House of Incest, The.
Nin’s First Novel
Copy #1
Inscribed to John Charpentier
Nin, Anaïs. The House of Incest. Paris: Siana Editions [Obelisk Press], 1936.
8vo.; endpapers lightly foxed; plain white wrappers, sewn; white dust-jacket printed in black; pristine. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First edition of Nin’s lightly reviewed second book (attended to most generously by Stuart Gilbert), a collection of poetic images that cohere into a Surealist novel; 249 copies numbered and signed by the author, the entire edition; printed on sturdy Excelsior cartridge paper, at the Imprimerie Sainte Catherine in Bruges, Belgium. This is copy #1, numbered and signed by Nin at the colophon in black ink. The third in the Siana Series of the Obelisk Press, it was preceded by Henry Miller’s Aller Retour New York, funded by Nin, and by Richard Thoma’s Tragedy in Blue.
A presentation copy, inscribed on the front endpaper: To Mr. and Mrs. John Charpentier / With affection and admiration. Anaïs Nin. Nin had met Charpentier, literary critic of Mercure de France, in February 1934, when she and Henry Miller went to see him regarding their work. She described the meeting in a single sentence in her journal: “All strategic points in literary are held by little men” (quoted in Bair, p. 190). Though it is not impossible that Nin had had a change of heart by 1936, when she made this meaningful presentation of copy #1 of this book, it seems unlikely. The absence of further commentary on Charpentier in her voluminous diaries suggests that she viewed it simply as a professional expedient.
One critic refers to The House of Incest as “a random collection of poetic impressions” (“Anaïs Nin: Overview,” by Estelle C. Jelinek, in Reference Guide to American Literature, 3rd ed., edited by Jim Kamp, St. James Press, 1994), but it is commonly regarded as Nin’s first novel, a hallmark of the Surrealist movement containing the seeds of her later style. Andrea L.T. Peterson writes of its autobiographical elements, especially of Nin’s tormented and perennially unresolved relationship with her father, which whom she had an incestuous affair:
Nin had a troubled childhood. She was plagued by her inability to win the love of her father before he abandoned the family when she was still a small child. Her chances of winning his love after his departure were even smaller, but Nin idolized Joaquin Nin, the distinguished Spanish composer and concert pianist. Nin spent her life in an endless series of intense affairs, more than likely exclusively with men-artists, musicians, psychoanalysts, and writers (the most notable of which is Henry Miller) in an equally endless effort to reconcile the betrayal of her father. Her aim was to betray men as she has been betrayed, and to somehow make sense of her existence.
Her father is remembered by Nin in her diaries and in her fiction—particularly in House of Incest, her first novel—as one who seduced her and violated her. (“Anais Nin: Overview” in Gay & Lesbian Literature, Vol. 2, edited by Tom Pendergast & Sara Pendergast, St. James Press, 1998)
Nin herself later recalled, “I wrote Alraune, adding diseased and monstrous pages. Whenever I returned from my Father, I added a few pages to the Double story [Winter of Artifice], a book which Rank nurtured and inspired by his insight into the drama” (quoted in Bair, p. 189). Bair writes that Nin had ended the affair months before, and was
indifferent to him now, rushing home each time she went to dinner at his house to write more pages for “the Double story.” They all dealt with her “incredulity” at his “pretense of faithfulness.” She judged him as she judged herself, and therefore, “my double cannot deceive me.” Her strongest emotion now was “profound disillusion,” which she had felt ever since writing the full account of their first two liaisons in the diary. Now when she wrote about the “Sun King,” it was to dwell on his weaknesses, advancing age, and infirmities: “I eithe
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