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Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love"--The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1931-1932)
by
Anaïs Nin
Taken from the original, uncensored journals of Anaïs Nin, Henry and June spans a single year in Nin's life when she discovers love and tormnet in one insatiable couple. From late 1931 to the end of 1932, Nin falls in love with Henry Miller's writing and his wife June's striking beauty. When June leaves Paris for New York, Henry and Anaïs begin a fiery affair that liberate...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
October 29th 1990
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(first published 1986)
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How does one review published diaries? According to literary merit? Though Anais Nin is a beautiful, insightful writer, I feel strange talking about her "writing style" when discussing a section of her journal. What I will talk about instead is the way that books often come into your life at a time when you need them. It happened to me once with 1984 (when I needed to crystalize exactly why writing was so important to me), then again with Everything is Illuminated (when I needed to be ...more
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Henry and June is the type of journal that makes me want to highlight passage after passage...since journals so often have the types of personal reflections that are hard to achieve in pure fiction.
I did get bored with it fast, though. Maybe because after the first few instances of lust, jealousy, psychoanalysis, and then more lust, jealousy, and psychoanalysis, it was pretty much the same events and observations repeating themselves in different forms. But then again, journals aren...more
I did get bored with it fast, though. Maybe because after the first few instances of lust, jealousy, psychoanalysis, and then more lust, jealousy, and psychoanalysis, it was pretty much the same events and observations repeating themselves in different forms. But then again, journals aren...more
Think Madame Bovary without the rat poison. In the early 1930's - well before the heyday of the women's movement, Anais Nin could have listened to society's dictates of what a woman should do with her life. Instead, she lived fully on her terms. A sensualist, a feminist, a lifelong diarist; life and art always in concert. If the literal truth in her writing is, at times, questionable - as it is in most works of art - one truly knows that the opening paragraph of "Henry and June," an ea...more
Having first read this book at the age of 22, I have to say that my perspective on it 7 years later is dramatically different. I did not experience the profound liberation that I did when reading Henry & June the second time around. I once considered Nin to be a strong, sexually heroic figure, but now my opinion is that, during this time of her life, she was mostly confused, self-destructive and pawned her behavior off on the idea of naivity. Don't get me wrong, I feel that the love she experien...more
I should have this book 9 years ago.
"Physical experiences, lacking the joys of love, depend on twists and perversions of pleasure. Abnormal pleasures kill the taste for normal ones." She later writes "The love of only one man or one woman is an enclosure." Interesting.
"Afterwords I pointed out to him how he had prevented all of us from living, how he had caused a living moment to pass him by. I was ashamed of his optimism, his trying to smooth thi...more
"Physical experiences, lacking the joys of love, depend on twists and perversions of pleasure. Abnormal pleasures kill the taste for normal ones." She later writes "The love of only one man or one woman is an enclosure." Interesting.
"Afterwords I pointed out to him how he had prevented all of us from living, how he had caused a living moment to pass him by. I was ashamed of his optimism, his trying to smooth thi...more
While reading this I was thinking that anais is a narcissistic bitch, which i don't really necessarily hold against her. i'm sure it makes reading her journals more interesting than it would be otherwise. on one hand she comes off as so egotistical, spending the majority of her pages on how wonderful other people think she is. "oh, you are so beautiful... you are so wonderful... i love you more than i could ever love another woman... you are everything to me..." so on and so forth. on ...more
I just started reading this last night and can NOT put it down. It's great. It's fascinating to read of Nin's famous sexual awakening. I'm not sure I'm reading THE DIARY in order....I couldn't find the original V1 on my library's shelf, so I grabbed this one and also INCEST, both of which were expurgated from the original published in 1966 because Nin didn't want the people who she was writing about who were still alive to feel weird when the public read about their adventures. So I guess si...more
What have I learned from Henry and June? I have learned that if I am going to have a flaming affair with Henry Miller, to avoid the crap out of his narcissistic, borderline-personality wife June. But that would be a fairly boring diary. After all, what's a diary about 30s Paris without a highly charged emotional and sexual menage?
28 year old Anais Nin yearns for creative and sexual awakening. Her eight year marriage to Hugo Gullier has become stale. Enter, Henry Miller, stage left. ...more
28 year old Anais Nin yearns for creative and sexual awakening. Her eight year marriage to Hugo Gullier has become stale. Enter, Henry Miller, stage left. ...more
I was very curious about Anais Nin after I saw the movie Henry and June, it was worth the read.
From the Publisher
Drawn from the original, uncensored journals of Anais Nin, Henry and June is an intimate account of a woman's sexual awakening. It covers a single momentous year - from late 1931 to the end of 1932 - during Nin's life in Paris, when she met Henry Miller and his wife, June. She fell in love with June's beauty and Henry's writing and, soon after June's departure for N...more
From the Publisher
Drawn from the original, uncensored journals of Anais Nin, Henry and June is an intimate account of a woman's sexual awakening. It covers a single momentous year - from late 1931 to the end of 1932 - during Nin's life in Paris, when she met Henry Miller and his wife, June. She fell in love with June's beauty and Henry's writing and, soon after June's departure for N...more
Nin never ceases to grab my attention. Her poignant honesty, admitted indiscretions and frequent exagerations brightly light every page. I enjoy her writing for all of these things. In Henry and June, she explores love and the mysterious ability to feel it, on myriad levels, with multiple people at the same time. Her "sedately" bipolar, creative genius shines freely throughout the book, the layers of which add daily confusion, and vivid color to her life. A grand glimpse into the...more
"Henry and June" delves deepest into Anais Nin's relationship with the great American writer Henry Miller and as such is, to me, the best of Nin's "unexpurgated" diaries that mostly chronicle her many, many romantic/sexual relationships. It is here where she first meets Miller and his wife, June, and has intimate relationships with both of them as new worlds of sexuality open to Nin. Here her affair with Henry burns hottest.
Was Nin a creator or destroyer? A free, ...more
Was Nin a creator or destroyer? A free, ...more
Anais Nin has been an idol of mine for a long time. There are few women of literary stature which I find relatable. As a young reader I cherished Judy Bloom. As an adult woman, I was thrilled to read Anais Nin. Intelligent, witty and sexually provocative.
I admire her supreme linguistic talent. Her writing, in whtever form, always maintains a powerful poetic lexicon. She made love most fervently when she held the pen in her hand. This excerpt from her personal journal is so very...more
I admire her supreme linguistic talent. Her writing, in whtever form, always maintains a powerful poetic lexicon. She made love most fervently when she held the pen in her hand. This excerpt from her personal journal is so very...more
"A startingly white face, burning eyes. June Mansfield, Henry's wife. As she came towards me from the darkness of my garden into the light of the doorway I saw for the first time the most beautiful woman on earth. Years ago, when I tried to imagine a pure beauty, I had created an image in my mind of just that woman. I had even imagined she would be Jewish. I knew long ago the color of her skin, her profile, her teeth.
...
Her beauty drowned me. As I sat in front of her I felt that...more
...
Her beauty drowned me. As I sat in front of her I felt that...more
I give it only four stars not because it is not an important, vital book, but because the journal entries are necessarily fragmentary, disjointed and a little hard to absorb sometimes.
This is a book that has to find you at the right time. You could easily become bored or restless reading it if you weren't in the right mood.
Nin was a beautiful writer and I often think she is misrepresented as a writer of erotica. What she wrote about so well was her sexuality, in all its comp...more
This is a book that has to find you at the right time. You could easily become bored or restless reading it if you weren't in the right mood.
Nin was a beautiful writer and I often think she is misrepresented as a writer of erotica. What she wrote about so well was her sexuality, in all its comp...more
I love this book more than I can say. I read the entire book from cover to cover in my early twenties and recently have been slowly going back through it with a pencil (something I've never dared do to a book before).
It's not a book for everybody and I can totally understand why many people don't enjoy it. I certainly don't agree with everything Anais says or does, she definitely wallows in self-pity and self-righteousness, and she is frequently a walking contradiction to herself, ...more
It's not a book for everybody and I can totally understand why many people don't enjoy it. I certainly don't agree with everything Anais says or does, she definitely wallows in self-pity and self-righteousness, and she is frequently a walking contradiction to herself, ...more
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When I first started this book I loved it. The way she described being with her lovers was so beautiful and sensual. I could relate to the way that Anais felt the need to explore sexually and liberate herself. The more I read though, the more I began to see her as selfish. It took me so long to read because the more I read the more I was getting annoyed with what can only be described as her incessant whining. At first I thought her relationship with Henry was something beautiful and artistic; i...more
"Henry and June" is composed of the the diary entries of Anais Nin during 1931-32 when she had an affair with Henry Miller and became infatuated with his wife June. Having read Henry Miller, I was interested in getting a take on him from a woman's perspective. The book is also important as a feminist work that addresses female sexuality in a time when such things were not so frankly discussed in literature.
At the risk of angering all of the other people who reviewed this book and l...more
At the risk of angering all of the other people who reviewed this book and l...more
"While it thunders and lightnings I lie on the bed and go through wild dreams. We're in Seville, and then in Fez, and then in Capri, and then in Havana. We're journeying constantly, but there is always a machine and books, and your body is always close to me and the look in your eyes never changes. People are saying we will be miserable, we will regret, but we are happy, we are laughing always, we are singing. We are talking Spanish and French and Arabic and Turkish. We are admitted everywh...more
ValerieLyn
rated it
Recommends it for:
those who've already determined they like Nin's writing
Shelves:
books-i-ll-never-finish
what IS all the hubbub, bub? i'm trying to find out...
three months later, i determine this book is totally boring. i know she's a seminal writer (groan...) in her genre, but whatever. the writing style and musings seem utterly self absorbed and kind of obnoxious.
three months later, i determine this book is totally boring. i know she's a seminal writer (groan...) in her genre, but whatever. the writing style and musings seem utterly self absorbed and kind of obnoxious.
Holy. Crap. For lack of better words.
This book took me (what?) three months to finish? Maybe more? It all muddled together in one mess of hot emotions...and after having finished it just a moment ago, the only time between being me turning on the computer in a flustered rush and logging in. And I'm shocked I finished it even that quickly. I felt possessed in reading this, dominated and entirely taken over in Anaïs Nin and her life...a life which is certainly unlike others, to say the...more
This book took me (what?) three months to finish? Maybe more? It all muddled together in one mess of hot emotions...and after having finished it just a moment ago, the only time between being me turning on the computer in a flustered rush and logging in. And I'm shocked I finished it even that quickly. I felt possessed in reading this, dominated and entirely taken over in Anaïs Nin and her life...a life which is certainly unlike others, to say the...more
At the end of the book, Nin wonders something to the effect of whether or not she, Henry, and June are just three giant egos fighting each other for dominance. Although that's simplifying things, my annoyance with this book/her as a person in it was so great that I am tempted to say, "Yes, that's exactly it, good work Anaïs!"
It's a diary, so I shouldn't complain too much, but her vacillations of feeling every ten pages, only to arrive at the same feelings she had before ...more
It's a diary, so I shouldn't complain too much, but her vacillations of feeling every ten pages, only to arrive at the same feelings she had before ...more
Henry and June - not my favorite Nin work, but full of some delicious little chunks of words . Funny how time and life change what words touch you most. Years ago when I read "Henry and June" - I put a star by the passage "Two afternoons which are branded on my body and my mind.....Come into my dilated body. I carry life. And you know it"
Now, after rereading and alot more living the words that speak to me the most "That is the weakest way of enjoying life: t...more
Now, after rereading and alot more living the words that speak to me the most "That is the weakest way of enjoying life: t...more
a beautiful excuse.. the one that a woman would tell only to a journal that is meant to be read by others, by Hudo, by Henry, by Alandy, by June, by those people she is bond to, has an affair, love, an obsession, lust, craving or whatever feeling she has...
she writes simply, plainly, sometimes too simply with easy flow of short sentences. i read it with pleasure, underlined paragraphs with a pencil that would resonate to something very intimate in me.. but often getting tired and ev...more
she writes simply, plainly, sometimes too simply with easy flow of short sentences. i read it with pleasure, underlined paragraphs with a pencil that would resonate to something very intimate in me.. but often getting tired and ev...more
From a literary perspective, and one that values word choice and imagery, I would have to say that I enjoyed this book immensely. However, since it was a jumble of parts of her numerous journals, there was no coherence. Some sections started off with no apparent meaning, whereas others ended abrubtly. This would be a good read for someone interested in Anais Nin and curious as to her writing style, more than someone who is a fan of Anais Nin. So all in all, a good beginner book. Somewhat like a...more
What can be said about Henry and June? If you like Anais and her diaries then you will enjoy this as well. Anais has a life that not many would probably want, it tends to be chaotic as she searches for happiness. Yet she has a way of describing life that really makes it come alive. Sounds strange but there were times when it felt like she was watching over my shoulder as I was reading, just to see what reaction she could get. Anais has a haunting style about her and this book is no different. He...more
Anyone with a hint of voyeur within them would love to read journals from one of the great writers from the 1930s. Anais Nin was a writer's writer-she wrote copiously within her journals from a very young age and her writing is like a pearl found in the middle of the ocean. Her life and love affairs set against the backdrop of Paris make one long for jazz music, a nice glass of red, a skinny cigarette to smoke...and a new lover to share it with. I would highly recommend reading this unexpurga...more
It happens quickly. That moment when you see something, hear something, experience something and you know immediately that your life or the way that you percieve life will never be the same.......
I am very passionate about this book, not because of its contents, but because of what it has awaken inside of me. Anais Nin gently entered my world and passionately gave me doses of her reality. She is extremely honest in her journal ( which I deeply admire and yearn to emulate)and al...more
My initial infatuation with Anais Nin began with her diaries. I've kept a diary since I learned how to write sentences and haven't really ever stopped. I don't know what I intended to accomplish with this, I guess I thought it would be interesting to have a record of my life someday, though in reality, my diaries were much more trite.
I began reading Nin when I was 18, beginning with Henry and June. The story itself was fairly interesting, any true-life story good enough to be pu...more
I began reading Nin when I was 18, beginning with Henry and June. The story itself was fairly interesting, any true-life story good enough to be pu...more
Adanma
is currently reading it
The minute I checked it out of the library, I began reading it on the train home bound. I could not conceal my immense love for it. I was visibly tickled by tone of this novel. It's definitely one of my favorite novels by Anais.She was more than a writer, she wrote as though she were an analyst. No stranger to psychoanalysis, Anais indeed 'wrote this {novel} to taste life twice'. I adore this woman, I adore her resolve in not denying herself passion from her husband, Henry, June.
Grea...more
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| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anais Nin | 1 | 4 | Jan 26, 2012 10:06am | |
| Ask me about the Henry and June Book Club in Boston | 4 | 30 | Aug 19, 2011 11:07pm |
French-born novelist, passionate eroticist and short story writer, who gained international fame with her journals. Spanning the years from 1931 to 1974, they give an account of one woman's voyage of self-discovery. "It's all right for a woman to be, above all, human. I am a woman first of all." (from The Diary of Anaïs Nin, vol. I, 1966)
Anaïs Nin was largely ignored until t...more
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“Do not seek the because - in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions.”
—
482 people liked it
“There are two ways to reach me: by way of kisses or by way of the imagination. But there is a hierarchy: the kisses alone don't work.”
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446 people liked it
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