Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love" -The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin (1931-1932)

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Summary: A user......
Review: A passionate writer and her passages on discovering her erotic nature are moving and insightfull. This is the best of the reissue of her diaries...although there are times when Nin doth protest too much about her desire to love. Check out the next book "Incest" or any of the biographies to see her real never faced fears......

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Summary: The sexual awakening of Anais Nin
Review: Anais Nin is the author of over a dozen novels and a very famous diary that is now available in "expurgated" and "unexpurgated" form. All of her works concern one primary theme: women attempting to understand themselves and to make themselves complete human beings after having been psychologically and emotionally stunted in early life. An understanding of Anais Nin's life reveals why this theme preoccupied her: she had a very painful childhood. Her mother married a younger man of lower social pedigree, the parents were in constant conflict (" ... in the house there was always war: great explosions of anger, hatred, revolt. War." - WINTER OF ARTIFICE), her father frequently beat the children and allegedly molested Anais Nin, and her parents eventually separated. The mother took 11-year-old Anais and her two brothers, and the four moved from France to New York. It was on the ship that carried them to their new country that Anais began her diary.

Anais Nin did not keep a diary in the conventional sense, jotting down things that happened to her on a particular day and then offering a few reflections and interpretations. Rather, she portrayed her life in her diary as an unfolding story, positioning herself as the main character of course. The diary became not a mere reflection of her life, but an intense focus of her life. It was as if things had not really happened until she had written them down and read them back to herself. Nin explained that viewing her life as a story made bearable occurrences that would otherwise devastate her. The diary therefore gave her a sense of control over her life (remember, this was the 1930s when women had far less control over their lives than they do now). And as with the fiction, the search for self-understanding and completeness dominated the story she told the diary.

HENRY AND JUNE, based on the diaries 32 through 36, finds Anais Nin in her late 20s and early 30s living outside of Paris with her husband, banker Hugo Guiler. Anais is bored with life and feels unfulfilled, for while Hugo's substantial paycheck can afford a glamorous home, what she longs for is excitement and to be a part of the literary world, not an ornamental and silent companion to social functions. Luckily, she soon meets an unknown writer named Henry Miller. He is opposite to her husband in just about every way: he's older, penniless, irresponsible, and like Anais he is interested in literature, as well as that other Nin preoccupation: sex. (A perhaps revealing detail is that Hugo, though well endowed, occasionally struggled with impotence.) In fact, Miller has been working on a manuscript for about a year. The rest, as they say, is history ... a history revealed in HENRY AND JUNE that I do not want to spoil for the prospective reader. You'll have to get the book. But I must suggest that while reading HENRY AND JUNE it may be beneficial to view the story in the context of Anais Nin's prime preoccupation: the search for completion after having been emotionally stunted in early life. Indeed, on the very first page of the book, Anais tells her cousin, "I need an older man, a father...."

Andrew Parodi

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing...........
Review: Anais Nin proves herself a human being torn between men due to her own weakness and sexual longings, something even she has problems understanding. A Must Read.

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Summary: Amorality and Deceit
Review: Anais Nin seems to have multiple personality disorder in some regard as she is able to live so many lives and effortlessly moves from one situation to the next without losing her sanity. She seems to rely more on her sensual self than her spiritual self and seems to dive into a life lived very carelessly in some ways and carefully in others. Instead of creating an imaginary escape, she lives out her sensual fantasies in all their brash and brazen insolence.

This is the first Anais Nin book I have read and I hear it is perhaps her best work. The writing in itself is magnificent while much of the content will be in question to many. There are those shocking little details designed to show you the depth to which she sinks into the abyss of her desires and need for love and pain intertwined. I wanted to know why she acted the way she did. All I could figure out was that passion was such an attraction to her that she gave into her animal nature with abandon. She literally seems happiest when she is in her most sensual element.

What I found fascinating was how much she reveals and lays naked on the creamy pages in such an evocative and poetic style. She simply doesn't hold anything back except some of the more intimate details of her life that perhaps seem sacred to her. She says she holds nothing sacred and lives quite dangerously but I think there are various elements which become sacred to her and which she can't bring herself to reveal. Like the truth about her own selfishness and how she deludes herself by imagining she is protecting those around her by lying to them.

Her husband, Hugo seems at times to live his own life. They have moments of bliss but her true love is Henry. Or is he? It is all very confusing because she seems to have a very strange relationship with June. It seems she wants to possess both their hearts at once.

What amazed me most was the vocabulary and intense style of sentences dancing on the page in their magnificence and sensuality. Is she remembering every single conversation she has or is she filling the pages with words she wished had been spoken? At times Henry seems overly romantic and Hugo far too deceived.

Even in Anais' most deceitful moments we are keenly aware that she is somehow still a child reaching out for pure love. She does have a lusty desire to conquer men and in this she finds herself heading towards some sort of insanity. I'm not sure she is completely sane to begin with and is obviously suffering from a childhood trauma which I've yet to read about and have been advised not to. So, maybe I will just take this book for what it is and be satisfied that I have met Anais. A woman you can't imagine you would ever meet in real life, but who probably exists far more frequently than most would like to admit.

Her conversations with her psychologist are entertaining and we fear the worst. She must conquer all men in her territory or perhaps she needs inspiration to write. She seeks intrigue, hunts down passion and consumes the world with such ferocity. You wish she would just go on a vacation by herself and think about her life. She is too focused on the men in her life and doesn't seem to engender the support of females. It is no wonder actually. They are perhaps terrified of her witch-like powers over men.

Anais is complex and surrounds herself with men who are equally complex. She falls in love with the minds of men and seeks to give them a better life through satisfying them or serving them. She will often say she would be Henry's slave. She is completely lost with abandon with Henry. He is her world, until of course she finds a new conquest.

Perhaps Nin (not to be mistaken with Nun) finds her subconscious self reflected in the eyes of Henry. She finally finds a man who understands her writer self. The woman she sees herself as being. Not the outer shell others see. She is literally obsessed with the mind of a writer and wants to take care of him in so many ways.

By the end, I hated June. I just wanted June to fade away, for Hugo to end up in a tragic accident (how could he bear to feel the utter horror of his wife's deceit) and for Henry and June to run away to some exotic Island. I wanted them to be together because they seemed to belong. Yet they avoid a definite surrender to fate. They lock the door of commitment between them and stand on each side wanting to be together forever, yet
resisting using the key of marriage. Henry wants to marry Nin, but she wants all of Henry and all of June and is not satisfied with just one or the other.

The text in Henry & June is taken from her journals between October 1931 to October 1932. It is quite amazing how her feelings change over one year.

This "Diary" is really about an interesting and intelligent woman who tries to find what is missing in her life and explores her deepest desires with a man of equal intellect. This almost throws her into a state of insanity and she must seek help to survive her inner torment.

Not highly recommended to anyone who would prefer not to read intimate details, but intriguing from the perspective of a diary exposed. This is really about a woman who seems to have purposely lived her life in order to become a character in the stories of her own making.

Rating:
Summary: I adore the connection one feels to Anais in this book!
Review: Anais Nin's writings are very poetic and create vivid images of the situations. One feels so close to her that at every moment you can sense her emotions in each situation. She was a truly talented author and we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to read about such a beautiful, passionate woman's life. I also recommend reading Crazy Cock by Henry Miller.

Rating:
Summary: Eye Opening
Review: Before Henry and June, I had never read a book by Anais Nin. In fact, the only knowledge of her writing I had was from a poem I had to read in junior English a couple of years ago. Oddly enough I went to a bookstore that was going out of business and decided to pick up this book because it was offered for 5 bucks. I started reading the book and was instantly swept away by it. Her writing is so intense and blunt, she holds nothing back from the reader. I have learned so much about myself just from this one book alone. I agree strongly with her views on men and women. With this one book she had become my favorite writer. Even above D.H Lawrence (who ironically is mentioned many times throughout the novel!) As soon as I get paid I am going to make it a point of myself to read as many of her books as possible.

Rating:
Summary: life changing, mind blowing
Review: Henry and June (from The Journal of Love) by Ana?s Nin. Recommended.

Henry and June (from The Journal of Love) by Ana?s Nin is a portion of the writer's famous journal from October 1931 until October 1932—the year in which she met Henry and June Miller and fell for Henry's sensuality and June's mystery, a year of writing, lies, deceit, sexual awakening, introspection, psychoanalysis, and "love."

Nin is an evocative, poetic writer, if not a particularly substantive one. Henry and June, edited from her journal to focus on Miller and his wife, is beautifully written but, in the end, is devoid of meaning to anyone other than the participants. She obscures the truth of how much she writes. If the journal is accurate, then Nin had mastered deception—she lies to her husband, to June, to Henry, to her psychoanalyst, to her lover/cousin Eduardo, to virtually everyone she knows, all seemingly in an attempt to hide herself from them, and perhaps from herself. She writes frequently of costumes, makeup, jewelry, nail polish and how one can put them on to create a new self. It quickly becomes clear that, despite the introspection of the journal, despite the psychoanalysis, despite her complete focus on herself and how she relates to those people in her life, Nin is no more self-aware by the end of the year than she was when she met Miller, and the reader can't be too sure, either, of where Nin ends and where the self-deception begins. When the obvious is pointed out to her—that she is still trying to find the "love" that she didn't get from her father—Nin accepts it at first, but denies it as she talks more and more to herself. And while she may grasp that her father's abandonment was harmful to her, she finds it easy to mistreat her husband, whom she portrays as psychologically simple and refers to as a "child" without relating how he might feel to how she felt about her father. She seems incapable of grasping the importance of another person's feelings, no matter who that other person might be.

Nin writes of spending entire days and nights with Miller, of going from him to Hugo, her banker husband, with no suspicion on Hugo's part. Hugo is jealous of Miller, although she repeatedly tells her journal she doesn't know why he would be. She writes of not wanting to hurt the soft, weak, emotional Eduardo, but continues her sexual relationship with him until he is bound to be crushed by her sudden decision to end it. She tells Eduardo about Henry, Henry about Hugo, and her psychoanalyst about all of them. She writes of having sex with three men in one day, ending with "What does that make me?" She does not want to know the potential answer to that question. She wants "experience" at any cost. She does not want to be hurt, but she hurts others freely. She believes she has deep insight into others, but does not understand at more than a superficial level what their thoughts and feelings may be. Much of what she attributes to the elusive, mysterious June are the shifting sands of her own personality.

Not having read Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, the book he was writing during the year of his relationship with Nin, it's difficult for me to say how accurate Nin's portrayal of him is. At times, she feels pity for him, for his weak eyes, for the mind-numbing work he does to support himself. At others, she describes him as "monstrous." The sketch of Miller is less one of the man himself than of Nin's infatuation with her own perceptions. At one moment he is the ultimate sensualist; the next, he becomes a gentle romantic. She also enjoys him largely for his worship of her as a writer and as a lover. The relationship is less about the dynamics of their interactions than about her ego and her relationship with herself. Miller is never much more than a two-dimensional, ever-changing character—Henry Miller according to Ana?s Nin. While Nin's journal is certainly more thoughtful than those of most people, ultimately, it lacks the insight and depth that another writer could have brought to such an intense relationship. At the end, Nin and Miller are still strangers to the reader who has spent hours over dinner and in bedrooms with them. Perhaps it is Nin's amorality that gets in the way of any true intimacy.

Nin has somehow become a model of a woman's sexual awakening and awareness, perhaps because of the perceived candor of her journal and her desires for the depths and heights of sexual experience. It is as though such desires for such experiences are what should define a woman—a notion that may work for some women, but certainly not all who are sexually awakened in their own ways.

Henry and June is self-indulgent and even occasionally adolescent in its focus, obssessions, and attitudes. Perhaps because I find so little to relate to in Nin, I found her cold, uninteresting, and annoying—perhaps because I don't like to be deceived. On the other hand, this will be a fascinating read for anyone who is deeply interested in Nin or Miller or anyone, like me, who would like to free themselves to speak freely in their own journals.

Diane L. Schirf....

Rating:
Summary: A journal of self-obssession and self-deceit
Review: Henry and June (from The Journal of Love) by Anaïs Nin. Recommended.

Henry and June (from The Journal of Love) by Anaïs Nin is a portion of the writer's famous journal from October 1931 until October 1932—the year in which she met Henry and June Miller and fell for Henry's sensuality and June's mystery, a year of writing, lies, deceit, sexual awakening, introspection, psychoanalysis, and "love."

Nin is an evocative, poetic writer, if not a particularly substantive one. Henry and June, edited from her journal to focus on Miller and his wife, is beautifully written but, in the end, is devoid of meaning to anyone other than the participants. She obscures the truth of how much she writes. If the journal is accurate, then Nin had mastered deception—she lies to her husband, to June, to Henry, to her psychoanalyst, to her lover/cousin Eduardo, to virtually everyone she knows, all seemingly in an attempt to hide herself from them, and perhaps from herself. She writes frequently of costumes, makeup, jewelry, nail polish and how one can put them on to create a new self. It quickly becomes clear that, despite the introspection of the journal, despite the psychoanalysis, despite her complete focus on herself and how she relates to those people in her life, Nin is no more self-aware by the end of the year than she was when she met Miller, and the reader can't be too sure, either, of where Nin ends and where the self-deception begins. When the obvious is pointed out to her—that she is still trying to find the "love" that she didn't get from her father—Nin accepts it at first, but denies it as she talks more and more to herself. And while she may grasp that her father's abandonment was harmful to her, she finds it easy to mistreat her husband, whom she portrays as psychologically simple and refers to as a "child" without relating how he might feel to how she felt about her father. She seems incapable of grasping the importance of another person's feelings, no matter who that other person might be.

Nin writes of spending entire days and nights with Miller, of going from him to Hugo, her banker husband, with no suspicion on Hugo's part. Hugo is jealous of Miller, although she repeatedly tells her journal she doesn't know why he would be. She writes of not wanting to hurt the soft, weak, emotional Eduardo, but continues her sexual relationship with him until he is bound to be crushed by her sudden decision to end it. She tells Eduardo about Henry, Henry about Hugo, and her psychoanalyst about all of them. She writes of having sex with three men in one day, ending with "What does that make me?" She does not want to know the potential answer to that question. She wants "experience" at any cost. She does not want to be hurt, but she hurts others freely. She believes she has deep insight into others, but does not understand at more than a superficial level what their thoughts and feelings may be. Much of what she attributes to the elusive, mysterious June are the shifting sands of her own personality.

Not having read Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, the book he was writing during the year of his relationship with Nin, it's difficult for me to say how accurate Nin's portrayal of him is. At times, she feels pity for him, for his weak eyes, for the mind-numbing work he does to support himself. At others, she describes him as "monstrous." The sketch of Miller is less one of the man himself than of Nin's infatuation with her own perceptions. At one moment he is the ultimate sensualist; the next, he becomes a gentle romantic. She also enjoys him largely for his worship of her as a writer and as a lover. The relationship is less about the dynamics of their interactions than about her ego and her relationship with herself. Miller is never much more than a two-dimensional, ever-changing character—Henry Miller according to Anaïs Nin. While Nin's journal is certainly more thoughtful than those of most people, ultimately, it lacks the insight and depth that another writer could have brought to such an intense relationship. At the end, Nin and Miller are still strangers to the reader who has spent hours over dinner and in bedrooms with them. Perhaps it is Nin's amorality that gets in the way of any true intimacy.

Nin has somehow become a model of a woman's sexual awakening and awareness, perhaps because of the perceived candor of her journal and her desires for the depths and heights of sexual experience. It is as though such desires for such experiences are what should define a woman—a notion that may work for some women, but certainly not all who are sexually awakened in their own ways.

Henry and June is self-indulgent and even occasionally adolescent in its focus, obssessions, and attitudes. Perhaps because I find so little to relate to in Nin, I found her cold, uninteresting, and annoying—perhaps because I don't like to be deceived. On the other hand, this will be a fascinating read for anyone who is deeply interested in Nin or Miller or anyone, like me, who would like to free themselves to speak freely in their own journals.

Diane L. Schirf....

Rating:
Summary: A love story that goes beyond all others
Review: Henry Miller, the bold and passionate writer who changed the course of literatuter. June Miller, his beautiful and manipulative wife. Anais Nin, our story teller, the sometimes shy, sometimes raw and sexual lover of the two. This triangle of love makes for one of the most exciting romances I have ever read. I recomend it highly. It is like looking through a key hole into the lives of writers and their muses... Anais Nin is one of the greatest writers of this (or any) century

Rating:
Summary: Lie on your bed and swoon....
Review: Here are the feverish and impossibly romantic convulsions of a schoolgirl mind - but I mean that in a good way. Nin is unlikeable yet enchanting - she is some dreamy, exotic species of narcissist, and her constant fawning over herself has the perverse affect of making YOU enthralled by her, too. Nin's reality hovers exquisitely above the pedestrian, grimy one the rest of us inhabit, and if you give yourself over to her absurdly beautiful view of things, she will transport you. You end up feeling like a kind of sighing, envious voyeur as you read through these pages and wish you, too, were an eccentric beauty drifting amid some bygone literary demi-monde.
Lie on your bed and swoon...This is a fantasy/romance novel for those with vague intellectual pretensions...