SEDUCTION: A HISTORY FROM THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE PRESENT By Clement Knox

I had ordered Seduction: A History from the Enlightenment to the Present (2020) just before the coronavirus closed the Libraries in our area. This week, the City of Tonawanda Library opened (minus most of their furniture to allow safe distancing) and I picked up this RESERVE that had been waiting for me for months. Clement Knox presents the subject of seduction within the cultures and the social changes where it flourished. England was known for its “Rake Culture” where men seduced women, mostly by promising to marry them…and then leaving town.

My favorite chapter revolves around Samuel Richardson and his classic 1000+ page novel, Clarissa. I read Clarissa in one of my doctoral seminars and loved it. Clarissa is a pure woman tormented by a rake and betrayed by her parents who promote the relationship. Clement Knox also explores the wild life of Merry Shelly and her group.

Clement Knox concludes his study with references to James Bond (skilled at seduction) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Dracula uses hypnosis to seduce women and suck their blood…and other things. Finally, Knox admits that the Tinder online culture feeds an explosion of seduction on the Internet. If you’re interested in seduction, this is the book for you. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION — 1

CHAPTER ONE: Rake culture — 13

CHAPTER TWO: The transit of Venus — 80

CHAPTER THREE: An unsentimental education — 143

CHAPTER FOUR: Circling Mary Shelley — 197

CHAPTER FIVE: Of Mann and men — 251

CHAPTER SIX: Blood out — 320

CHAPTER SEVEN: Seduction remains — 374

Afterword — 418

Acknowledgements — 433

Endnotes — 434

Index — 473

4 thoughts on “SEDUCTION: A HISTORY FROM THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE PRESENT By Clement Knox

  1. wolf

    Does he also include “romance scamming” in this?
    There have been many cases in the last years of American soldiers, usually widowed officers in Afghanistan, who fell in love with a German woman via the internet and then asked her for financial help to visit her in Germany …
    Of course this also works the other way round:
    An aquaintance of ours met a really good looking Afro-American woman on the net and sent her money for the flight to Budapest – but waited at the airport in vain …
    Of course he hadn’t asked me beforehand about this – then it wouldn’t have happened.

    Reply

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