Victorine's Art of Seduction
By Debra Finerman,
Author of Mademoiselle Victorine

We women in the twenty first century are the most accomplished, talented,
educated women in history. But are we as charming or mysterious as women we
read about from the past? Do we flirt and fascinate? I don't mean just
flirting with men. Do we flirt with old ladies, the butcher behind the
counter, little kids, and dogs? Have we forgotten the rules of the Art of
Seduction?

I began to wonder about this last weekend. It all started when I went
searching in the back of my closet for a flapper dress to wear to a Great
Gatsby themed summer garden party. I thought to myself, I should start by
looking in that old steamer trunk. It's a rusty trunk from my late
grandmother's house that had somehow ended up in my possession. When I pried
open the top, I saw only one item in the trunk, a sheaf of yellowed papers.
What could this be? Written in an elegant script, I read, "Great-great
grandmother Victorine's letters."