Anais Nin reader [Hardcover]

Anais Nin (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 316 pages
• Publisher: Swallow Press; 1st edition (1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804005958
• ISBN-13: 978-0804005951
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,131,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) was born in Paris and aspired at an early age to be a writer. An influential artist and thinker, she wrote primarily fiction until 1964, when her last novel, Collages, was published. She wrote The House of Incest, a prose-poem (1936), three novellas collected in The Winter of Artifice (1939), short stories collected in Under a Glass Bell (1944), and a five-volume continuous novel consisting of Ladders to Fire (1946), Children of the Albatross (1947), The Four-Chambered Heart (1950), A Spy in the House of Love (1954), and Seduction of the Minotaur (1961). These novels were collected as Cities of the Interior (1974). She gained commercial and critical success with the publication of the first volume of her diary (1966); to date, fifteen diary volumes have been published. Her most commercially successful books were her erotica published as Delta of Venus (1977) and Little Birds (1979). Today, her books are appearing digitally.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful sampling of the Nin library, October 15, 2003

By 

Andrew Olivo Parodi (Oregon, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Anais Nin Reader (Paperback)

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