Nearer the Moon: From "A Journal of Love": The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1937-1939

From "A Journal of Love" #4

by Anaïs Nin, Gunther Stuhlman

Anais Nin's diary was her "ultimate confidante," and to it she revealed her private self, her doubts and weaknesses, and the uncensored details about her physical relationships. This discipline of daily writing also helped Nin develop the skills to write her edited diaries and best-selling volumes of erotica. The fourth volume of "A Journal of Love," Nearer the Moon covers the years 1937 through 1939 and continues the story begun in Fire of Nin's "dismemberment by love." She remains torn between three men: Henry Miller, whose detached self-immersion and artistic "impersonality" both attract and repel her; Gonzalo More, a sensitive and attentive but jealous lover who drives her to distraction; and Hugh Guiler, her faithful husband, who provides a calm center for Nin. In addition, a wide circle of family, friends, and admirers makes demands on Nin's time and emotional energy. She is constantly busy helping people - finding apartments and rent money, taking trips to the doctor, encouraging artistic pursuits. And yet, she cannot abandon her writing - the structured world of the writer is her refuge.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Classics, Diary, Journal, Erotica

396 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1996

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

[Joan Colby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Years ago, I admired the expurgated diaries for the oblique and mysterious tone and the poetic description, though even then, I felt the language was frequently overblown. It was also possible to perceive Nin as an adventurous independent woman, since she had deleted the role of her husband from the diaries. Nearer the Moon is the second (though in actuality the fourth of the unexpurgated versions published after Nin’s death)
of these that I’ve read, the first being “Henry and June.’ What comes through indelibly in this issue are the elements of deceit and narcissism. It’s not infidelity per se that I take umbrage with, as people are human and follow their desires, but how in her affairs Nin takes such delight in intrigue and the dramas that she compulsively confides to the diary, often bewailing the lies that encircle her. But they are her lies, as she acknowledges, and though she presents herself as a giving person, enabling Henry and Gonzalo’s existence, paying their rent, buying food, et al; nevertheless it is her husband Hugh the banker who underwrites it all, though he’s blind to where the money is going. It’s hard to believe that Hugh is unaware of Anais’ double or triple lives, but then she is a talented deceiver. On the plus side, Nin has a powerful intelligence and her emotional comprehension can be nothing short of outstanding. Perhaps all the navel gazing sharpened her insights. Additionally, though she was aware of the discordant political climate in Europe in the late ‘30’s , she seems insulated from it, espousing little interest in anything other than literature, art and the tangles of her personal life. While I like, in a sense, her intrepid spirit, the diary overall leaves me seeing her more as a succubus than a liberated woman.

Rereading in 2018. While I sometimes intentionally reread a book, this isn’t one I would have chosen. However, I soon realized it seemed familiar and I checked my previous assessment and stand by it. A somewhat mediocre read that doesn’t measure up to Nin’s earlier diaries. This edition revolves around the triangle of Hugo, Henry and Gonzalo. One wonders at Anais’ energy in keeping all these balls in the air. Yet, she is also able to focus on her own work, besides the diaries the rather mystical novels. I found this statement to be quite revealing in terms of criticizing others’ work. She was replying to a letter from Lawrence Durrell about one of her manuscripts that he intended to publish. “The changes I made already are all I can do. The rest is you, not me, and therefore you ought really to let me take my chance, let me pay for my weaknesses, defects. You cannot write my book for me. If I am as bad as all that, if I need rewriting, then, you should not publish me see? Beyond a certain amount of correcting, which I have done, there are the innate defects which no one can fix.”

[Edward Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not get through this one. I tried after reading Delta of Venus (which I enjoyed) to read some of her diaries (which there are many) and I thought as time went on I would enjoy them a bit more (as I got older) but alas it's just the same nonsense. I love the use of Unexpurgated vs. Uncensored, it does make it feel a little more like an open look into her life but then again, she has always been wide open.

[Bridgett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like her writing style and could relate to some aspects of her experience (like feeling more in the eternal instead of the temporal, unlike most people). Though the way I would describe certain experiences is different. I also love people very passionately, so I liked hearing about her emotions and devotions though I've never had a love life like hers. I don't know much about Nin yet, but she is interesting.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What a curious, extraordinary woman," said legendary editor Maxwell Perkins after reading Anais Nin's diaries. And that is the case--she is one of a kind. She's a literary temple whore, a married demi-monde, a polyamorous modernist writer. She's been castigated for valuing sexual pleasure highly, for breaking taboos, and for the lies and deceit that facilitated her love life. She formed intense relationships with men, juggling three of them in this diary, and developed long-lasting, mutually beneficial and enriching relationships with them. Like most women who refuse to conform to patriarchal norms of sexuality, and who seek life on their own terms, she has been both ridiculed and worshiped, both admired and scorned by critics, readers, and other women. This set of diaries, covering 1937-39, are, above all, simply a diary, the one place where Nin could confess her amorous experiences, and where she worried about and expressed her grievances with her inner circle, which was quite large, including Henry Miller, Gonzalo More, Hugh Guiller, Jean Carteret, Lawrence Durrell, her mother, brother, father, and more.

Nin has been criticized for her lack of interest in politics, which, considering the time this book was written, seems shameful and self-absorbed to contemporary readers. But considering her nature, her choice of Gonzalo More as a long-term lover and the one at the center of her thoughts, the one she loves most intensely during these years, could be Nin expressing her political side. More was a communist and anti-fascist; Nin supported him and his wife Helba Huerta, nursed them both, and staved off his self-destruction for a time, making it possible for him to be a part of the communist fight against fascism going on then in Paris. Living through a man in this way would not have been unusual for a woman of her time. Unfortunately, Nin does not explore her relationship with More as a form of her own political expression, though she admires his identity as a revolutionary. This book includes a surprising digression about Marxism, which she admires for its organizing principle and for its potential to relieve human suffering. This is a shock, coming as it does from a woman who repeatedly states that politics bores her.

Nin valued individuality too much to ever get caught up in a mass movement of any kind. She rejected the horror and brutality of the world, and turned inward, valuing love and passion above all else. Even so, towards the end her diary seems written as if she thought its pages might hold the last words she ever puts to paper. With this she was clear-eyed, anticipating the potential annihilation of all she held dear--civilization, art, relationships, and creation.

I could not read every word of this book. It got tiresome to read her interior monologue, rarely livened by dialogue or by another's point of view. Some of it, like the astrology, just seems silly today. And yet...she may be the first woman who put words to experiences that others find shameful. She lifts them up like jewels, using her full literary powers to describe them. Despite the lies and falsehoods that maintained her double and triple lives, Nin wrote the truth, and for that she continues to find an audience, fascinated by her individuality and the enormous power of her personality.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the last, so far published, of the Anaïs Nin's Unexpurgated diaries, edited by her second (bigamous) husband Rupert Pole, after her death and that of nearly everyone else discussed. The intensity of her love life continues. Her style continues to evolve to more emotion, sensation and thought brought up from the subconscious, and less external facts. This was partly due to the influence of psychoanalysis and Surrealism.I regard it as truly unfortunate that this book is unlikely to have many readers owing to its lack of editorial discipline. Be patient with it, but be prepared to skim, and don't read it as an introduction to Nin's work.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever I read her diaries, I always find myself diarizing my thoughts in my head as I go through the day. She has such a perceptive, wonderful understanding of thoughts and emotions and it soothes and clears my mind to read her. More than any other author, I stumble upon paragraphs of hers where she exactly describes what I am thinking and feeling about situations that I had never consciously understood before. I admire her perhaps more than any other woman for her constant exploration of the possibilities in life and her struggle to embrace her femininity while not being limited by it.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember being bored, and convinced that the talent of this book lay more in the notion that a woman would be so bold as to have three lovers and write candidly about it at this time....than in the actual writing. Diaries have never held much interest for me I guess because they are usually so utterly banal by principle. Anyone who's diary is too fabulous, is either a fiction writer, or a freak accident. =)

[Cherie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Another fantastic diary of Anais Nin; I got super annoyed at Gonzalo and how the men in her life suck so much from her (money, time, love), but this book is terrific. I love Anais; you easily fall in love with her reading it. Quite erotic at times (no surprise there) but absolutely fascinating, especially in the days leading up to WW2.

[Brenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anais Nin is one of the most natural writers to grace this planet. As someone who keeps a journal, I could only hope to write as effortlessly as she does. The fact remains, I do not.

I applaud her honesty, her bravery, her vulnerability yet I can’t help but question as to what she sees in these men who consume her thoughts. My process when I began to write was to immortalize into ink that which I could not say out loud, attempting to make sense of my mind and naturally the outside world. We are not alike in that way, she is so fully self aware & poignant. To the point that these diaries feel so modern, yet, the men she takes on are so disappointing in comparison to her. Her endless stream of consciousness about her obsessions, loves & intimacies do make me feel better about my own.

She also reminds me to never make my journals public, perhaps I am not as brave as she.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anais grows up (a little). Her life is less nutty as she settles in with her two lovers, cold-hearted Henry and Gonzalo the fuck-up. Unfortunately, less nuttiness makes for less compelling reading. I had to buy an out-of-print copy as this is not available on Kindle.

Although this volume lacks the frenetic energy of her earlier volumes, it is still a worthy read. She does an amazing job of painting pictures of peoples' personalities in short vignettes. I get a really clear picture of how worthless Gonzalo was for any practical work.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Years ago I read the expurgated version and really liked it. But that was 35 years ago and and it just didn't age well for me. Seems sort of silly now. Or very self-centered. And too overly dramatic. oh well.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tbh Nin is lowkey iconic, original lovergirl, boys eat your heart out cuz you’d never understand what it likes to love as a woman. Also pissed that I got a degree in lit and this author never came up?? Huh?

[Rolez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read not just for its salacious content but for its clever sentences and structures. Lovely.

[Mary Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love her

[bookcasewalls · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think my main problem with these diaries is that I decided, before I was half-way through, that I don't much like Anais Nin. I don't know how to explain why this matters so much, given that characters I don't like can be present in books I love, and can even be excellent characters. Maybe because in fiction there's a nominal space between what the narrative endorses and what the character endorses. No such luck in a diary. Nin comes across as extremely pleased with herself all the time, and believes she's much better than those around her, who she deigns to help. How often she repeats that she accepts Marxism for the 'masses' but not for herself became irritating too, especially given that I'm still not entirely sure what she meant. When I read a diary I want to feel that I'm spending time with someone interesting, whose textual company I enjoy (Alan Bennett, for example) and that was not the case here.

For a volume focussing almost exclusively on love affairs, there was also very little sense of intimacy or discussion of sex, and I felt no investment in any of the relationships she described. (Except for Thurema. I felt terrible for Thurema.)

At any rate, I gave it two stars because I didn't find it unreadable, just annoying in large doses.

Some words of wisdom that I thought were especially amusing, and which I'll think of when I've heard the quotation beginning "I don't want to be the leader..." one time too many:

"To say that because you are a poet you will not remember to have the towels washed only means that you destroy poetry itself, because you will live with a dirty towel, which kills the poem." (p.331)

Thanks, Anais Nin.

[Angela Vs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlike the revelations, epiphanies, and great peaks of her earlier diaries, Nearer the Moon seems a bit trite. Nin has found her routine, bouncing between and lying to lovers, keeping a home, keeping her personal writing and grappling with the publishing world, being bled of money and emotion, and occasionally stirring up a new heart here and there.

It's good to see how the writing industry worked at the time though.

The language, is as always, sensitive and poetic. But the story that is told is ultimately sad, and I can't help but feel that she's less sympathetic in this journal than she was in her earlier work. In Henry and June, we have a woman caught up in the storm of her own self-discovery. In Nearer the Moon, that woman has matured, but is still duplicitous, smug, vain, and waifish.

Still, some of her paragraphs and sentences about the fecundity of having love from two, of different needs met by different relationships, sound like the ancestors of polyamory.

I truly wish that Rupert Pole edited some of her later diaries for future publication. I want to see more of her excesses and effusiveness as an older woman.

[jesycu · Rating 5 out of 5]

they don’t make it girls like this anymore … Shame!

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

How did the young Nin--articulate, passionate, inquisitive, and reflective--become this irritating sexual Olympian (albeit still articulate and passionate), pretty well oblivious to significant things going on around her? Reading the "unexpurgated" diaries alongside those that were published in her lifetime reveals some interesting editing decisions.

[Michelle Fields · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purty good stuff.

[Tracy K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like Anais Nin, but it feels like these journals of love are just leftovers from the expurgated journals. Also, repetitive.

[Marko]

I have the german edition: Naechte unterm Venusmond