on its head; the old "promiscuous men are studs and pimps, promiscuous women are slut and whores" axiom. In this book, promiscuous women who enjoyed sex and didn't allow men to objectify them are the real and ultimate pimps, the studs. These women took on the male role of sexual conquerer and they are seen in a positive light for it. Although I personally can't imagine this being a satisfying lifestyle, I think it's awesome that some women have really put on the boys' shoes, dodged marriage and commitment, had successful careers, pursued attractive men, and toyed with lovers.
Women's sexuality is so often used against them, so often seen as their weakness that it is disturbing to the popular mind to see women using their sexuality, which society says is their mortal Achilles heel to be exploited by men, to their advantage. The notion that women would use the very weapon that's brandished against them to conquer the world is terrifying. It's okay to see women on the front of magazines displaying themselves for men's pleasure, but it's *not* okay when they use that display for their own personal gain, their own pleasure. They become dangerous.
And this wonderful book is about dangerous women. It's delightfully readable. It shows how many very accomplished women have been mistreated by historians (Did you know Cleopatra was *also* a great ruler, besides just being the mistress of Mark Antony? Did you know she was ugly?) It also shows how many women, notorius and famous and incredibly influential on the course of history, have been deliberately and systematically ignored in the history books, their names and faces lost to time immediately after their deaths. The author resurrects these powerful forgotten figures. Also fantastic was her classifications for these women -- ugly seductresses, old seductresses, musicians, politicians, artists, ect. The point is that these women didn't just have great sex -- which is what we usually think of when we envision a seductress. No, they seduced *the minds* of the public, of powerful figures, they used charisma to get what they wanted. And it's important to note that this is *not* unlike what men do to succeed in their careers! Men too use charm, charisma, their looks and body language to overcome objection and succeed in life. When this author uses the term "seductress", she really doesn't mean a woman who can get lots of people to sleep with her; that's not much of a talent at all. To this author, seductresses inspired devotion, respect, love, lust, envy, professional admiration, and shifted the social politics of their time.
Besides that, the writer is exciting and dynamic. Her style is action oriented and packs a real punch.
I have one gripe. The goddess theme was soooooo irritating. Soooooo irritating. Every woman had to be compared to Innana or some other goddess. It's easy, though, to skip over these paragraphs because they are sort of clearly marked in the text, so you can easily hop over them and get to the good parts. Don't let it keep you from buying this very pleasurable, empowering, beautiful book.