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Title: House of Incest by Anais Nin ISBN: 0-8040-0148-0 Publisher: Swallow Pr Pub. Date: December, 1958 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.18 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Background research may be necessary
Comment: HOUSE OF INCEST is a very slim volume of 72 pages. Naturally, I expected to be done with this oddly titled book in one sitting. After reading the brief introductions, with references to the author spitting out her heart and an Indian making a flute out of the bones of his dead wife, I realized this was a book unlike any other I'd seen. I struggled to relate and to understand, but after about 10 minutes on one page, I had a headache. I put the book down, but was determined to figure out what the heck Anais Nin was talking about.
I turned to many other sources for clarification. ANAIS NIN: A BIOGRAPHY by Deirdre Bair was the first outside source. Bair explains that the main supporting character of "Sabina" is none other than June Miller, the notorious second wife of Henry Miller (who appears as "Mona" in Miller's TROPIC OF CANCER). Then I turned to ANAIS NIN READER, which contains introductory essays explaining that the incest referred to in the title is not literal but symbolic. But far, far above the rest, the most helpful was ANAIS NIN: AN INTRODUCTION by Benjamin Franklin V and Duane Schneider; I learned here that HOUSE OF INCEST is not a conventional story by any means. Rather, HOUSE OF INCEST is an exploration of the narrator's subconscious state (very few passages in this book, the two introductory pages for example, reveal the narrator's conscious state). The main theme of HOUSE OF INCEST is the relationship between the narrator and Sabina; but the narrator eventually realizes that her fascination with Sabina is merely a fascination with an aspect of herself, hence the metaphorical incest for which this volume is named. Finally, I understood this book! Finally, I enjoyed it! Now, I love it and think it's brilliant and am glad it was not so easy to get through at first.
If labyrinths, puzzles, and psychology interest you, then you may find HOUSE OF INCEST has something to offer. But a word of caution: even though the over-riding theme is not of literal incest, there is one instance where it is: "... there sat Lot with his hand upon his daughter's breast," Anais writes on page 52, "while the city burned behind them." HOUSE OF INCEST was Anais Nin's first work of fiction, published in 1936 - nearly 40 years before the publication of the famous diaries. Deirdre Bair explains that Nin was already publishing aspects of her diary as fiction, though attempting to disguise the more painful details. Bair writes that in this instance Nin was not successful.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Wonderful Dream
Comment: This book was a captivating dream. I've read it over and over again and enjoy it each time.
Rating: 1
Summary: I would give this a 0 if I could
Comment: This is a nothing book, I mean literally, this book contains NOTHING. No story. No plot. No ending. INCEST?.....there is none, there are not even any people in it.
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Title: The Diary of Anais Nin: Vol. 1 (1931-1934) by Anais Nin ISBN: 0156260255 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: June, 1969 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Winter of Artifice by Anais Nin ISBN: 080400322X Publisher: Ohio Univ Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: December, 1961 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love" -The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin (1931-1932) by Anais Nin ISBN: 015640057X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 29 October, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, Karl Jay Shapiro, Anais Nin ISBN: 0802131786 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: June, 1989 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Spy in the House of Love by Anais Nin ISBN: 0804002800 Publisher: Ohio Univ Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: February, 1984 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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