House of Incest Author:Anais Nin The 1958 Swallow Press edition includes nine black and white photomontages by Val Telberg. The following description is from Wikipedia. — "House of Incest" is a slim volume of 72 pages written by Ana?s Nin. Originally published in 1936, it is Ana?s Nin's first work of fiction. But unlike her diaries and erotica, "House of Incest" does not detail... more » the author's relationships with famous lovers like Henry Miller, nor does it contain graphic depiction of sex. Rather, "House of Incest" is a surrealistic look within the narrator's subconscious mind as she attempts to escape from a dream in which she is trapped, or in Nin's words, as she attempts to escape from "the woman's season in hell."
In "Ana?s Nin: An Introduction," authors Duane Schneider and Benjamin Franklin V both argue that the basic theme of "House of Incest" is that ultimately life in the real world, which contains both pleasure and pain, is preferable to any self-created world that attempts to include only pleasure. Franklin and Schneider argue that a world consisting only of pleasure is ultimately a sterile world where intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth is not possible, and what results is stunted people.
The prose of "House of Incest" is considered by many to be one of the major challenges of the work. The prose and tone of the work is not linear and does not utilize everyday language. Rather, the book is written in prose that is often described as either surrealist or symbolist.« less