The Portable Anaïs Nin is not only the first anthology of the author’s work to appear digitally, it is also the first comprehensive collection in nearly forty years, during which time the Nin catalogue has doubled with the release of the erotica and unexpurgated diaries. This book can be used in two ways: as a source book by which readers can make informed choices when considering newly appearing Nin titles; and as a sort of autobiography in which one witnesses Nin’s growth as a woman and writer. Benjamin Franklin V, a prominent Nin scholar for more than four decades, has made selections from a broad spectrum of her catalogue and has sequenced them chronologically and offers them in their entirety. This allows readers to witness how Nin’s life experiences and relationships affected her fiction, character development, writing philosophy, and how all these factors in turn replenished her lust for life.
The Portable Anaïs Nin includes among its 38 selections complete diary passages about her views on her separated parents, sexual awakenings, incest, abortion, fame, family members, lovers, and facing death; works of fiction including her famous prose poem House of Incest, a selection from Under a Glass Bell, erotica from Delta of Venus, the novellas “This Hunger” and “Stella”; her critical titles Realism and Reality and On Writing; and an interview conducted at the height of her fame.
Whether the reader chooses to read this book selectively or sequentially, The Portable Anaïs Nin provides a rich and rewarding experience.
