3 Comments/Reviews

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  Ronan says:

  August 8, 2014 at 6:58 am

  11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

  
  When you scratch the surface, there’s more surface., January 13, 2014

  By 

  Ronan –

  This review is from: Swoon: Great Seducers and Why Women Love Them (Hardcover)

  The author struggles to build a coherent structure. Sometimes the chapters are point-counterpoint, sometimes they are lists of unconnected attributes. There was no central theme of “what makes women swoon” and the reader instead has to wade through repetitive tautologies. An example would be “Mr. X was a champion balloonist in 18th century Paris whose dapper appearance wooed the ladies” and then two pages later “Mr. Y was a hideous, poor mongrel and had thirteen mistresses.” The men are swoon-inducing because they are, evidently. No book that includes “And Why Women Love Them” in the title can ever be allowed to use the phrase je ne sais quoi when describing a man’s appeal. If you’re admitting that you have no clue why a certain man was a famous seducer, then please don’t write the book until you figure it out.

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  Amazon Customer "Lucy" says:

  August 8, 2014 at 7:36 am

  11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

  
  SWOON: Great Seducers and Why Women Love Them, by Betsy Prioleau, March 6, 2013

  By 

  Amazon Customer “Lucy” (Montreal, Canada) –

  This review is from: Swoon: Great Seducers and Why Women Love Them (Hardcover)

  Some Men just Know what it takes…

  There’s nothing simplistic about the female brain, body and soul- intricately divine and sublimely refined, it really does take a grand master in love to figure out what makes us Venuses…Swoon!

  Betsy Prioleau presents us with the great seducers of all times to figure out what it is that makes some men really `get’ what women want. From the very beginning, even the Greek gods, moved heaven and earth for love. But by far, the grandest of all lovers in history was Giacomo Casanova. The perfect ladies’ man, Casanova captured women’s minds, their heart, their fantasies and ultimately their soul. He was genuinely interested and completely devoted to pleasing women- he understood what they needed and wanted.

  Betsy Prioleau’s research brings us closer to the men in history and their captivating ways. The men she describes (tons of historical figures, which include Voltaire, Gabriele D’Annunzio, the 18th c. duc de Richelieu, to name a few- and the modern ones as well- Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger and Woody Allen too!)-all of them devoted to being ladies’ men.

  SWOON grabs you from the very beginning. It’s everything you want to know about the great lovers in history. Definitely a sexy read, Swoon will have you admitting that yes! this really is what women want- from way back, and that there really is a recipe for love. It leads you to the realization that some things will never really change when it comes to love from a woman’s point of view. Women need and crave to be loved to the most heightened of their senses- passionately, completely yes, but a true lover knows that he’ll have to get through her mind first (but not solely)- Betsy Prioleau has a chapter on that. It’s called, Mental Intercourse…hmmm

  The writing is of superb and impeccable taste. Prioleau takes us through the history of love in flowing chapters that reveal what women already know and what the most intuitive men are fortunate enough to unravel. SWOON is filled with these great seducers who have mastered their art and understood the cue by becoming completely enthralled with love for their lady, their muse.

  I particularly enjoyed how the author takes the art of love and the historical seducers through an almost scientifc analysis- but the stuff she writes is incredibly interesting! There is nothing dry about this book- a definite page turner that will keep the facts coming as you’re kept in attention by the quick pace and sharp clever writing (…guarantees a glued smile on your face;)

  Brilliantly researched, witty and deliciously sexy, SWOON is recommended to all aspiring seducers and the lucky women who will undoubtedly and most willingly swoon into their bliss.

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  Bookreporter says:

  August 8, 2014 at 8:23 am

  4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

  
  Betsy Prioleau isn’t merely aiming to entertain; her goal is to get to the heart of what has made the men who wommen desire tick, March 5, 2013

  By 

  Bookreporter (New York, New York) –

  This review is from: Swoon: Great Seducers and Why Women Love Them (Hardcover)

  At first glance, SWOON looks like light entertaining reading. But author Betsy Prioleau isn’t merely aiming to entertain; rather, her goal is to get to the heart of what has made the men who women desire — and swoon over — tick. She quickly dispels expectations of text that is mere fluff with an almost academic presentation of a number of historic Casanovas and the varied qualities among them that made them what they were. She dives right into her narrative, beginning with a modern (and unknown) lady-killer. She digs to get to the root of his secrets before drawing the reader onto a path of discovering the “It” quality that makes some men such revelatory seducers.
  SWOON is not a dating or pick-up guide, but it does provide some insight to those reading it for advice. It turns out that while many great lady-killers throughout history have possessed some of the characteristics Prioleau details, it is unnecessary to have all of them. This undoubtedly will be a comfort to modern men who aren’t great dancers or poets. In fact, there are really only a few qualities that are necessary to bring a man to the fore of seduction. While cooking and expert wordplay are valuable, they are expendable. Caring, attention and sincerity are found in Prioleau’s champions — and they are the keys to being a one-in-a-million lover.
  Prioleau covers her bases; she includes information from evolutionary theory, literature, history, popular culture, and primary sources (often in the form of interviews with men who have been identified by anonymous women as Lotharios). For those reading the book for more than its entertainment value, the credibility her research loans the work is a boon. It is also rather unusual to encounter a book that is enjoyable on both sensual and cerebral levels.
  In spite of her extensive evidence and convincing rhetoric, Prioleau’s account is prone to a couple of pitfalls. This reviewer found her narrative to be contradictory at times. She comes out swinging against the evolutionary theory that claims women are looking for physical specimens to fulfill the provider role of the square-shouldered Ur-Man. Yet she is willing to consider that the emphasis women put on intelligence and artistic pursuits have caused the development of these skills within the male sex. She returns again and again to some historic figures (such as Franz Liszt, the original Casanova, and Gabriele D’Annunzio), which makes some of her points start to feel like anecdotal evidence rather than the widespread patterns she purports them to be.
  One can feel that Prioleau reduces the individual female into a single amorphous being — all desiring the same thing (or slew of things) from men. Of course, the knowledge that she wrote an earlier book on the female version of this archetypal character, called SEDUCTRESS, helps dampen this objection. And the pleasure the book offers proves valuable enough to make the suspension of this complaint worthwhile.
  The best part of SWOON is that Prioleau does not demand complete comprehension or revelation. There is a certain dread in reading a book that categorizes what women want. It would be easy to go too far one way or the other; to tell the reader something obvious or to suggest something unbelievable. Either way, the results would prove to be a decided turn-off. Instead, she closes with the rather uplifting idea that really anyone could be a ladies’ man — that it doesn’t take great wealth, good looks, or other typically sighed-after characteristics. Rather, it seems that men must learn to trust their own instincts before they can love a woman as she should be loved. Personally, I think that this is applicable to both genders, which makes SWOON all the more valuable.

  Reviewed by Rebecca Kilberg

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