- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Beautiful Books (21 July 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1908238704
- ISBN-13: 978-1908238702
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 208,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'A truly exciting book about France and the French. Elaine Sciolino brilliantly captures the French character, looking at us with humour, curiosity, and at times admiration. Her book shows the power, charm, and seduction of 'the French touch. Enjoy!' --Bernard Kouchner, former Foreign Minister of France
'A book to be savored by every hedonist. A must-read introduction to French contemporary culture.' --Alain Ducasse, chef and restaurateur
'Crackles with the sharp, rueful wit of an outsider who has achieved some insight into Gallic do's and don'ts largely by running afoul of them herself. Carefully researched and lucidly argued, La Seduction develops a wonderfully suggestive theory of French pleasure.' --The New York Times Book Review
'A book to be savored by every hedonist. A must-read introduction to French contemporary culture.' --Alain Ducasse, chef and restaurateur
'Crackles with the sharp, rueful wit of an outsider who has achieved some insight into Gallic do's and don'ts largely by running afoul of them herself. Carefully researched and lucidly argued, La Seduction develops a wonderfully suggestive theory of French pleasure.' --The New York Times Book Review
Product Description
The hidden truth about the French way of life: it's all about seduction its rules, its secrets, its pleasures.
France is a seductive country, seductive in its elegance, its beauty, its sensual pleasures, and its joie de vivre. But Elaine Sciolino reveals that seduction is much more than a game to the French: it is the key to understanding France.
Seduction lies at the essence of the French approach to human relations, and it is the ever-present subtext for how the French relate to one another not just in romantic relationships but also in how they conduct business, enjoy food and drink, define style, engage in intellectual debate, elect politicians, and project power around the world. From gardeners to politicians, waiters to sportspeople, academics to farmers, all levels of French society employ seduction, in myriad forms, to conduct day to day life.
While sexual repartee and conquest remain at the heart of seduction, for the French seduction has become a philosophy of life, even an ideology. In La Seduction, Sciolino gives us an inside view of how seduction works, analysing its limits as well as its power. She examines the French way of life in an entertaining and personal narrative that carries us from the neighbourhood shops of Paris to the halls of government, from the gardens of Versailles to the agricultural heartland
La Seduction is a vital tool in understanding France and in demystifying a nation which has seduced so many.
France is a seductive country, seductive in its elegance, its beauty, its sensual pleasures, and its joie de vivre. But Elaine Sciolino reveals that seduction is much more than a game to the French: it is the key to understanding France.
Seduction lies at the essence of the French approach to human relations, and it is the ever-present subtext for how the French relate to one another not just in romantic relationships but also in how they conduct business, enjoy food and drink, define style, engage in intellectual debate, elect politicians, and project power around the world. From gardeners to politicians, waiters to sportspeople, academics to farmers, all levels of French society employ seduction, in myriad forms, to conduct day to day life.
While sexual repartee and conquest remain at the heart of seduction, for the French seduction has become a philosophy of life, even an ideology. In La Seduction, Sciolino gives us an inside view of how seduction works, analysing its limits as well as its power. She examines the French way of life in an entertaining and personal narrative that carries us from the neighbourhood shops of Paris to the halls of government, from the gardens of Versailles to the agricultural heartland
La Seduction is a vital tool in understanding France and in demystifying a nation which has seduced so many.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
BBC radio 4 has this wonderful programme "From our own correspondent" in which BBC reporters deliver short talks about aspects of life in the country in which they are stationed. Never less than interesting, it's often insightful and fascinating. But they work because they start with observation and draw out the underlying patterns and inferences.
By contrast, Ms Sciolino starts with a model, and rewrites France and French life to provide evidence. To be fair, most of her input comes from Paris, and especially the few people who cluster round political and societal life in the capital. It's abit like imagining Britishness to be deined by the inhabitants of Westminster and Islington. And she does have the handicap of feminism, a distorting eyeglass if ever there was one.
Superficially her argument is persuasive. French society is more comfortable than Anglo-Saxon society with the idea that men and women can relate to each other sexually in all aspects of life. It's more comfortable with suggestive and provocative display of the human body. It demands an attention to presentation - appropriate presentation - in all walks of life. It celebrates stylishness and enjoyment of pleasure.
But I can't equate her vision with my experience of the French: the technologists and scientists I've worked with on European projects, well organised and erudite and very self-centered: the Breton petrol station owner who short-changed me in 1968: the French tourists who invade my Welsh home town every summer, who seem to take a pride in parking so as to block the passage of as many cars as possible.
In the end one takes out a picture of a society stuck in the 18th century, a mix of marriages for connections and les liaisons dangereuses.
If the French way of doing things has value for the future of global society - and in its penchant for control of behaviour it just might - it deserves an advocate with deeper insights and better writing.
By contrast, Ms Sciolino starts with a model, and rewrites France and French life to provide evidence. To be fair, most of her input comes from Paris, and especially the few people who cluster round political and societal life in the capital. It's abit like imagining Britishness to be deined by the inhabitants of Westminster and Islington. And she does have the handicap of feminism, a distorting eyeglass if ever there was one.
Superficially her argument is persuasive. French society is more comfortable than Anglo-Saxon society with the idea that men and women can relate to each other sexually in all aspects of life. It's more comfortable with suggestive and provocative display of the human body. It demands an attention to presentation - appropriate presentation - in all walks of life. It celebrates stylishness and enjoyment of pleasure.
But I can't equate her vision with my experience of the French: the technologists and scientists I've worked with on European projects, well organised and erudite and very self-centered: the Breton petrol station owner who short-changed me in 1968: the French tourists who invade my Welsh home town every summer, who seem to take a pride in parking so as to block the passage of as many cars as possible.
In the end one takes out a picture of a society stuck in the 18th century, a mix of marriages for connections and les liaisons dangereuses.
If the French way of doing things has value for the future of global society - and in its penchant for control of behaviour it just might - it deserves an advocate with deeper insights and better writing.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As someone who has just moved to Paris I can thoroughly recommend this book.
Elaine Sciolino examines different aspects of French life - sex, fashion, food, politics - but always with the same witty style. Everything is focused on a central theme; French culture is out to seduce you. This sometimes goes very well (think of chocolate éclairs) sometimes very badly (think of the stereotypical French waiter, who, Sciolino says `plays hard to get').
What makes this book such a pleasure to read is, without a doubt, the style. Playful, critical, funny, affectionate, this book doesn't suck up to the French or criticise them. But it maybe proves that if you love France, France will love you back.
A really great read.
Elaine Sciolino examines different aspects of French life - sex, fashion, food, politics - but always with the same witty style. Everything is focused on a central theme; French culture is out to seduce you. This sometimes goes very well (think of chocolate éclairs) sometimes very badly (think of the stereotypical French waiter, who, Sciolino says `plays hard to get').
What makes this book such a pleasure to read is, without a doubt, the style. Playful, critical, funny, affectionate, this book doesn't suck up to the French or criticise them. But it maybe proves that if you love France, France will love you back.
A really great read.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you thought 'Why French women don't get fat' was good, then you might like this. If you read it then went to France and kept darting out of the path of fat people coming out of 'McDo's', then you are going to be equally disappointed. This does nothing but milk the romantic view of foreigners about France, and cash in on it.
If you want to read about the (real) French then try "The French" by Theodore Zeldin, or "The Secret Life of France" by Lucy Wadham, you'll get far more out of them.
If you want to read about the (real) French then try "The French" by Theodore Zeldin, or "The Secret Life of France" by Lucy Wadham, you'll get far more out of them.
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