Product Description
Best known for her diary, Anais Nin was also the author of several novels, short fiction, and a book on D.H. Lawrence. As a woman who made a career of her aesthetic femininity, her works helped shape the future of gender studies and feminist literary criticism. Her writings have challenged numerous critics, while her life has been equally fascinating. The selections in this book represent the critical response to her works, from her first efforts in the 1930s to the posthumous publication of unexpurgated diary volumes beginning in 1986, including the views of major biographers and contemporary critics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A treasure-trove for the scholarly Anais aficionado
THE CRITICAL RESPONSE TO ANAIS NIN is an amazing book the scholarly fan of this literary legend will appreciate. Thirty one reviews are reprinted, ranging from the early 1930s to the mid-90s, divided into five categories of, "General Assessments," "Nin's Shorter Fiction," "Nin's Novels," "Nin's Diary," "Nin Herself." They range in length from being a few paragraphs to several pages, extremely hostile (suggesting that Nin is sexist, self-indulgent, not quite literature, and an insult to feminists) to extremely supportive - such as Henry Miller's 1937 review originally published in The Criterion that predicts that Nin's diaries will, when published, take their place beside the great literary revelations of the century.

I especially appreciate THE CRITICAL RESPONSE TO ANAIS NIN because it helps me understand the era in which Nin was working. I was 2-years-old when Anais Nin died. It would therefore be easy for me to remain ignorant of how revolutionary Anais Nin was. THE CRITICAL RESPONSE TO ANAIS NIN helped me see that the very fact that she was even writing was revolutionary! Can you believe the first review of a work by Anais Nin - a 1932 review of DH LAWRENCE: AN UNPROFESSIONAL STUDY - was titled, "Femininity of DH Lawrence Emphasized by Woman Writer"? How odd to hear her referred to as a "woman writer." To me, she's just a writer. It adds a dimension of respect for her art to realize that just by creating her art she was taking a risk, challenging the world.

This book is best suited for the Anais Nin scholar. If you are a casual reader of the diaries or the erotica then this book will likely be a bit much. If you are interested not only in Anais Nin's work but also the phenomenon of her career and the varied reactions it elicited, then this book will be an amazing addition to your library. (As for the substantial price, the most I can advise is to do what I did - shop around for a substantial discount.)

Andrew Parodi ... Read more

Product Description
Once considered merely a coterie writer and literary adventuress, Anais Nin slowly found both critical acclaim and a world-wide audience. But in the sixty years since her writings began to appear, no systematic overview of the critical response to her work has been available until now. Professor Jason defines the issues in Nin criticism, traces the historical contours of that criticism, and assesses the major critical statements. In this succinct yet admirably thorough study Jason has provided future students and scholars with a reliable guide to the quite varied responses Nin's works have provoked. ... Read more

Product Description
"This book is the record of an intimate weekend dialogue among thirty diverse strangers who came to meet one this century's most original authors, Anais Nin, and some important persons from her life and work...." ... Read more

Product Description
For many years the name Anais Nin was associated with the avant-garde and the literary underground. During the liberated 1960s she became widely recognized as a daring and innovative artist. Her work, at once familiar and exotic, is today considered among the important achievements of twentieth-century literature. Here she reads excerpts from her famous diary and answers questions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

I wish I could have been there!
I adore Anais Nin's insights, her honesty, the way fire rolls off her tongue like something suddenly coming alive--
And I so wish I could have been at 92nd Street in New York in 1977 when she read excerpts from her some of her diaries.

I guess the next best thing was listening to that lush, french accent as she read, laughed, and answered some of the audience's quesions about her favorite books, authors, and of course, Henery Miller!
Someone had asked Anais if she were a Romantic--and I loved her answer--"I once was in Italy and I saw a lovely house-boat which I would have loved to live in for a year--and then one day years later, I picked up a newspaper and noticed there was a house-boat for sale. I went to look at it--But if I hadn't romanticized earlier about this houseboat--I would not have been aware of this.This is romanticim to me."
Interesting.

Excerpts from The Diary of Anais Nin is worth listening to--allow the fire to flow into your ears!

A MUST for Nin Fans.....
To hear Ms. Nin's sweet voice after reading her works for 25 years was mesmerizing and unexplicably delicious and delightful!She brought the selections to life as no other reader could have.If you love Anais Nin, this is a must-have!! ... Read more

Product Description
Anaïs Nin Character Dictionary and Index to Diary Excerpts contains a description of every character Anaïs Nin used in her published fiction, cross-referenced with sources. This book includes an index of all persons, places, and works from all of Nin's unpublished diary excerpts. This reference is compiled by preeminent Nin bibliographer and scholar Benjamin Franklin V, Professor Emeritus, University of South Carolina. Anaïs Nin Character Dictionary and Index to Diary Excerpts is a valuable companion to anyone who reads and values Nin's work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Nin Deconstructed - Nin Herself Would Have Hated This Book
I'm usually grateful for any new book that gets published on Anais Nin, so if you're a lover of Anais Nin's poetic world like me, you'll want to buy this book.However, I need to give you a bit of caution.

Though the book contains an excellent summary of Nin's entire lifespan, which is perhaps its real value substantively, about 80 pages worth, particularly if you're new to the work and life of Anais Nin (-- it'll save you big time on reading Deidre Bair's bitter biography of Ms. Nin, for sure--), there are 14 pages of sophomoric examination of Nin's Diary from the perspective of Thomas Mallon and his book "A Book of One's Own," a book that has the reputation of asserting no favorable opinion of Nin at all. (This should tip the reader right off that the perspective on Nin and her work that Ms. Duxler is going to offer is not going to be decidedly positive.)

Next, there are more than 40 pages of tedious regurgitation of D.W. Winnicott's theories on object relations, pages which effectively turn Nin into a massive lump of clinical symptoms, a reduction that Ms. Duxler weirdly claims is the opposite of her actual aim in wrtiting the book.

Readers who know Nin will understand, for instance, how angry Nin got when Nancy Scholar Zee attempted to examine Ms. Nin's writings with so-called scholarly techniques and objective tools only to point up Nin's "contradictions" and "lies."Ms. Duxler's psychoanalytical "procedures" are similar in that they are equally duplicitous.Ms. Duxler wields a scalpel with her clinical words on Nin's psyche and writings, an approach that Nin herself would have been appalled and angered by if she were alive today.

Finally, Ms. Duxler concludes (assuming one can follow the twisted logic of her arcane psychoanalytic jargon) that Nin was very sick in many ways and that her Diary did nothing to transform her experience or to help her. (Deirdre Bair already said as much in her condescending biography of Nin!Why do we need another backstabber?)

Ms. Duxler insincerely claims to have been a grateful girlfriend of Nin's! ("Where's the evidence, Girlfriend?") Forget the artistry of Nin's short fiction or the entrancing beauty of her novels and her poetic prose. Ms. Duxler here is too busy burying Nin's psyche and memory to realize Nin actually created beautiful works that will live for future generations to read, unlike this rather ugly book written by a so-called professional who deftly shows she has a very cold, distancing (and soul-destroying) touch.

Ms. Duxler wrote her book not to praise to Nin.This much caution should prove enough.

Outstanding Insights
This book offers outstanding insights that may never have been revealed before, through her personal experiences with the subject, which also come to light thru her personal search for truth.

Superb portrait of a fascinating writer
Doing what no other Nin biographer has done, Duxler examines Nin with compassion and uses her own personal and psychological knowledge to pull the reader deeper and deeper into her story. We are taken with Duxler on her journey to understand Nin and when we are finished, we are closer to understanding both equally courageous women. There is also a well-researched short biography of Nin, followed by a fascinating analysis on Nin's inner world.

I loved this book!
years after her death, Anais Nin still fascinates both those who knew her and those who may never have met her, but have read her books & stories. I greatly enjoyed learning more about the woman behind the stories & books I have read. Anais Nin intrigues me, and Margot Duxler brilliantly details Nin's life and psychological make-up in this psycho-biography. I highly recommend Seduction: A Portrait of Anais Nin to anyone curious about Anais Nin the person.

A Sensitive, Insightful Analysis
I was very pleased to discover that this psychologicalanalysis of Anais Nin's life and work is one that is thorough, sensitive, and amazingly insightful.I have frankly tired ofvicious attacks on Nin.Do we disregard the work of Van Gogh because he suffered from mental illness?Do we judge Picasso and belittle his accomplishments because, as we now know, he wasn't the nicest guy to walk the planet?Then why do so many condemn Anais Nin?It was her wish that her unedited diaries, which revealed among other things her affairs and her abortion, be published.I, like many Nin fans, was stunned to discover these facts and had to adjust my thinking, but my interest was in understanding what would drive a bright, talented woman to do the things Nin did.I was disturbed by the blatant character assassination that followed the publication of HENRY AND JUNE and INCEST, usually at the hands of female critics.For these reasons I approached Ms. Duxler's book cautiously, and was very pleasantly surprised.

Unlike Deidre Bair's biography which seemed to distill Nin's life down to an ugly set of facts, SEDUCTION is mainly an analysis, one by an obviously competant psychologist, rather than a catalogue.Also unlike Bair, Duxler actually knew Nin and could call her a friend.Like many of us, Duxler was disillusioned when she discovered that her dear friend and mentor had seemingly deceived her by misrepresenting the facts of her life and feelings.But unlike the character assassins, Duxler was inspired to use her formidable skills to analyze Nin's motivations, particularly through an examination of her childhood diary (LINOTTE).The results are impressive;Duxler wades through the complex facts of a life, the subtle clues, the unsubtle behaviors, and helps the reader come to a more thorough understanding. ... Read more

Product Description
Suzanne Nalbantian provides a precise and highly original basis to identify literary art with her novel approach to autobiography. Re-examining Proust, Joyce, and Woolf, with Nin in their wake, Nalbantian discerns models of a hybrid genre characterized by common aesthetics.
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Customer Reviews (3)

More Genre-Bashing
While Nalbantian has veiled it in "neutral" academic prose and by using the particular cases of a few famous writers, her argument is just another example of memoir-hating. While I think it's an interesting exercise to try to trace author experience through fiction, doing so in a way that bashes an entire other category of writing should certainly make us suspicious. And while I agree that many readers are obsessed with memoir for all the wrong reasons, there are memoirists who do more than regurgitate facts, who actually write in literarily complex ways. The search for apithy, simple thesis has unfortunately led S.N. astray in what might otherwise have been very interesting work.

Thought provoking and insightful...
Aesthetic Autobiography is a fascinating study of the transmutation of life fact into fiction. Nalbantian's basic premise is that one's fictionalization of one's own life reveals more about an individual than an individual's earnest attempt at self documentation by way of a "memoir." The first chapter is an analysis of autobiography proper; in the second chapter Nalbantian introduces theories of "aesthetic autobiography," and in the subsequent chapters she relates her model of a shared aesthetics to the giants of twentieth-century autobiography. For example, writers of aesthetic autobiography share a concentration on a place, a childhood memory, and a beloved family member. In additon, they each utilize a concrete element as an anchor in time. It is a very creative work, and any individual interested in the creative process, the transmuation of life fact into fiction, will find this study essential and illuminating.

How much is too much?
The constant edification of authors reaches a sickening degree when their lives are marched out like so much cannon fodder.Are they interesting people?Undoubtedly.Worthy of print?Surely.Worthy of endless reams of print that never stops?You get the idea ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Indispensable for the Anais aficionado
Anais Nin came into my life about five years ago in the usual way: via the diaries. A kind lady at the book buyer's counter at Powell's City of Books had given me the entire sent of the expurgated editions (this beat-up set was passed over by the clerk). I had never heard of this woman with the odd name I had no idea how to pronounce, and I had no idea why her diaries had been published. The only diaries I'd been previously exposed to were of people famous for things other than diary writing, such as Andy Warhol, or who lived through horrendous situations, such as Anne Frank. Apparently, neither scenario applied to Anais Nin. I didn't get why she should have published her diaries or why I should read them. But I couldn't see passing up an entire set of books. I took the books home and put them on my self. Occasionally I'd open them and stumble upon a passage beautiful enough to make me wish I could understand the point of it all. Alas, I couldn't. I eventually threw away the entire set because, well, the clerk was right. They were just too beat up (a few volumes were literally falling apart).

A few years later a friend sent me a card that contained a beautiful quote by Anais Nin. My interest was rekindled. I decided to give the diaries a second shot, and I have slowly rebuilt my collection. Only this time I decided I would understand what Anais was talking about. This is where ANAIS NIN: AN INTRODUCTION comes in. Benjamin Franklin V and Duane Schneider, both associates of Anais Nin, provide the linear and straightforward interpretation of the diaries that I had longed for, devoting one entire chapter to each volume. They also take you through all of Anais Nin's most important fiction: HOUSE OF INCEST, WINTER OF ARTIFICE, UNDER A GLASS BELL, LADDERS TO FIRE, CHILDREN OF THE ALBATROSS, THE FOUR-CHAMBERED HEART, A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE, SEDUCITON OF THE MINOTAUR, and COLLAGES. Anais Nin's works of literary criticism are also discussed, as are the books A WOMAN SPEAKS (a collection of interviews and transcripts of lectures Anais Nin gave in the 1970s) and IN FAVOR OF THE SENSITIVE MAN (another book of interviews).

Benjamin Franklin V and Duane Schneider have opened my eyes to a depth in Anais Nin's work of which I had been completely ignorant, and in the process they have given me an education in literature for which I am grateful. And, ironic for a book that has helped me understand the works of Anais Nin, ANAIS NIN: AN INTRODUCTION has made me realize that understanding Anais is not so much the point. Anais Nin simply had a beautiful way with words, a dream-like style and a diction unlike any other I've seen. I suppose the American mind is so geared toward a linear telling of stories that it can be a little intimidating at first when such a thing is not readily detectable (Benjamin Franklin V and Duane Schneider actually write that American audiences, more than Europeans, shy away from works that are not linear and pragmatic in progression).

Andrew Parodi ... Read more

Product Description
In this biography the author evokes Anais Nin's adolescence, her frustrating marriage to an English banker, her joy in writing and her encounter at the age of 30 with Henry Miller. The book outlines her popularity among fellow artists and thinkers and the importance of her work to liberated women. ... Read more