Essential Anais Nin

by Anaïs Nin

From her famous diaries, that she began in 1914 at the age of eleven, Anais Nin reads passages which reflect the recurring themes of her work. In a slow, clear, heavily accented, hypnotic voice, Nin draws the listener into her spell-binding stories of a highly personal world as she paints a vivid picture of a woman as artist and self. This is an extraordinary, historic, archival, and memorable recording which speaks in a fresh voice to new generations.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Classics, 20th Century, Autobiography, Poetry

Audio CD

First published February 27, 2007

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

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was too short.

[Inga Grencberga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anaïs Nin lasa savas dienasgrāmatas

"Woman's creation, far from being like Man's, must be exactly like her creation of children; that is, it must come out of her own blood, englobed by her womb, nourished with her own milk. It must be a human creation, of flesh, it must be different from Man's abstractions."

[Kianna Hendricks · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 rounded up

[Baroness · Rating 3 out of 5]

I utterly adore this inspiring, curious and courageous woman. Her voice and laugh are adorable. Quick and funny audiobook.

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part here is hearing the voice of the famous writer. She speaks calmly, slowly, and with gentle humor. I found the content OK, but somewhat forgettable here.

[Emily Davis]

Sometimes Anaïs says the exact words a gal needs to hear with unmatched profundity and occasionally she says something that makes a gal go 😬😬😬😬. I’m not in the business of excusing anything due to its era, but take the good stuff, leave the rest.

[Milena]

woman’s creation far from being like man’s must be exactly like her creation of children, that is it must come out of her own blood, englobed by her womb, nourished with her own milk. It must be a human creation, of flesh, it must be different from man’s abstractions. As to this ‘I am God’, which makes creation an act of solitude and pride, this image of God alone making sky, earth, sea, it is this image which has confused woman. (Man too, because he thinks God did it all alone, and he thinks he did it all alone. And behind every achievement of man lies a woman, and I am sure God was helped too but never acknowledged it.)

[Marci Darling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anais Nin's courage and commitment to recording her journey in truthful way changed my life for the better. Her diaries are a study in an iconic woman who forged her own path, and wrote about her journey in such a beautiful way. I highly recommend!

[Sarah Hyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would read Anais Nin over E.L. James any day!

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understand that Nin's perspectives on gender were fundamental to her writing philosophy, but I'm increasingly turned off by her gender essentialism.

[kaarina · Rating 2 out of 5]

“woman was born to be the connecting link between man and his human self”

[Troy Terwilliger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anaïs Nin’s obsession with "the craft" often reads less like a pursuit of literary truth and more like a high-stakes justification for a life lived as a performance. While she meticulously curated her image as a pioneer of the interior world, her dismissal of Virginia Woolf reveals a profound "tennis player vs. hockey player" disconnect. Nin mistook Woolf’s structural mastery and exploration of platonic, familial intimacy for emotional sterility, simply because it lacked the "thwack" of a heavy, erotic serve. Lacking Woolf’s innate ability to generate organic, self-sustaining universes, Nin relied on the synthetic novelty of the ego, producing work that feels like a hothouse flower—beautifully forced, but requiring constant artificial light to survive.

Her perspective was deeply colored by Cluster B traits—specifically histrionic and narcissistic tendencies—that demanded constant erotic validation and high-stakes drama to feel "alive." This psychological "fever" left her fundamentally blind to the quiet, rhythmic reverberations of consciousness that Woolf captured with such effortless, innate originality. For Nin, if a connection wasn't visceral or dangerously self-revealing, it was "hollow." She could not grasp that Woolf was doing something far more difficult than recording a sexual encounter: she was mapping the "invisible threads" and the collective "glow" of human existence that exists outside the bedroom.

The diary became Nin’s laboratory of the ego, a necessary "protective shell" for a fragmented, borderline identity. It allowed her to bypass the need for organic invention; she didn't have to build a world, she just had to curate her reactions to one. This obsession ultimately stunted her growth as a novelist, as she remained a prisoner of her own reflection. When she attempted formal fiction, the results were often brittle or "perfumed" versions of her own nervous system, lacking the "negative capability" and the structural backbone that allowed Woolf’s characters to breathe and exist independently of their creator.

Ultimately, Nin was a master of the surface and the "infatuation phase," perpetually unable to skate on the deep, frozen brilliance of Woolf’s intellectual landscape. Where Woolf’s work functions as a vast forest—complex, terrifying, and indifferent to the observer—Nin’s writing is a shallow pool with an expensive mirror at its base. She spent her life talking about "the labyrinth" to convince the world of her depth, but she was largely a diarist of the immediate moment. Nin chased the spark of the match, while Woolf harnessed the tide, leaving us with two very different legacies: one of curated performance and one of innate, structural creation.

[Rehan Qayoom]

This is the recording of a reading Nin recalled giving in early 1972 at the Poetry Center in New York in her Diary as being 'Overcrowded. Atmosphere of utter receptivity. While I receivethe vibrations from the crowd and messages from certain faces, I read with delight. But the disillusion comes with the questions. I never could find out if it is always the one who does not hear me or understand me who asks the questions, while the sensitive are silent, because after each lecture I receive letters full of understanding from those who did not ask questions. Most questions make me feel I have talked to the deaf and blind. But then this is mitigated by the letters.'

After reading some excerpts from the Diaries she answers questions. It's a shame only her answers are recorded on this digital edition.

[Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t wait to read more of Anaïs’ work. She wrote so beautifully!

Favorite Quote:
“It is also true that creation comes from an overflow, so you have to learn to intake, to imbibe, to nourish yourself and not be afraid of fullness. The fullness is like a tidal wave which then carries you, sweeps you into experience and into writing. Permit yourself to flow and overflow, allow for the rise in temperature, all the expansions and intensifications. Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.”

[Ville Verkkapuro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure what to make of this, but I was absolutely mesmerised by this. The audiobook was read by Anaïs Nin and her reading (and accent) is just wonderful.
This, as a collection, was very random to me. I did not grasp the essence of it, though I felt the energy and the feel. This was hypnotic and vivid, but I will proceed to find something more of her, something that would give me something to really give me something to truly grasp.
Very interesting and intriguing!

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delighted to have found this recording on my library's Libby app. The author herself reads passages from her famous works and answers questions. It's only 45 minutes, but very rich. I only wish I had a transcript for copying down some of the things that were said.
Like getting to attend a talk.

[Suhayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, listening to this as an audiobook was such a beautiful experience. To visualise the author fully fleshed out and as a human constantly adapting and experiencing is to really appreciate their art. She had an unwavering voice and clear ideologies and beliefs; so inspiring!

[Mike P · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't know that this was merely Ms. Nin reading excepts from her diary. My fault. Listened anyway, but didn't find it of interest.

[Vincent Andersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A handful of excerpts from her diaries....insightful, but there’s not much here.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always good to hear Anais Nin read. The only problem is that this is a very short audiobook.

[Alli Tripp · Rating 5 out of 5]

So lovely to hear this author read her own words.. libro.fm short audio book

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audio book. What a delight listening to the author speak! I need to pick up the hard copy because the quotes are worth ruminating over.

[sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Anisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

sweeeeeeet sing sing my hymns i would listen to these every morning, especially the last bits OOft the weight of it all

[Jamie Yonker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to read the transcripts already, stat.

[Sofia Singer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elsker elsker elsker, det er så fantastisk en oplevelse at høre en forfatter læse højt af deres egne værker💗

[Leeor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Appreciate her thoughts. Several sections that made me so proud for how she uses her voice and stands up for herself during disagreements with Henry Miller and men in general.

[Taryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this recording while driving. It got me out of a weird rut with overthinking and analysis of how writers affect us with their own views/opinions/life stories. I found myself laughing, crying, and really enjoying the short jaunt into Anais and her world as an author.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice glimpse in to her story telling.

[Cris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was really boring and cloying. Shoutout to Kaiser's waiting room for enabling me to finish it. Heads up for orientalism and islamophobia.