A delightful, sensual vignette (30 pages) about a young man who is seduced by a Mme T. He is young, thinks he is in love with Mm T's friend but is a willing paramour. MMe T is using him to counterbalance the attnetions of her husband and her other lover, M. Very fun, not at all porographic. ( )

"One of the loveliest pieces of French prose," writes Milan Kundera in a blurb on this book's cover. Why not read it, I think? I skip, for the moment, the long intro as I am afraid of spoilers, and set off on this very slight 'diversion' that details an intimate, yet playful, seduction in the French court in, say, the late 18th century. In this slight yet alluring tale the reader's challenge is to determine just who is seducing whom: the older, womanly sophisticate, or the younger rakish lothario? So, there I was, the torrid pages growing hot and heavy, eagerly turning to page 37, when the text suddenly changes to French! What happened? It seems I had just read the entire book (or was it a novella or even a short story?), whose editor kindly decided to include the original French version as well. Sadly, for me, when I am sauntering down the broad boulevards of Paris, and some women gesture in my direction, saying, "Voulez Vous Coucher Avec Moi," I can only jauntily reply, "Me no speak the language!" But my thanks to the translator for her noble effort. And the once ignored intro told me more about author Vivant Denon; apparently, other than writing this one delectable bit of prose, he assembled the great art collections inside the Louvre. And I can also state that I am "woke" enough to realize that this makes him, not an aesthete, but a looter and a plunderer! ( )

A very short story that was at least probably written by Vivant Denon, who is better known for having assembled the art Napoleon stole while waging war across Europe in the Louvre. It’s touted as being a masterpiece of seduction and stylishly erotic, but I have to say, it’s so incredibly short that there isn’t enough time for true seduction to take place. It was refreshing that the book was not misogynistic as others in this genre and time period often are, and I liked how the woman was in control, keeping her husband and her official lover under control while she manipulated a young man into a tryst one evening. However, it still reads as male fantasy, and a pretty thin one at that. There is something to be said for the simplicity, and indeed, the morality of the exchange of pleasure and desire without entanglement or regard for ‘tomorrow’.

Just this quote, on ‘after’:
“Besides, I’ve exhausted all the resources a heart possesses to bind you. What could you still hope for from me now? What could you still desire? And if a woman leaves a man with nothing to desire or to hope, what will become of her? I have given you everything I could; perhaps one day you will forgive me for the pleasures that, once the moment of intoxication has passed, return you to the severity of your judgment.” ( )

This slim novel (more of a short story at only 32 pages in length) is an 18th-century French classic. The cover blurbs place it alongside Dangerous Liaisons, and while it does have its witty moments and is definitely in the libertine mode, it lacks the emotional drama of the former. A man recalls an episode of his youth, his seduction by a married woman. Initially, he assumes that the intrigue is in avoiding her aging husband, but as morning breaks, he learns that he has been a decoy, and perhaps a provocation, for her lover, the Marquis.

The New York Review of Books includes both the French version and an English adaptation by fiction writer Lydia Davis, as well as a lengthy but informative introduction by scholar Peter Cook. While there are some wry, witty moments and several instances of fine, subtle writing, overall, I was not too impressed. ( )

On my first read, I was a little underwhelmed. But on a re-read, I felt I was able to appreciate it more. Partially for turns of phrases like this:

"The moon was setting, and its last rays soon lifted the veil of a modesty that was, I think, becoming rather tiresome."

And sentences that just seem so true like this:

"Love demands multiple tokens: it thinks it hasn't won anything as long as something is still left to be won."

Partially for all the indirect stuff in here. All the unspoken things alluded to and in the background. For example, here's the opening paragraph:

I was desperately in love with the Comtesse de ______ ; I was twenty years old and I was naive. She deceived me, I got angry, she left me. I was naive, I missed her. I was twenty years old, she forgave me, and, because I was twenty years old, because I was naive – still deceived, but no longer abandoned, I thought myself to be the best-loved lover, and therefore the happiest of men. She was a friend of Mme de T______, who seemed to have some designs on me yet did not wish to compromise her dignity. As we shall see, Mme de T______ possessed certain principles of decency to which she was scrupulously attached.

That paragraph is so wonderfully confusing and circuitous, that I didn't really think much about its meaning on first read. The rest of the story does not concern Comtesse de _____. Instead, the main character (who is older now) is being slowly seduced by Mme de T_____. Then, lost in all the paragraphs somewhere, Mme de T____ talks about Comtesse de _____:

she's a Proteus of forms, she charms with her manners--she attracts, she eludes. How many roles I've seen her play! Between you and me, how many dupes surround her! How she has mocked the Baron!...How many tricks she has played on the Marquis! When she took up with you, it was to regain her hold over two overly imprudent rivals who were about to expose her. She had accommodated them too much, they had had time to observe her; eventually, they would have caused a scandal. But she brought you onto the scene, gave them a hint of your attentions, led them to pursue her anew, drove you to despair, pitied you, consoled you--and all four of you were content. Oh what power an artful woman has over you!"

Only on second read did I connect what Mme de T___ said here with the first paragraph and come out with a fuller view of what the main character was talking about in that first paragraph. His relationship with the Comtesse is otherwise veiled. Also, it is another layer of fun to note that "artful woman" line since that is exactly what Mme de T_____ is also. "all four of you were content" could refer to the current story's actors (Mme de T___, her husband, her lover, and the main character). A little later down the page, the now older/wiser narrator realizes this:

"I felt that a blindfold had just been lifted from my eyes, and I didn't see the new one with which it was replaced."

( )