I’m so jazzed for today’s post! I came to know and love Betsy Prioleau‘s work long before I wrote my first book, when some lovely person gave me a copy of her Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love. What a tremendous read it was…filled with all kinds of interesting women and fascinating tidbits from a long history of smart, sexy females.
I am fairly clamoring for the book she has out today – Swoon: Great Seducers and Why Women Love Them – in part because I know it’s going to be another fascinating look at an undiscussed part of history, and in part because (and this will come as a surprise, I’m sure) I love a rake. I love a scoundrel. I love a rogue. I’m a swooner. And so, this book is clearly about me. And, I’m guessing, not a little bit about you.
When I spoke to Betsy about joining Girls Who Wear Glasses month in celebration of the heroine of One Good Earl Deserves a Lover (and her swoony hero), she knew immediately who she would write about…and I knew immediately that it would be a fabulous story.
**
Stunning Sophie, sans spectacles.
A Bespectacled Siren of Eighteenth-Century Paris
Paris in the mid-eighteenth century was not a time for girls who wore glasses. Spectacles had large, round steel frames, often without stems, and were such objects of shame that a lady would sooner leave home in her shift as wear eyeglasses in public. Yet the bespectacled Sophie Volland edged out all the 20/20 beauties and won the most desired, handsomest ladies’ man in Europe.
Enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot was a celebrated favorite of women and veteran of many affairs when he met Sophie in 1756. He was forty-three and she, three years younger—a “spinster” (perhaps due to a past indiscretion) from a prosperous family who lived with her mother in a Parisian townhouse.
Diderot fell “suddenly, violently, and enduringly” in love with her at first sight, and remained faithful until her death. Little is known about her because her letters to him have vanished, but she was a great reader and a lively, angular free spirit who spoke her mind with “manish” authority.
Their passionate liaison lasted twenty years with stolen assignations in her Paris bedroom and her country house in Isle-sur-Marne. He adored her just as fervently over time, he wrote, and when he pictured her most lovingly, he imagined her “chattering,” and “standing erect” behind an armchair with “her spectacles on her nose.”
**
I love this story — because it just goes to show that girls who wear glasses most definitely get passes. Thanks so much for joining us today, Betsy!
Let’s talk about famous rakes, shall we? I know…I’m twisting your arm! Tell me which famous scoundrel (historical or otherwise), you’d like to try your hand at seducing in comments. One lucky commenter (US only, sorry!) will win Betsy’s Seductress! (Winner chosen on Wednesday!)
February 4th, 2013 at 7:21 am
I feel like I’ve used this answer far too many times, but I just can’t resist – Han Solo! Fictional, yes, but so very much a scoundrel. Who wouldn’t want the chance to try to seduce him?
February 4th, 2013 at 8:21 am
What a great post! I have worn glasses since I was in the third grade and felt just awful about them. But I love that your latest book features a girl with glasses who wins the handsome rake! And Betsy’s books sound fascinating; I’d have to read her book to find out about famous rakes in history, of which I do not know much about.
February 4th, 2013 at 9:50 am
Rhett Butler! Been in love with him since I was a freshman in high school. That’s been about 24 years now!
February 4th, 2013 at 10:00 am
A rake from recent times-Cary Grant. I don’t know if he really was one, but it’s Cary Grant…..
From the past, maybe Byron, just to see what all that fuss was about
February 4th, 2013 at 10:49 am
I would have to say Wickham from Pride and Prejudice. One of the greatest rakes and all around scoundrels to grace the pages of Jane Austen’s world…wouldn’t you have loved to be the girl he loved above all else, to cast aside his need for money and sport. He was the favorite of Mr. Bennet’s sons-in-law, probably because most rakes were charismatic men-that’s why they are so well versed in the art of love. All the women wanted them.
Myself being a bespectacled girl since grade school, once loved a true 20th century scoundrel…but I was not the girl he threw it all away for. Sigh…but my hubby is a true rogue at heart…and I WAS the one he changed his wild ways for.
February 4th, 2013 at 11:08 am
Wow, that is a great question…and Frankly I love the new Kirk, Chris Pine’s new Kirk ….and yes, I am old enough to be his mother but this is dreaming right, and fiction…right? So, he is someone I would not mind…ahem…reforming, seducing what have you…
Fun question…
February 4th, 2013 at 11:33 am
Does Johnny Depp count as a rake? He’s my free pass from my husband (lol!). He seems so intense, and those tattoos, and the hair…sigh… ;)
February 4th, 2013 at 4:26 pm
I wore glasses, then contacts, and am now back to glasses lol. I have to say Nathan Fillian from Firefly and now Castle – Good looking but it’s that grin and sense of humor that really gets me.
catslady5(at)aol.com
February 4th, 2013 at 6:47 pm
Glasses here, I would like contacts but scared to poke my eyes out. I would like Simon Baker from The Mentalist~ Nathan Fillian is also amazing. Jude Law…..okay, he would be the one!
February 4th, 2013 at 8:50 pm
Sebastian from the devil in Winter
February 5th, 2013 at 10:33 am
I’d love to seduce Julian from Celeste Bradley’s book Fallen! Better yet I’d love for him to want to seduce me!
I love that even though he’s lived the life of a rake when he meets Izzy he finds what he really wants is someone who will not only stand up to him but with him by his side! I love that he can see the beauty that is hidden behind her dowdy dresses and see the beauty beneath her outward appearance.
Now that’s my kind of rake!
February 6th, 2013 at 8:37 am
I enjoyed this post. I’m looking forward to read your book Sarah and very intrigued with Betsy’s books as well.
Since Roarke from the In Death series from JD Robb and Jamie Fraser (need I say more) are both married and would never stray , well that would be the challenge since we’re all fantasizing anyway. :) Love them both.
Carol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com
February 10th, 2013 at 4:07 pm
rhett butler
April 9th, 2013 at 11:55 pm
Soon after study some of the weblog posts on your web-site now, and I genuinely like your way of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark website list and will likely be checking back soon. Pls check out my web web page also and let me know what you think.
[url=http://coolchristianlouboutina.2kool4u.net]christian louboutin sneakers for men[/url]