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This book by international fashion authority, Caroline Cox, is the first to explore the sensual style of the seductress, charting the changes in the aesthetic of erotic femininity from Marie Antoinette and Madame de Pompadour in pre-revolutionary France, through the screen queens of 1930s Hollywood, such as Jean Harlow and Marlene Dietrich, to the contemporary sex sirens of today, embodied in the sexual power of Madonna and Jennifer Lopez. In chronological themed chapters, Caroline Cox explores the art of seduction, one of the only routes to female power before the 20th century. By changing themselves from passive objects of male consumption to active agents of their own sexuality, the courtesans of the 18th century set the scene for the divas of today.