Cities of the Interior

Cities of the Interior #1-5

by Anaïs Nin

"My original concept was Roman Fleuve, a series of novels on various aspects of relationships, portraying four women in a continuous symphony of experience". -- Anais Nin, from the introduction to the British edition of Ladders to Fire

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Literature, Erotica, Classics, Literary Fiction, Novels

Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Writer 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).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana%C3%...

Reviews

[Garrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this so much. I wish there was less casual racism.

[Laura Yan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anais Nin has an incredible writing style, where every line is poetry and wrapped in beauty, truth, observation about the innermost voices of our selves we don't dare to admit, but instantly recognize on the page. Her characters are spiraling entities that encompass so much more than individual traits, and she conjures worlds and moods with such a lyrical ease. Once you really fall into Nin's world, where all senses are lightened and pleasure flows, as well as every doubt and fear in silky thoughts across the page, it's difficult to escape. She describes passions, relationships and places with a rippling beauty. And it's every bit of a pleasure to indulge in a trip to these cities of the interior.

[Michael sinkofcabbages · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been a hugh fan of Nin. She seemed to be a major crossroad of so many things. And i dont mean just her diaries. I mean the multiple internal dialogues she interweaves. And how these i.d's are not only affected by each other, but also how they influence each individuals internal sight of themselves and their environment. But while this may seem kind of convoluted; the writing/images are actually quit spare and illuminating. Her writing dosnt really have a generic plot; but rather is moved along by a kind of submerging into the dialogue. It works purely on the emotional level in regardes to the conversation we all have with ourselves; and how others percieve/ interpret this conversation.
And if this wasnt enough; all this also takes place in the greatest time period in the greatest city.

*A personal note-I read this mammoth tomb while traveling/living in Brazil and could not of had a better book. It really made me understand internal travelling.

P.S. Get this copy for the incredible drawings throughout the book.

[Laure · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ce livre m’a touché là où L’insoutenable légèreté de l’être (1984) de Kundera m’a seulement effleuré.

Il s’agit d’un intégrale refermant cinq nouvelles qui « anachroniquent » les vies de Lilian, Djuana et Sabina – une pianiste, une danseuse et une mangeuse d’homme. Devant l’artifice des sourires forcés et les habits de ville qui écrasent les pensées, les personnages vacillent entre l’insoutenable et le léger. Soumises au monde des apparences, elles souffrent d’une nostalgie de la boue pour leur enfance, ce temps éphémère qu’on ne saura jamais si on l’a vécu ou rêvé.

Poursuivre la lecture : https://fabulogie.wordpress.com/2016/...

[lourdes]

"I want just the joy of illumination, the joy of what I see in the world. Just to receive vibrations. Susceptibility to all life. Acceptance. Taking it all in. Just BE".

I initially started this book in January and was reading alongside other books but I decided last week to give it my full attention and finish it. It was no easy feat, I think Anais Nin writes well but the formatting of the book and the older vocabulary used I found my mind wandering A LOT. I enjoyed parts of what she did here and there was some really gorgeous prose and writing throughout. But I do fear that often things are held as sacred and people do not speak out against for fear of shame or displaying a lack of intellect. I have no shame and I know I am smart and this was just okay.

[Elliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

A non-stop barrage of beautiful, soul-touching prose and exhaustive character analysis. The former is of course to the novel (or collection, however you prefer) advantageous no matter which way you slice it, but the latter is just "too much."

The plot is completely absent, which is not intrinsically a con, but feels as one with a book of this length. You begin to wish for the characters to stop analyzing how they live, and just LIVE. By the end they're so well-developed that one might feel frustrated or cheated that they haven't done anything except exist in a perpetual state of self-analysis.

Anais has the temperament and the style of a poet, not a traditional author, and as a result the book feels distracted or distanced from itself. I would hesitate to recommend or dissuade someone from reading this book. One's enjoyment of this novel is likely to be dependent on whether or not they consider character development to be paramount (at risk of all else) in a book, and whether the reader has a bottomless well of patience for personality proselytizing. Those that are able to surpass those obstacles or see them as virtues, will likely have a more enjoyable experience.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Therapy through prose is what was provided to me upon the first reading and every subsequent reading since then.
"Ladders to Fire", "Children of the Albatross", "The Four-Chambered Heart", "A Spy in the House of Love" and "Seduction of the Minotaur" can be read as a collective or individually. Each is full of languid poetry. You can feel the elements, landscape and characters. Most of which are sketches of artists within Nin's circle. Anais was always writing about what she knew, tasted and saw around her. The visceral sensuality of her storytelling always buoys my spirit and leaves me with the feeling that I am not alone in my thoughts, desires, fantasies and actions. The human condition is always fraught with complexity.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book. It's the first time I've ever felt so connected to a fictional character.

[mark foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

RIP anais nin u woulda loved mitski

[Alex Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second or third time I've read this book. The first time, it blew my mind. The subtle ways that Nin is able to pull one into a character, and see the interior of people in stark metaphors really grabbed me. This time around I can see how she is showing how people are fluid. Our expectations, feelings and emotions intertwine in unexpected ways so that our inside is out, and our outside in.

Her writing doesn't move me as it used to. It feels much less sophisticated now, but her ideas and her methods are still intriguing. I suppose I have more experience now, as a human adult in adult relationships so that her initial impressions aren't as romantic or as intimate as they struck me before.

[Justina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Cities of the Interior was an uncanny experience. I discovered phrases and thought patterns that I have carried throughout my life (and shared with no one) repeatedly in Nin’s writing. Phenomenal emotional and psychological exploration. As someone diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, I related a lot to this text and felt less alone. I absolutely adore Nin’s writing style!

[Natalia · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Maybe if I was more patient I would enjoy this but the writing style was just not for me. Ultimately it was so boring I had to stop. I also really don’t think that people like this actually exist. No one thinks like that I promise.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful cover. I read this avidly as a young woman, but it doesn't speak to me anymore.

[Elise Olmstead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nik’s prose is superbly beautiful and she is able to conjure so much emotion through her metaphors. I very much enjoyed her characters who I felt were all well developed, so much so that I have suspicions they were all modeled from real people. Unfortunately halfway through her heady prose grew tiresome to me. I wish there was more meat to her story instead of just style.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anais Nin tells us the truth we all know but rarely even whisper to others.

[Tito Titus · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for novels with beginnings that pull you in and endings that neatly complete the story, this isn't the book for you. Nin believed that novels should reflect real life and that real life doesn't work that way. In Cities of the Interior, she holds true to that philosophy. In that sense, it isn't a traditional novel, but rather a series of things that happen.

The events occur in the lives of three women searching for meaningful expression and relationships with a few interesting men, with each other, and within their interior lives. It's comprised of five novels drawn and fictionalized from her diaries. It's not erotic in the sense we have come to know modern eroticism. Nor is it comparable in that manner to her posthumous publications, Delta of Venus and Little Birds. Nonetheless it contains remarkably beautiful, sensuous descriptive passages--poetry-within-prose that reminds me of Michael Ondaatje's earlier works. These descriptive passages, so exquisitely crafted, pull the reader through vivid sensations of color, sound, touch, movement, mood. The expressive mastery of the poetry-within-prose passages provides plenty reason to read this collection.

The title "Cities of the Interior" translates well to "landscapes of the mind." The five novels transition and blend with each other seamlessly, not so much as a series of stories but as a continuation of the same story (which, as I said, has no beginning or end).

I keep the ones I like. This one's a keeper.

[Fiona Thurn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a lot of Nin in my 30s. I searched for this book for many years before I finally got it. In the end I really enjoyed the way her diaries, erotica and fiction overlapped. I'm not sure she ever told what most people consider to be the "truth" about herself or her relationships, but to see one person tell similar stories from so many different perspectives is fascinating. By my mid 40s I was disenchanted with her. I'd grown out of her intensity and self-involvement. I still occasionally love dipping in for a reminder of the sticky, malaga wine emotion of it all.

[Jamie is · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Anais Nin in 9th grade because I found the title intriguing and was pleasantly surprised to find her writing is highly sexualized. However, I believe she is often characterized by one label, "erotica", which does not do justice to the complexity of her writing and its socio-historical significance. When I took a college-level Writing course at Truman State University the summer before 10th grade I made the professor very uncomfortable during a visit by an administrator to our class by analyzing Nin's works and applying them to my own writing.

[Bryce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anais's dialogue is rich with deep thinking about the mystery that pervades all women. The mystery is more so if you are a man. Here is a snapshot from the middle of the book:

He never suspected for a moment that this mystery (of women) was part of themselves they did not know, could not see. (Anais Nin)

If you are fascinated by the concept of an interior dialogue that we all create each day, then you will really enjoy this evocative book.

[Leilani · Rating 1 out of 5]

After Facebook told me that Nin was "the voice of my soul," I thought I should read something by her. I had purchased this a while back and had tried to read it then, but something made me put it down. I remember now what it was: I can't stand reading it. All the blathering on about nothing with no plot to speak of. Not for me. Perhaps I am unbearable, even to myself?

[Penelope]

I was really enjoying this book, although the stream-of-consciousness writing style was hard for me to get into at first. Anais Nin's characters all seem so powerful but also so human, flawed, and delicate. Unfortunately I don't have the time to finish this book right now, and had to return it to the library. I hope to come back to it someday...

[Marissa Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, sensual, lyrical prose...everything you'd expect from a writer like Nin. Her intense sense of sexuality emanates from her writing like a pulse. There are times I found it a little overwhelming to read and had to stagger my reading between stories, but overall it was totally immersing.

[Jefferson · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is between 3 and 4 stars for me. definitely worth reading because she hits upon some really great passages. but that also means there are some very repetitive parts that become tedious. i think chidren of the albatross and seduction of the minotaur were my favorites of the five stories.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book (or books) made me realize that I enjoy symoblism without form or content a bit too much - beautiful in it's lyricism yet difficult to hold on to - elusivley decadent and transformative

[Michelle Fields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sprawling, I read it at the beach!

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of her work. A good and comprehensive introduction to both her intellectual and sensualist writings.

[Shaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

You gotta read the whole series to really get into what Nin is trying to lay out. A great study on the minds and hearts of women!