閱讀難度：

Why did so many women choose to become mistresses -- or even seek out the position?

Slate.com recommends historian Elizabeth Abbott's new book, "Mistresses: A History of the Other Woman," to explore reasons behind.

For several millenniums, a handful of women have learned to parlay their scandalous relationships into positions of power -- and some have changed history in doing so.

In some cases, they were coerced by powerful men. But in others, they cast themselves into lives of indecency because they were able to gain power in this way.

Many of the women profiled in Abbott's book used their cunning and social advantages to carve out roles of great influence.

In most cases, their ascendancy was only possible through that strategic partnership.

Hernán Cortés' mistress Malinche, Cixi (Tz'u-hsi) in China, Louis XV of France's mistress Jeanne-Antoinette, the mistress of Fidel Castro Celia Sanchez are among the list.

（點(diǎn)擊Slate網(wǎng)站查看原文）

新書收錄有影響力情婦

       為什么那么多女人愿意做別人的情婦，甚至對(duì)這一角色趨之若鶩？

       Slate網(wǎng)站推薦的歷史學(xué)家伊麗莎白·阿伯特的新書《情婦們：另外一個(gè)"她"的歷史》可以幫你找到答案。

       幾千年來(lái)，眾多女子利用為人不齒的關(guān)系做籌碼，獲取了權(quán)力與地位，有些甚至改寫了歷史。

       有時(shí)候，她們是被權(quán)勢(shì)階層脅迫，而多數(shù)情況下，她們道德淪喪只因想獲得權(quán)力。

       阿伯特書中所收錄的女子無(wú)一不是狡猾的利用女性的特有優(yōu)勢(shì)，精心謀劃，最終成為極具影響力的人物。

       很多時(shí)候，她們的上位只有仰仗另一半的光輝才能實(shí)現(xiàn)。

       埃爾南·科爾特斯的情婦瑪琳切、中國(guó)的慈禧、法國(guó)國(guó)王路易十五的情婦讓娜·安托瓦妮特、以及菲德爾·卡斯特羅的情婦西利亞·桑切斯都榜上有名。

(China.org.cn September 5, 2011)