Incest: From a Journal of Love

Incest: From a Journal of Love: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1932–1934) is a 1992 non-fiction book by Anaïs Nin.[1] It is a continuation of the diary entries first published in Henry and June: From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin. It features Nin's relationships with writer Henry Miller, his wife June Miller, the psychoanalyst Otto Rank, her father Joaquín Nin, and her husband Hugh Parker Guiler. She also copied some of her correspondence with these people into her diary. Much of this book was written in English, although those of her letters which were originally written in French and Spanish were translated. Most of this diary takes place in France, particularly Clichy, Paris and Louveciennes.[2]

Incest
First edition
AuthorAnaïs Nin
LanguageEnglish
GenreMemoir, Diary
PublisherHarcourt
Publication date
October 1992
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
ISBN0151443661
OCLC25629084
818/.5203 B 20
LC ClassPS3527.I865 Z465 1992
Preceded byHenry and June: From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin 
Followed byFire: From a Journal of Love: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1934–1937 

This book is followed by Fire: From a Journal of Love: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1934–1937.

Plot summary

edit

The book covers the conclusion of her and Henry's relationship with June, as well as her relationships with her analysts. Among other events, she re-establishes contact and begins a sexual relationship with her absent father Joaquín Nin, becomes pregnant with Miller's child and eventually has an abortion in her sixth month of pregnancy. She examines all of these events with a sharp eye through the filters of psychoanalysis, and herself becomes an experiment for psychoanalysis by symbolically appointing her husband Hugh Guiler as her father, Henry Miller as her husband, and her father as her lover.

Influences

edit

Nin was in the midst of the surrealism movement, the psychoanalysis movement, and the expatriate community in Paris, and these intellectual influences upon her are evident in her diary entries. As well as providing a personal record of events, her diaries also chronicle the writing of various works including the novella Djuna from Winter of Artifice and Alraune which was later titled House of Incest. She edited Henry Miller's famous novel Tropic of Cancer, over which she wielded considerable influence.

Editions

edit

Anaïs Nin first began publishing expurgated versions of The Diary of Anaïs Nin in 1966, omitting many details of her personal and love life. In 1986, after virtually everybody mentioned in her diaries had died, Rupert Pole, Nin's widower, began to publish what are now termed the "unexpurgated" versions of the diary. The "unexpurgated" versions of the diaries are more sexually frank than the versions published in the 1960s and 1970s, and provide a fuller picture of her life. The new material casts her incestuous relationship with her father and her relationship with Henry Miller in new light.

References

edit
  1. ^ Nin, Anaïs (1993). Incest: From "A Journal of Love": The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin, 1932–1934. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0156443005.
  2. ^ "Incest: from 'A Journal of Love' : Anais Nin : 9780156443005". The Book Depository Ltd. UK. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)