Books: The Technique of the Love Affair

By a Gentlewoman

Is there truly nothing new? This charming book, first published anonymously in 1928 by English writer Doris Langley Moore, is proof--if any were needed--that the man-catching strategy expounded by the 1996 best seller The Rules was old hat, and dumbed down at that. Written as a Socratic dialogue between wise Cypria and eager Saccharissa, Moore's handbook advises women to employ all the usual tricks: let the man make the moves, let him imagine he is smarter--and remember that, as Saccharissa says wistfully, "the thing which is against my own inclination is always the correct thing to do." Running footnotes and quips...

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