Product Description
The first biography of the famous diarist written with exclusive access to her complete, original diary and with the full cooperation of her family traces her infamous erotic exploits among the intellectual elite. Reprint. 25,000 first printing. Tour. NYT. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Totally brilliant of an amazing though flawed figure
This is an excellent book. I have long been a fascinated "fan" of Nin and the diaries. I found that Bair presented the facts in a way that was unrelentingly truthful and yet also compassionate. Se recorded just about every nasty thing that Nin did but also, I felt, showed the factors in Nin's life that led her to those excesses. Bair is an excellent writer. I honestly appreciate Nin more now, knowing the facts of her life, how one thing led to another. Really got to walk a mile in her shoes. Thanks DB!!!

Love is blind.
Back in 2007, I "discovered" Anaïs Nin in a discount book store. I soon had paperback copies of her original edited diaries, and was confused: there was no mention of her husband.Deirdre Bair says she asked the same question; I thought I was the only one not in on the joke (other than her New York husband Hugo and her California husband Rupert Pole). I gradually added to my "Nin"library and now have almost every book she wrote or written by her.

I have a strong feeling that it will be a long time before someone writes an updated definitive study of Anaïs Nin. This is highly researched, and other than Rupert Pole, Bair is one of the very few to have seen Nin's original diaries, now at UCLA. Bair herself says that Nin was so controversial, to even write that "it was a nice day" she had to check the weather report three weeks before and three weeks after in 25 newspapers. I don't doubt her. At the time she wrote this, some of those mentioned in the diaries were still alive.

The book answers almost every question I had about Nin, and as miserable a person Nin was, the epilogue brought tears to my eyes. No one could hold her, but yet Rubert Pole continued to love her even after he learned the truth; and Hugo loved her to the end, even though he had to have known everything. Unless in his case, love truly is blind.

Bair includes 100 pages of notes citing her sources for everything she writes. The notes are well worth reading in themselves.

The index appears very, very good, although I have not gone back and used it very much (yet).

Useful perspective to be gained here
Bair's hardcore feminism only occasionally gets the best of her here, I believe. She does spend a good deal of this book making her subject out to be a deluded, dishonest, self-centered person, but I have little doubt that's what Anais Nin was. She was also talented, intelligent, generous, and had lots of other good qualities. No person is a saint, and that's what Bair exposes. Her research is solid (in my view) and her view of Nin is clear-eyed. There isn't much more you can ask from a biography, except for good writing, and that exists here as well. After I read this I reread a lot of Nin's diary, and I was impressed by the multi-angled perspective the biography had helped me to acquire. None of the pleasure I take in Nin's writing was dulled by Bair's analysis. The question of Nin as feminist is one that I think Bair has an OK handle on, as well, far more so than most modern feminists (but still not wholly correct).

If you are too dreamy about Nin, you won't like this, but if you want to delve into her as a real person, a human being, beyond the self-centered perspective intrinsically inherent in her diary, this is a terrific place to start.

Truly Fascinating
Well, it's very hard to decide what exactly to say about this extraordinarily comprehensive book. I do agree that the sarcasm towards the subject was a bit intense sometimes. Generally, biographers should be a bit more objective. However, since I have read Bair's biography on Simone de Beauvoir (which was indeed an exercise in objectivity) I can only conclude that what Bair found out in her research about Anais was so distasteful that she could simply not hide her contempt.

I personally have not read the diaries (I will begin tomorrow) so this is my first and only glimpse into the intensely complicated, tragicomic life that is Anais Nin. While she is, to be sure, a literary genius of sorts, she is also a maddeningly self centered, immature, spoiled, manipulative sometimes downright evil woman with a hefty does of a victim complex. It is truly difficult to come away from this book with any sort of sympathy for the Anais altogether. It is true that the biography (hence the 4 stars) does not delve any deeper into her myriad of neuroses, or even begin to expunge on why in gods name she would continue to fund all those idiotic men's lives and then bitch about it constantly. She not only constantly took advantage of others (Hugo), but also let herself be taken advantage of, only to try and pass herself off as some sort of saint, when all she really was, was downright stupid and gullible.

In any case, before I make any real and final judgments, I will read the Diaries, however, I don't expect my opinion to change much. What really troubles me is that Anais (she does have beautiful, elegant, inspiring prose I will admit) is held up as some sort of feminist icon, when in reality, she could not be farther from anyone I would want myself or any woman to hold in high esteem.

one thing i would have also have liked to see Bair delve deeper into would be the struggle Anais endured, recognized and articulated when it came to being a woman writer in a mans world. I would say it is somewhat a study in irony, the fact that Anais led anything but a feminist life, yet realized the unfairness when it came to woman artists and how they were demeaned and put down in the literary world in general.

In conclusion I will say that Anais' literary contributions -which are vast- should in no way be judged or lessened by any aspect concerning her less than savory personal life, because god knows men are not held by by those standards. henry miller being a perfect example.

A Good Competent Biography
Like many young adults I was fascinated and inspired by Nin's Diaries when I read them in the seventies. Lately I've been rereading them along with Bair's biography.I was aware that Nin's life was more complex and checkered than what she described, so I came to Bair's book for a more objective account.I think Bair succeeds and without the venom some reviewers here ascribe to this work.

As to the deeper understandings of what really made Nin tick, Bair speculates at times, but the mystery largely remains.However, I find this typical of biographies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A. Nin
I bought this book for a friend and never read it. Sorry I can't review it.

A thin volume of black-and-white photos
PHOTOGRAPHIC SUPPLEMENT TO THE DIARY OF ANAIS NIN is a thin volume of black-and-white photos that accompanied the first group of her published diaries. The new "unexpurgated" versions usually have pictures in the volumes of diaries themselves.

I enjoyed this book because it adds a level of understanding to be able to see pictures of the people that Anais is writing about, including herself. I had no idea who Anais was before I found this book, and it made me interested in her. My favorite shots are of her in Cuba, Mexico, and on her house boat in Paris. She really was a beautiful woman.

A thin volume of black-and-white photos
PHOTOGRAPHIC SUPPLEMENT TO THE DIARY OF ANAIS NIN is a thin volume of black-and-white photos that accompanied the first group of her published diaries. The new "unexpurgated" versions usually have pictures in the volumes of diaries themselves.

I enjoyed this book because it adds a level of understanding to be able to see pictures of the people that Anais is writing about, including herself. I had no idea who Anais was before I found this book, and it made me interested in her. My favorite shots are of her in Cuba, Mexico, and on her house boat in Paris. She really was a beautiful woman. ... Read more

Product Description
ultimate confidante,"" the author of Henry and June and Incest reveals her private self, her doubts and weaknesses, and the intimate details of her physical relationships. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

So Near And Yet So Far
This unexpurgated volume of Anais Nin's diary contains entries from March 4, 1937 to October 23, 1939. The preface by Rupert Pole (her Los Angeles widower, as opposed to the late Hugh Guiler, her New York widower) notes, "Toward the end of her life Anais and I discussed the original diaries, and she asked me to publish all her diaries just as she wrote them."

Having now read four volumes of the unexpurgated diary, it is my educated opinion that this was _not_ a good idea. It is unfortunate that Pole has dutifully released this volume of material in this form. It's like he published the first draft of a book--there is so much dross among the gold that I often felt that I was not so much reading as doing penance. It is apparent now that not all the material cut from the expurgated volumes was eliminated because of its scandalousness. If we have learned anything after the sexual revolution, surely it is that even the salacious can be dull.

And yet. And yet. Amidst Nin's whiny posturing, her mechanical proclamations of audacity and innocence, nestle passages of such power and beauty (especially starting in 1938) that this volume intermittently becomes riveting. There are also a number of entries where Nin drops her self-glorifying posturing and looks at her own behavior with clear and unflinching eyes. For the first time, for example, I began to understand what she saw in Gonzalo, something that was a mystery to me even from the previous unexpurgated volumes. She becomes enormously likeable when she appears to be displaying some candor.

I regard it as truly unfortunate that this book is unlikely to have many readers owing to its lack of editorial discipline. Be patient with it, but be prepared to skim, and don't read it as an introduction to Nin's work.

beautiful and inspiring
nearer the moon is a book whic has affected my life in so many good ways.I have become a better lyricist, and a more insightful poet because of her ability to be so bold, honest, and real while being one of the greatistpoets and writers of our time.Anais Nin's writting not only stands asarepresentation of how beautiful life is, but also stands as a bench mark inhistory.We can look into our past and see when her writing was rejectedfrom culture and society, and see how far we've come.Through Anais Nin wecan actully see Americas liberation process. ... Read more

Product Description
Ladders to Fire explores the erotic attachments of four young women. Nin described it as a "woman's struggle to understand her own nature." It began a five-volume "continuous novel," Cities of the Interior, which includes Children of the Albatross (1947), The Four-Chambered Heart (1950), A Spy in the House of Love (1954), and Solar Barque (1959).Set in the pre-war, expatriate Paris of Henry Miller, this novel — which shocked Nin’s contemporaries — draws its inspiration from her confessional diaries.Although Nin found in her diaries a profound mode of self-creation and confession, she could not reveal this intimate record of her own experiences during her lifetime. Instead, she turned to fiction, where her stories and novels became artistic “distillations” of her secret diaries. This 1995 reissue of of the 1946 novel Ladders to Fire has a new cover and foreword. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Evocative
Evocative, dreamlike portrayal of woman and soul. Much substance, deeply layered.Imagery is gritty, beautiful, real, and stylish simultaneously. Everything is described until you feel dreams are tanglible. Bless youAnais!! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A wonderful sampling of the Nin library
ANAIS NIN READER is a sampling of the works of the late Anais Nin, most famous for her erotica (which is not included in this volume) and her diaries. An eight-page forward by Philip K. Jason, who served as editor, is included. Jason argues that Nin's literary career, which began in the 1930s, did not come to renown until the 1960s because of its unusual nature. Nin's parents were Cuban, she was born in France, and eventually made her home in New York City and Los Angeles, therefore she does not belong to any one national literature (in France she is sometimes referred to as an American writer). In addition, she blurred the lines between prose and poetry, most of her works were autobiographical, and they contained elements of Freudian and Jungian psychological insight that had not yet been embraced by the general public. Anna Balakian's 19-page introduction titled "The Poetic Reality of Anais Nin" follows. Balakian praises Nin's work as visionary in its examination of reality, dreams, the human psyche, and mythology.

Twelve samplings of Nin's work are included. HOUSE OF INCEST, WINTER OF ARTIFICE, UNDER A GLASS BELL, CHILDREN OF THE ALBATROSS, SEDUCTION OF THE MINOTAUR, and COLLAGES are collected in the section of the book devoted to fiction. D.H. LAWRENCE: AN UNPROFESSIONAL STUDY, Nin's Preface to TROPIC OF CANCER, a review of Otto Rank's THE ID OF DOSTOEVSKY, THE NOVEL OF THE FUTURE, and passages from THE DIARY OF ANAIS NIN VOL. II round out the non-fiction portion.

Andrew Parodi ... Read more

Product Description
The impassioned relationship between Anais Nin and Henry Miller is further explored in this exchange of letters, written over a period of twenty-some years. Here is one of the richest and most intimate correspondences in literary history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS
thank you, this book is in great condition and im loving the book. thank you again!

Unable to continue.
After reading Stuhlmann's poignant introduction, it was impossible for me to read any further. Stuhlman included a few lines of the correspondence between Henry Miller and Anais Nin. After reading just these few lines and seeing the depth of love between these two people, I felt that reading their letters would be like taking a photograph that steals the soul of the subject.

Maybe later I will be able to read their letters, but not now.

("No, if I have not written about Louveciennes it is only because I am not writing history, I am making it. I am so aware of the fateful, destined character of this Louveciennes...What I was thinking tonight is that Louveciennes becomes fixed historically in the biographical record of my life, for from Louveciennes dates the most important epoch of my life." -- Henry Miller.We all have a Louveciennes. Mine was Pateley Bridge.)

Henry Miller
Big fan of these two, but more of a Henry Miller fan personally. The letters bring Henry Miller out of his fiction/novels and bring him into the realm where Nin was in writing her Diaries. Good for that reason, two lovers but volatile ones. Testing sexual boundaries is a touchy thing, after all.

Yes! Ah, ah, yes!
Forget Nin's works of fiction, the journals, letters, and life are truly worth experiencing over and over again for their honesty, passion, and viewing the internal turned external for our benefit. Everyone knows of Miller's and Nin's relationhip, through "Henryand June" if anything, but it is through this work that we see them less as romantic figures andmore as humans capable of the idiocy, devotion, and prolongation of things we should all end and just don't for whatever reason. This is a great buy if you are a lover a letters. Reading "Fire" is a must, however.

Spying In The House of Love
Like many others, I have been fascinated with and frustrated by Anais Nin for many years, since reading the first volume of her expurgated diary in 1977.

This volume of letters enables the reader who has already read other versions of the Nin-Miller story to form additional conclusions about what might actually have happened. Because the letters were sent into the possession of others, they were less subject to the constant revision and reinvention that bedevils all attempts to determine objective facts about the mercurial Nin.

If you are not already an amateur historian of literary trends of the 1930's, fear not. The letters are worth reading as an introduction to Anais Nin and Henry Miller as well, for they depict a real-life romance conducted by two who absolutely relished the game and were highly articulate in dramatically different ways. ... Read more

Product Description
Anais Nin was the ultimate femme fatale, a passionate and mysterious woman, world famous for her extravagant sexual exploits, most notably her simultaneous affairs with Henry and June Miller and her bicoastal bigamous marriages. In the mid-1920s, eager to break the confines of American Victorianism both as an artist and as a woman, Nin traveled to Paris, where she fell in with the legendary artistic and literary circles of the Left Bank.

"Nin's Diary", published over the years in numerous volumes, has been hailed as a breakthrough document by literary critics and feminists alike. Yet in the published diary, Nin did not lay bare her true self. She instead constructed a carefully stylized image of the woman the world knew as "Anais" while keeping her inner self hidden. In "Anais", biographer Noel Riley Fitch presents an honest portrait of Nin's passionate, tumultuous, and sometimes bitterly painful life. Fitch reveals, among other things, that behind Nin's coquetry was the desperate yearning of an abused and abandoned child. This, the first biography of Nin, complements, corrects, and demystifies the image that Nin so artfully crafted in her diary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Amazing
Great insight into Anais Nin's lascivious, yet mysterious, lifestyle and body of work. A must read for psychology, women's studies and english majors.

The history behind the diaries.
I have to agree with some of the other reviews here that Fitch's work can be cumbersome at times. It is a little confusing in spots, mostly due to the tricky present-tense and Fitch's tendency to make giant, intuitive leaps from one reference to another. I do not, however, feel that this detracts one bit from the subject matter.

I can't imagine another biography addressing Nin's complicated life and neurosis with the same unflinching honesty and compassion. Nin was an extremely complex woman who spent most of her time and energy trying to compartmentalize her life, then painfully pushing against the boundries of those compartments with her life and work. Fitch pulls from multiple sources to draw a more cohesive picture of Nin's life than Anais herself ever did. Though that's rather the point, isn't it? The original published diaries are now understood to be a construct of Nin's talented metaphorical writing: true in a sense, but bearing little resemblence to hard facts. One doesn't read Nin's rich, feminine, lyrical prose for an accurate histoical record. And although it's difficult to be accurate about history under the best of circumstances, Fitch does a fine job piecing together the available clues not only for an accurate timeline, but for some kind of insight into Anais Nin's motivations.

Overall, Fitch portrayed Nin without prejudice, balancing the horrors of childhood abuse and neglect against the adult Nin's conscious betrayals of lovers and friends. Ultimately, she shows Nin to be a very flawed, very passionate artist without excuses. She neither condemns Nin, nor places her on a pedastal. I prefer this way... it's like seeing Nin through the eyes of a true friend;one that loves her for who she was, with no excuses.

The Biographer Dislikes her Subject; the reader suffers almost as much as Nin's reputation
I've read several biographies of 20th century female writers, and this was the worst.

This was a frustrating read because the biographer seemed to dislike Nin, and I felt that Fitch somehow blamed her poor biographical work on Nin's so-called "double life." Fitch reacts to Nin's life as if it were far more pathological and complicated than any other artist a biographer ever had to deal with.

Fitch's telling of events is confusing. The story goes back and forth between decades, enemies, versions of what may or may not be truth- it's a mess. It goes on for pages mentioning this lover and that lover, and then there's little more than a tiny paragraph about a major career step Nin achieves, but little, if any credit, is given to Nin for her work and effort. Fitch never misses an opportunity to explain why Nin was not talented, not a true artist, not a good wife, not a true Parisian, not a true American, not a good daughter, and just does not deserve to be known, appreciated, published or even remotely liked.

The only redeeming point that Fitch can be proud of is sort of investigating a possibly incestuous relationship Nin experienced with her father. Even this uncovering is a half-baked attempt at taking a feminist point of view about sexual abuse and female artists and popularizing it into something salacious and one dimensional. Fitch's inclusion of this relatively new information about Nin is a transparent attempt at making this biography seem scholarly. Biographers who have delved into the lives of Anne Sexton, and other writers who may have been sexually abused should be offended by Fitch's treatment of this information.

Despite the fact that Nin helped and nurtured many artists, this book is full of catty swipes from several of those people. Robert de Niro's mother (a student who typed for Nin), for example, may well have meant her comments to be neutral, but hers and several others comments read as a mid-20th century, Greenwich Village, literary scene "Mean Girls." Gore Vidal is often quoted, without any mention to the fact that Nin helped his early career or even the slightest admission by the biographer that Vidal himself is one of the tallest tale-tellers and self-aggrandizers in American literature. Vidal's agenda was never noted. Fitch does not seem to try to balance them out with a different point of view or interpretation for the reader to try and understand why or what would make some so hateful of Nin. If you read this book, it seems you must blindly accept that Nin had overwhelmingly bad traits, and few, if any, good, or even neutral ones.

I learned nothing about Nin's true philosophy and ideas. Nin's explanations are even filtered through comments and actions by those who clearly dislike her.

What Fitch cannot account for is why Nin became so popular and beloved, yet the biographer does admit Nin had a following. There is no social context, no cultural context, nor objectivity to this biography.

This badly researched and poorly written bio left me with one thought: I must try to find a good, objective biography about Anais Nin.

The best biography I've ever read
If you are fascinated by Anais Nin's diaries, you will find this biography even jucier!Fitch uncovers all in a way that further illuminates what was behind the woman who once said, "Erotica is like a veil."
After reading this book, I felt I'd witnessed Nin in a way no one could have by just knowing her.To me, this is what biographies are all about.It made me see Nin in a new way, and allowed me to finally see what drove her mysterious behavior, talent, obsessions, and extreme privacy. In fact, this book made me more interested in biographies than reading diaries.
If you like this, you might also try the biography of Clara Bow, "Runnin' Wild," as well as the biography of Katherine Ann Porter.

Thoroughly Delicious
This book is a thoroughly delicious read for the Nin fan.Noel Riley Fitch's fine scholarship, deft analysis, and solid writing make vivid what is surely one of the most fascinating lives of the 20th century.As the title indicates, this books focuses on Nin's love/sex life, but it uses all available diaries and fictional works to piece together what can sometimes be a real puzzle.And, unlike the biography by Deirdre Bair, Ms. Fitch has an obvious affection, admiration, and appreciation for Nin which does not compromise the objectivity of her analysis.

The one possible problem in Fitch's analysis is that she makes the presumption that Nin was physically violated by her father.There is no doubt whatsoever that Nin was emotionally abused by the man, but Fitch is the first to suggest actual sexual molestation.Though she makes an excellent case for this possibility, her daring thesis caused a bit of an uproar amongst Nin's family and close friends who believe Fitch played fast and loose with the facts.I can understand their concern;it is a serious thing to accuse someone of such a crime.Still, Fitch's argument is socompelling that I don't believe it can be easily overlooked.

For anyone interested in understanding Anais Nin, this book posits a provocative theory while also pulling together the facts of her life. ... Read more

Product Description
Collages is Anaïs Nin’s last work of fiction, and is, as the title suggests, a collection of interwoven stories, opening and closing with the passage: “Vienna was the city of statues. They were as numerous as the people who walked the streets. They stood on the top of the highest towers, lay down on stone tombs, sat on horseback, kneeled, prayed, fought animals and wars, danced, drank wine and read books made of stone.”

The central character, Renate, is a sort of “master of ceremonies” for Nin’s modern fairy tales, as she floats through the narrative and communes, in one way or another, with each of the “storytellers.” Among them are: Varda, the artist whose interaction with his daughter causes him to spin story upon story in order to win her over to his artistic way of thinking; Henri the chef, who names each of his dishes after celebrities and has stories for the most interesting of them; Nina, a young woman whose spontaneous musings lead casual observers to believe she is insane; Nobuko, the Japanese actress whose charming commentaries and letters are laden with magical yet incorrect English; Bruce, whose betrayals to Renate with boys are written in story form hidden in Chinese puzzle boxes; Count Laudromat, the exiled royal whose father-in-law is an owner of laudromats; the French Consul and his wife, who are writers with extremely different outlooks on love and passion; John Wilkes, the “millionaire patron of the arts” who is actually a gardener; Dr. Mann, an Israeli with the unusual pastime of meeting and kissing famous women authors; and the enigmatic Judith Sands, who may have actually “written” Collages.

Collages is Nin’s most light-hearted writing, and, in that sense, is perhaps her most entertaining book. As Henry Miller commented, “The best of collages fall apart with time; these will not.”
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A. Nin
I bought this book for an elderly friend and have not read it. I cannot provide you with a review on a book I did not read.

Not very impressive
Boring and poorly written.The reason I bought this one because I have been miled by reading the othere's reviews.It may be a good book for others but certainly not for me.

A must read...
For me this book read like a collage of images strung together seamlessly by a multitude of characters in differing places...Places that Renate traveled to, lived in, loved in and much more...Once again, with Anais' mellifluous word usage, I felt like I was right there traveling with her - Savannah Skye...

Her best fiction
I can't reasonably express how beautiful this book is. It was my first Nin reading and remains my favorite among her fiction. In my opinion, her prose and story in Collages is at its strongest and most moving. This work shows the heart of a poet.

.......
This book left me speechless....a whole new mode of thinking... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Sexy Book
Recently I discovered on my wife's bookshelves the entire six volumes of Anais Nin's autobiography. I'd read Delta of Venus and Little Birds, and, a few years a go, quite by accident, I had the good fortune to live next door to Anais Nin's West Coast widower, Rubert Pole. One of my stories had just been bought to be the basis of a film and he had been the technical advisor for Henry and June, so we hung over the fence and talked about that. I thought he was a great guy. He was then about the age Anais Nin had been when she died, 73. So when I fouund the autobiography I read it all. It was wonderful, a great, marvelously detailed description of an entire era that stretched from 1934 Paris through the acid days in LA.
But it was missing the naughty bits, and Ms. Nin had lived a remarkably naughty life. After her death, at her urging, Rupert midwifed four volumes of the personal stuff. I'm reading the third now. Henry and June is the first. It is marvelous. It takes the reader inside the thoughts and feelings of this brilliant unabashedly lusty woman. At this point I feel I know her probabaly better than I have ever known anybody, because this is as complete a record of thoughts and feelings as is possible in words. In some ways I feel I know her better than she knew herself, because, as she admits, rereading some of her old diaries, events are not recorded as she remembers them, but as they actually happened, in her experience. This does not pretend to be an objective account. This is her life as she saw it.
Sometimes in Incest, and to a lesser extent, in Fire one wants to say, "Hey, get over yourself." These books provide deep insight, but some of her writing is rationalization for some pretty nasty behavior. I feel it's best to just experience, and try not to judge. One fact is indisputable. These books give you a ride like no other. If you have the time it's worth reading them all.
I plan to finish these, read some of her novels that cover the same territory, and perhaps go on to Henry Miller's novels that also cover those events. There are few such opportunites available to get inside the lives of fascinating people and the era they lived in.

Amazing Female Life in the 1930's
Very different from anything I've ever read.This may be due to the fact that it is a journal.Anais Nin is describing her day and her thoughts in a level of candor that I've never experienced except inside my own thoughts. In doing so, she has provided a woman's point of view in the 1930's that was very surprising to me. I am now into the second book, Incest, and her adventurous life is continuing.

my favorite book
this reads like really good fiction...Anais opens up and analyzes everyday life to death....expresses emotions that everyone can relate to...as well as daring, very strange, andexciting situations in her life. very sensual....very deep views of relationships...very optimistic..never EVER DULL...always at maximum pitch ... Read more

Product Description
The Four-Chambered Heart, Anais Nin's third title in the Cities of the Interior series of novels, is one of Nin's most compelling books, with well-defined characters (Djuna, Rango, and Zora), rhythmic waves of tension, and a powerful climax. Based on Nin's own relationship with the Peruvian radical Gonzalo More and his wife Helba, The Four-Chambered Heart examines how each of us experiences love in our own way, and how we are sometimes forced by social mores to compartmentalize one relationship in order to preserve the other.

Nin's use of symbolism has never been more effective: the river Seine represents the immutable force of life, the houseboat is the elusive dream, the shore is reality, and a doll found by a fisherman represents the part of Djuna that has committed suicide to allow the rest of her to grow.

Djuna, through her torturous journey with Rango and Zora, arrives at a conclusion that is bitter yet critical to her survival as a woman seeking an understanding of how the exterior world affects the interior: "...very rarely did midnight strike in two hearts at once, very rarely did midnight arouse two equal desires, and that any dislocation in this, any indifference, was an indication of disunity, of the difficulties, the impossibilities of fusion between two human beings."

The novel has been compared to the work of D.H. Lawrence and Carson McCullers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The Heart us not always a lonely hunter
This is a profound novel about a young but definitely a woman's life.

an affair as self-justifying melodrama
This is an autobiographical novel about a woman who meets a man on a boat in Paris to do it. They do it a lot and often. Then his wife finds out, and it ends in despair, with some very silly symbolism thrown in about sinking boats while on their boat.I can't say that I got much of anything out of this book, but as far as it went it wasn't too bad. What she is trying to do is portray her affair as a good rather than a dishonorable or bad thing. The execution of it is just mediocre.I do not think Nin is a distinguished writer, either in style or insight.

Not recommended.

Interesting biographically
But basically, the book is slight and forgettable. Except in Collages, Nin never really managed to put together a book that approached her diaries as literature. I read this as a follow-up to reading the Bair biography, andthat kept me interested through the book itself.

My first Anais Nin novel
This book has got me hooked and now I've started in on another of her books. It was written in a flowing beautiful manner and it went into great character depth. I think I know more about Djuna then any other fictionalcharacter.

Language
I loved it.Sometimes it seemed to drag on about nothing.But it dragged on beautifully I must say.It was the first Nin book I read and now I am on a binge.I loved her use of language and I related a lot to this book. It made me do some serious thinking. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A. Nin
I bought this book for a friend.Thus I cannot review it.I never read the book.

elegy to a young womans hero
D.H. Lawrence was obviously an enormous influence on Nin.One can almost visualize the young Nin being titilated by Women in Love or Lady Chatterlys Lover.Lawrence, no doubt, inspired Ms Nin to take up the pen in the firstplace.This unprofessional study is her tribute to this great writer.Itis highly subjective (as is most criticism written by writers on otherwriters.)Nin touches on all aspects of Lawrence writing.She also lendsa much needed feminine voice to the analysis of Lawrence.She seems tointuitively respond to the characters of Lawrence. This study really hitsthe spot.It is essential reading for any student of Lawrence.It alsolends great insight into the artistic development of Anais Nin herself. (In some ways this book is as much about Nin as it is about Lawrence.) This study contains some outstanding writing from an author oftenundeservedly overshadowed by Henry Miller.This book should help to cementher own literary rank as a top notch writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

a. Nin
I bought this book for a friend and never read it.I cannot do a review on something I have not read.

Cities of the Interior by Anais Nin
Excellent product and outstanding delivery.I was very pleased with the communication and updating of delivery status and confirmations.

What a Grand Description of People and their Motivations
This book differs greatly from her better known Little Birds and Delta of Venus.The characters Are The Story.It is rich in description, and the quirks and strivings of each persona is so minutely described, that it rings true these many decades later.I am sure a person in the book will remind you of someone you know.

Look into your lovers' hearts...
Though any of the five mini masterpieces that constitute this cyclical novel ("Ladders to Fire", "Children of the Albatross", "The Four-Chambered Heart", "A Spy in the House of Love", and "Seduction of the Minotaur") stand on their own as seperate and equally moving novels, I'm finding it difficult to describe the importance "Cities of the Interior" has held in my (and countless others') heart since my first reading of it.

The narcisism of which Anais Nin has been continually accused could be found here in "Cities of the Interior" during the most cursory of surface-readings (I suppose the same could be said of any writer who has been published to a mass market?) but, it is precisely her singular ability to delve into the depths of her most secret heart that allows her to reveal the core motivations for even the smallest of sensual gestures of her literary characterisations.

These revelations, couched in some of the most memorable and intimate prose you're ever likely to read, are the keys that can unlock the restrictive bonds we all place on our relationships with those closest to us, and perhaps more importanly, the restrictions that keep those with whom we SHOULD be close at arms-length.

This universal gift of empathy and understanding of the geography of the heart is the reason I come back to Ms. Nin's work again and again. What an appropriate title for a timeless epic that has the ability to polish your inner life to a bright glow. ... Read more