Reviews for A Literate Passion: Letters of Anais Nin and Henry Miller, 1932-1953

The average rating for A Literate Passion: Letters of Anais Nin and Henry Miller, 1932-1953 based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-08-25 00:00:00 Peter Reiss I had read Henry Miller's Nexus a while back. And I loved it. I wondered about this author. Does he really relate to the words he writes or is he simply a fictioneer? Henry Miller was a Lutheran from New York but spent much of his creative time in Paris. I had not read Anais Nin. A suffragette and a diarist. A great writer, I believe from Spain originally, and then a resident of both Paris and New York. I learned that Anais and I share a love for the writings of DH Lawrence. She, a true devotee of his, spent years analyzing Lawrence's work and writing papers on him. Different styles of writing, these two. But the master link between them is sex. Lots of flirtation, innuendo, demands of the other. Sophomoric to an extent for mature and educated adults. If you were to investigate the people they have copulated with, other than each other, you would find a list of names of authors you have read. A longish list. Henry, you are what you pen. I am impressed. And slightly envious. A proof of sorts that fiction deviates only slightly from the writer's true pen. Anais. I was born too late to hang with you. But I still admire your independence and intelligence. (Great book but a little too long. It is maybe six hundred pages of back and forth letters. An excellent manual, though, for aspiring writers. A lot more can be learned here than "On Writing," by King.)

Review # 2 was written on 2008-11-14 00:00:00 Wanda Brown I'm sure many a literati heart sunk when reading that due to space limitations, the editors felt it necessary to eliminate "lengthy discussions of Dostoevsky, Proust, Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, [...:] ruminations on films, books, and so on..." Fortunately, such illuminations were not withheld entirely and serve to illustrate the deep, intellectual bond that formed the basis of Miller and Nin's love affair. While the letters recall impassioned discussions on literature, film, travel, poverty, war and depression, much is to be found between the lines, with suppressed desires and bottled emotions manifesting in the moods with which they describe a voyage or embrace a new book. The letters oscillate between the divinely passionate and occasionally tedious, but the lows are endurable when rewarded with such ingenious perspicacity and poetic grace. Especially satisfying for the sentimentalists.