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The Novel of the Future
Pages clean, binding tight, light shelfwear to cover.
212 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
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669 people want to read
About the author
Anaïs Nin
357 books9,004 followersWriter and diarist, born in Paris to a Catalan father and a Danish mother, Anaïs Nin spent many of her early years with Cuban relatives. Later a naturalized American citizen, she lived and worked in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. Author of avant-garde novels in the French surrealistic style and collections of erotica, she is best known for her life and times in The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volumes I-VII (1966-1980).
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 18, 2014
“I stress the expansion and elaboration of language. In simplifying it, reducing it, we reduce the power of our expression and our power to communicate. Standardization, the use of worn-out formulas, impedes communication because it does not match the subtlety of our minds or emotions, the multimedia of our unconscious life.” - Anais Nin, The Novel of the Future
It’s quite a happy coincidence that I picked up this book at the same time that I was reading Carl Jung’s "Memories, Dreams, Reflections." Both books deal with psychoanalysis, symbolism and the subconscious. Anais Nin goes further than Jung did in that she discusses how psychology can enrich literature, and indeed how psychoanalysis is needed in literature. In general, she is quite disappointed by the path that the novel has taken. In her opinion, literature is too sterile, too linear, too cold. She wants more experimentation in novels, to include more psychology, science and so on:
“The old concept of chronological, orderly, symmetrical development of character died when it was discovered that the unconscious motivations are entirely at odds with fabricated conventions. Human beings do not grow in perfect symmetry. They oscillate, expand, contract, backtrack, arrest themselves, retrogress, mobilize, atrophy in part, proceed erratically according to experience and traumas. Some aspects of the personality mature, others do not. Some live in the past, some in the present. Some people are futuristic characters, some are cubistic, some are hard-edged, some geometric, some abstract, some impressionistic, some surrealistic!”
Nin is very passionate about the novel, even more so about the future of the novel. She pays homage to several poetic authors such as Woolf, Proust and Djuna Barnes, James Joyce, Kafka, all writers I personally admire, so it made me accept her claims of the future of the novel more readily.
I think that people who aren’t completely sold on diary-writing might reconsider when they read Nin’s chapter about the merits of the diary:
“Another lesson I learned from diary writing was the actual continuity of the act of writing, not waiting for inspiration, favourable climate, astrologic constellations, the mood, but the discipline of sitting at the typewriter to write so many hours a day. Then when the magnificent moment comes, the ripened moment, the writing itself is nimble, already tuned, warmed.”
As always I was impressed by Nin’s beautiful writing. Reading excerpts of books she had written, and having her explain what she was aiming at doing in those passages was really enlightening. It made me understand her more as a writer. I was impressed by her dedication to the trade. An extreme case of that dedication was her taking LSD to write about her experience (not that I’m advocating drug use at all but it was an interesting point).
This is a must-read for any writer or aspiring writer. I learned so much from it.
It’s quite a happy coincidence that I picked up this book at the same time that I was reading Carl Jung’s "Memories, Dreams, Reflections." Both books deal with psychoanalysis, symbolism and the subconscious. Anais Nin goes further than Jung did in that she discusses how psychology can enrich literature, and indeed how psychoanalysis is needed in literature. In general, she is quite disappointed by the path that the novel has taken. In her opinion, literature is too sterile, too linear, too cold. She wants more experimentation in novels, to include more psychology, science and so on:
“The old concept of chronological, orderly, symmetrical development of character died when it was discovered that the unconscious motivations are entirely at odds with fabricated conventions. Human beings do not grow in perfect symmetry. They oscillate, expand, contract, backtrack, arrest themselves, retrogress, mobilize, atrophy in part, proceed erratically according to experience and traumas. Some aspects of the personality mature, others do not. Some live in the past, some in the present. Some people are futuristic characters, some are cubistic, some are hard-edged, some geometric, some abstract, some impressionistic, some surrealistic!”
Nin is very passionate about the novel, even more so about the future of the novel. She pays homage to several poetic authors such as Woolf, Proust and Djuna Barnes, James Joyce, Kafka, all writers I personally admire, so it made me accept her claims of the future of the novel more readily.
I think that people who aren’t completely sold on diary-writing might reconsider when they read Nin’s chapter about the merits of the diary:
“Another lesson I learned from diary writing was the actual continuity of the act of writing, not waiting for inspiration, favourable climate, astrologic constellations, the mood, but the discipline of sitting at the typewriter to write so many hours a day. Then when the magnificent moment comes, the ripened moment, the writing itself is nimble, already tuned, warmed.”
As always I was impressed by Nin’s beautiful writing. Reading excerpts of books she had written, and having her explain what she was aiming at doing in those passages was really enlightening. It made me understand her more as a writer. I was impressed by her dedication to the trade. An extreme case of that dedication was her taking LSD to write about her experience (not that I’m advocating drug use at all but it was an interesting point).
This is a must-read for any writer or aspiring writer. I learned so much from it.
February 21, 2018
It is a fascinating book. Here we have a writer who writes about her craft and what goes underneath as one creates. Right at the start, she defends dream as something significant, and powerfully argues that they should not be dismissed as useless We embrace the rational or the real to feel safe, and avoid the irrational, dream-like tropes of our existence because that is unsettling. An artist should penetrate the realm of the dream because it contains key to 'knowing.'
She further illustrates how the dream contains so much that is of immense worth by giving telling examples from Joyce, Lawrence and Kafka. According to her, conscious mind is a construct. It is regulated by everyday forces, whereas the unconscious accumulates pure experience, reactions, impressions, intuitions, images– it is freed from, or least damaged, from the regulations imposed by society. She writes that the creative personality never remains fixed on the first world its discover. It never resigns, or submits; it goes on exploring and stays, forever, mobile.
What I liked about this work is that the author talks about things that she knows, or what she has discovered through the process of writing; such as how to write a character. She probably discovered her writerly struggles, or what she found at the core of creating something fresh and imaginative, in the works of writers like herself.
Since she fiercely speaks from her experience of writing and reading, she does not come across as dogmatic. Even the prose style reflects her passion, conviction and an acute desire to communicate what she has discovered about the fiction writing, or creating a work of art– the writing style does not hide itself in convoluted formations, but states clearly its theories.
She further illustrates how the dream contains so much that is of immense worth by giving telling examples from Joyce, Lawrence and Kafka. According to her, conscious mind is a construct. It is regulated by everyday forces, whereas the unconscious accumulates pure experience, reactions, impressions, intuitions, images– it is freed from, or least damaged, from the regulations imposed by society. She writes that the creative personality never remains fixed on the first world its discover. It never resigns, or submits; it goes on exploring and stays, forever, mobile.
What I liked about this work is that the author talks about things that she knows, or what she has discovered through the process of writing; such as how to write a character. She probably discovered her writerly struggles, or what she found at the core of creating something fresh and imaginative, in the works of writers like herself.
Since she fiercely speaks from her experience of writing and reading, she does not come across as dogmatic. Even the prose style reflects her passion, conviction and an acute desire to communicate what she has discovered about the fiction writing, or creating a work of art– the writing style does not hide itself in convoluted formations, but states clearly its theories.
April 12, 2024
Essential reading for sensitive souls or people who are constantly overflowing with feeling towards every little aspect of life. Makes me so hungry to read a lot of fantastic novels & to write a little every day. Thanks Anaïs.
May 16, 2022
Magnificent.
Read
July 6, 2011A drama to me was the conflict between sanity and insanity, conflict and serenity, the individual and society, tensions, but the beauty consisted in the endurance of the effort to integrate, to reach another rung of awareness. I felt the novel had to take the adventurer all the way in his journey, to the top of the mountain, or the undiscovered river in the jungle, and somehow the substitution of an end cheated one of a complete spectacle, complete experience. I killed my heroes and heroines off when I was fourteen. I thought it was because I did not know then what else to do. (163)
There has to be a presence, a register, a recorder, an eye, an ear, a presence which arouses revelation. I do not believe in reportage. (164)
We should have been able to detect the symptoms: absence of self led to the death of emotion; death of emotion to dead writing; and the death of emotion has led inevitably to excess violence which is the major theme of our literature today and a symptom of schizophrenia, violence in order to feel alive because the divided self feels its own death and seeks sensation to affirm its existence.
We paid a tough price for our cult of toughness and our disparagement of sensibility. Violence in place of emotion. (173)
The realist has been too much of a map maker, tracing roads already in existence. (192)
There has to be a presence, a register, a recorder, an eye, an ear, a presence which arouses revelation. I do not believe in reportage. (164)
We should have been able to detect the symptoms: absence of self led to the death of emotion; death of emotion to dead writing; and the death of emotion has led inevitably to excess violence which is the major theme of our literature today and a symptom of schizophrenia, violence in order to feel alive because the divided self feels its own death and seeks sensation to affirm its existence.
We paid a tough price for our cult of toughness and our disparagement of sensibility. Violence in place of emotion. (173)
The realist has been too much of a map maker, tracing roads already in existence. (192)
January 21, 2008
I read this book a long time ago, only a few years after it first appeared, but still remember many of my impressions at the time. It is rich in interesting revelations about the genesis of Nin's own work, and useful insights into the writing process in general. On the other hand, her analysis of the work of other writers, and of cultural trends of the '50s and '60s, which I had just lived through, often seemed superficial to me. In the end I felt little affinity with the authoritative tone of many of her pronouncements on methodology and the artistic merit of her contemporaries. Of course I realize this is quite subjective on my part, and takes nothing away from the boldness of her own approach to art, about which she speaks quite eloquently in this book. Much of it remains thought-provoking and worth reading. In retrospect, though, it doesn't appear to me that Nin demonstrated any special vision into the future of the novel beyond the period in which she wrote "The Novel of the Future".
February 24, 2020
كتاب ملهم بشكل غير متوقع.
لا بد من ترجمته إلى العربية والاستفادة من أفكار كاتبته وحاجة الرواية العربية إلى هكذا أفكار تخرجها من جب الرتابة وعمر المراهقة الأدبية.
لا بد من ترجمته إلى العربية والاستفادة من أفكار كاتبته وحاجة الرواية العربية إلى هكذا أفكار تخرجها من جب الرتابة وعمر المراهقة الأدبية.
December 15, 2014
While I appreciate Nin's work and her love of language, I found myself disappointed by this book.
Not that I hated it completely. She writes very well, and shares some thoughts on art, literature, even film, that are all valid and important in the world of expression. I value her thoughts because I think that she contributed a lot to the world of literature and poetry simply by offering such heartfelt, beautiful lines in her novels and diaries. She deeply appreciates art. She is drawn to the subconscious meaning behind it, as I am.
But by the end of the book I was tired of her railing against the "language of the gutter." Her appreciation for human expression suddenly seemed very clear: as long as it wasn't crass, it was a valid human expression. She even acknowledged that she never liked violence or "gutter language." Which is fine, I suppose, but she didn't ever look past her own preference/prejudice in expression to acknowledge that the works of people who used such "language" were expressing themselves too. And in ways that made sense to them. In ways that brought them peace of mind.
She wrote that "the language of the man in the street is limited," but so is any other "language" if there is strict subjectivity in that person's work. She also writes, "Because so many of our writers were born in ugly environments, in monstrous poverty and humiliation, they continue to assert that this is the natural environment, reality, and that beauty is artifice. Why should he natural state be ugliness? Natural to whom?" (197, swallow press paperback) Again she seems to be assuming that beauty is the natural state and that any expression that does not appeal to her own understanding of the world is not valid.
I understand that she was living in a world in which she had to deal with amateur male critics, and a large number of "gutter language" type novels were being published. But her complete hatred and denial of their validity in literature and in human history was astounding. It came off as defensive. It also is a shame to have such an interesting artist as Nin try to validate the argument that those living in poverty and violence are living in a lie, or that their expression is meaningless to humanity simply because it is not aesthetically pleasing to her.
Most of the book was enjoyable. It's a shame that she carried such discrimination against writers who have actually brought meaning and a surprising amount of solace to many people with their "gutter" books.
Not that I hated it completely. She writes very well, and shares some thoughts on art, literature, even film, that are all valid and important in the world of expression. I value her thoughts because I think that she contributed a lot to the world of literature and poetry simply by offering such heartfelt, beautiful lines in her novels and diaries. She deeply appreciates art. She is drawn to the subconscious meaning behind it, as I am.
But by the end of the book I was tired of her railing against the "language of the gutter." Her appreciation for human expression suddenly seemed very clear: as long as it wasn't crass, it was a valid human expression. She even acknowledged that she never liked violence or "gutter language." Which is fine, I suppose, but she didn't ever look past her own preference/prejudice in expression to acknowledge that the works of people who used such "language" were expressing themselves too. And in ways that made sense to them. In ways that brought them peace of mind.
She wrote that "the language of the man in the street is limited," but so is any other "language" if there is strict subjectivity in that person's work. She also writes, "Because so many of our writers were born in ugly environments, in monstrous poverty and humiliation, they continue to assert that this is the natural environment, reality, and that beauty is artifice. Why should he natural state be ugliness? Natural to whom?" (197, swallow press paperback) Again she seems to be assuming that beauty is the natural state and that any expression that does not appeal to her own understanding of the world is not valid.
I understand that she was living in a world in which she had to deal with amateur male critics, and a large number of "gutter language" type novels were being published. But her complete hatred and denial of their validity in literature and in human history was astounding. It came off as defensive. It also is a shame to have such an interesting artist as Nin try to validate the argument that those living in poverty and violence are living in a lie, or that their expression is meaningless to humanity simply because it is not aesthetically pleasing to her.
Most of the book was enjoyable. It's a shame that she carried such discrimination against writers who have actually brought meaning and a surprising amount of solace to many people with their "gutter" books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2014
This is a book which I have mixed feelings about. On one end this book is very educational and allows aspiring writers to get a very detailed glimpse into this sensitive spectrum. In order to show the reader what she sees as universal truths regarding what novels and writing should be, she delves not only into her own work but those of a chosen few, and provides plenty of examples. However, one cannot help but wonder sometimes whether she was talking a little too highly about herself as an artist, essentially nominating herself as the spokesperson for the writers of her generation. There are just as many who would second this nomination as who would reject it.
She also spends a lot of time in this book promoting several friends/lovers/influences, some of which are quite obscure by most standards today. Henry Miller (naturally) is a perennial favorite, and the heavier mentions include Marguerite Young, Djuna Barnes, William Goyen, D.H. Lawrence, Marcel Proust, Antonin Artaud, John Hawkes, Dr. Otto Rank and many others. She tells you to look beyond the mainstream and seek out some of these lesser known writers, and by the end of this book you should want to, if you don't already!
I gave this 4/5 stars only because it took me so long to get through this. Despite it's length it is not an easy read!
She also spends a lot of time in this book promoting several friends/lovers/influences, some of which are quite obscure by most standards today. Henry Miller (naturally) is a perennial favorite, and the heavier mentions include Marguerite Young, Djuna Barnes, William Goyen, D.H. Lawrence, Marcel Proust, Antonin Artaud, John Hawkes, Dr. Otto Rank and many others. She tells you to look beyond the mainstream and seek out some of these lesser known writers, and by the end of this book you should want to, if you don't already!
I gave this 4/5 stars only because it took me so long to get through this. Despite it's length it is not an easy read!
February 19, 2013
Reread this again over the weekend after a decade. Tidbits of insight. Some good recommendations for beginning writers. Especially her view of the diary as a writing tool. From here you'll want to read Nightwood by Djuna Barnes and Miss MacIntosh, My Darling by Maguerite Young. Two of the best poetic novelists. Nin's example of bad writing: William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch.
April 16, 2008
My decaying copy is held intact only by fragments of bookbinding glue. The tattered essays on the artist and their role in society. I love everything this woman touched.
November 5, 2008
Prophetic.
May 25, 2021
Though it took me about 4 months to read, I don't regret a second. Anais Nin provides her own account of how one might connect fiction to feeling, incorporate the dream and blend it with reality; how to make fiction as fluid as poetry, naming the latter "the alchemy which teaches us to convert ordinary materials into gold" (199). It is clear her theory and practices in writing come from her years devoted to her diary as well as her other fiction writing ventures that she provided examples from throughout this book. Just the snippets of her fiction work manage to transport the reader into her dream world -- which is no mistake. Embracing one's dreams and indulging the dreams of the character greatly enhances one's life and writing in her view. She also takes seriously the genesis of fictional characters as being rooted in real life -- and with that real feeling. She is an observer who is trusted by others who allow their character to be given life in her diary, but a life that feels more convincing rooted in truth or reality. This book is also sprinkled with literary recommendations that I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise, certainly worth the read!
March 16, 2021
Nin encourages writers to rely less on objectivity and more on emotional truths. She repeats often the idea that people use intoxicants because they aren’t able to practice seeing, really seeing, things in a way that awakens their minds and hearts. She is a strong supporter of writing in a way that modern writers at the time perhaps deemed irrational; she writes at length about the trap of standardization and rationality in fictional writing. Like Audre Lorde, she talks about 'feminine' and 'masculine' tendencies in thinking, and how writers are forced to aspire to the latter.
I particularly enjoyed her explanation of how her diary writings and her fiction writings fed each other: "I was writing better in the notebooks because I was writing outside, in the formal work, and I was writing more authentically in the novels because I sustained the informal, improvised living contact with my relationships, cities, the present." I found myself applying this concept to several aspects of creative life.
I particularly enjoyed her explanation of how her diary writings and her fiction writings fed each other: "I was writing better in the notebooks because I was writing outside, in the formal work, and I was writing more authentically in the novels because I sustained the informal, improvised living contact with my relationships, cities, the present." I found myself applying this concept to several aspects of creative life.
April 15, 2025
a ver me ha gustado porque tiene puntos y reflexiones interesantes. tmb me pasa que siento que a un superfan de ella le encantaria porque a ella le gusta muchisimo regocijarse en la genialidad de su obra. habiendome leido solo 1 de sus diarios me perdia ciertas cosas. igualmente dire que para ser una autora famosa por sus diarios, sus ensayos sobre el concepto diario se quedan bastante superficiales, yo al menos tengo muchas preguntas para ella. No es el mejor libro de ensayos jamas pero vale la pena y me han dado muchas ganas de leer el resto de sus diarios.
January 10, 2025
“Absence of self led to the death of emotion; death of emotion to dead writing; and the death of emotion had led inevitably to excess violence which is the major theme of our literature today and a symptom of schizophrenia, violence in order to feel alive because the divided self feels its own death and seeks sensation to affirm its existence.”
August 13, 2023
When I first read this book last year, I searched everywhere online and in bookstores to find a copy I could buy for myself. I was told it hadn’t been reprinted in decades. Grateful to see it in the spotlight.
June 22, 2019
Psychological insights by Anais Nin.
October 17, 2021
Gets a bit repetitive.
December 23, 2021
THE book on the art of writing. Blown away with its amazing rich content, worthy of a University Degree in Creative writing.
November 26, 2025
3.5
cant wait to read more from her, this essay was great
cant wait to read more from her, this essay was great
October 5, 2020
What an incredible mind! I highly recommend this book for anyone that enjoys literary criticism and likes to explore the ideas behind why writers write. Nin does an incredible job of placing on view art=feeling and why this is important. I really enjoy her free flow approach and her desire to cultivate the community of artists via those in her contemporary circle, but also"literary parents"; one of which is her seeing as her book was published in 1968.
The Novel of the Future inspired me to read Nin's fiction, and she does not disappoint. Her writing does what she sets out to do: inspire feeling in the reader.
The Novel of the Future inspired me to read Nin's fiction, and she does not disappoint. Her writing does what she sets out to do: inspire feeling in the reader.
August 14, 2019
AnaÏs Nin is divine. She's a women pioneer. Her writing paved the new way the world thought about women. We are all in great debt to her personal diaries. I started the Diary volume one months ago but decided to paused it and instead read "The Novel of the Future", a literary essay that I ended up reading twice. As a person who knows nothing about literary and its mechanism, this book enlightens me enormously. I love the ambience of Nin’s writing. I adore her boldness. She broke all those rules and went her own way and created her own style. In this book, she begins the whole theory about "dream" which blew my mind away completely. I read this chapter over and over because first, I never thought about how could "dream" possibly relate to writing? Then I just fell in love with the way she elaborates the engineering of dreams. She begins "It is interesting to return to the original definition of a word we use too often and too carelessly. The definition of a dream is: ideas and images in the mind not under the command of reason. It is not necessarily and image or idea that we have during sleep. It is merely an idea or image which escapes the control of reasoning or logical or rational mind. So that dream may include reverie, imagination, daydreaming, the visions and hallucinations under the influence of drug-any experience which emerge from the realm of the subconscious.” Imagination and dreaming are the foundation of creativity. There is no doubt that the act of creation is very similar to the act of dreaming.
Proceeding from the dream, she writes about art, literature, her writing process, abstraction, the importance of keeping the diary, writing novels, the chronology or emotion, eroticism, as well as the influence in her writing from her relationship and experience with her family and friends. I want to highlight her view on literary criticism where in France, the art of criticism is very highly developed, books are skillfully evaluated with a constant interest in the innovators whereas in America, it is only the game of sales numbers. She also talks about D.H. Lawrance, Henry Miller, Virginia Woolf, Lawrence Durrell, Margaret Mead and so on. This book is timeless. I completely complied with her suggestion that to be the writer of the future is to write fearlessly, be authentic and create greater liberation of imagination. Surely, Anaïs Nin is the writer of the future.
I’m glad that I picked this book as an introduction to the real Anaïs Nin. I prefer to listen to her directly and read about what she believed despite all the gossip around her. (People love gossip, don’t they?).
Proceeding from the dream, she writes about art, literature, her writing process, abstraction, the importance of keeping the diary, writing novels, the chronology or emotion, eroticism, as well as the influence in her writing from her relationship and experience with her family and friends. I want to highlight her view on literary criticism where in France, the art of criticism is very highly developed, books are skillfully evaluated with a constant interest in the innovators whereas in America, it is only the game of sales numbers. She also talks about D.H. Lawrance, Henry Miller, Virginia Woolf, Lawrence Durrell, Margaret Mead and so on. This book is timeless. I completely complied with her suggestion that to be the writer of the future is to write fearlessly, be authentic and create greater liberation of imagination. Surely, Anaïs Nin is the writer of the future.
I’m glad that I picked this book as an introduction to the real Anaïs Nin. I prefer to listen to her directly and read about what she believed despite all the gossip around her. (People love gossip, don’t they?).
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews