…That history has ignored the woman who seduced Louis XV is disappointing but not altogether surprising, for to have as your life’s principal achievement the seduction of an utter mediocrity, to be, as it were, the Edwina Currie of the ancien régime, inspires more contempt than admiration. Baudelaire wrote no poetry in Pompadour’s honor, Camille Paglia passed her over in Sexual Personae, and the nicest thing I could find that anyone interesting has written about Pompadour was, “Elle pensait comme il faut”, which, since it came from the author of Candide, is probably a mark against her. Though not, perhaps, the most significant event in pre-revolutionary French history, Pompadour’s seduction of Louis was a remarkable accomplishment in its own right, since only a very special woman is able to seduce the King of France. (more…)

france, history, sex