The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
The Diary of Anaïs Nin • Book 1
by Anaïs Nin, Gunther Stuhlman
Narrated by Elisabeth Lagelee
Why Listen to This Audiobook?
Nin wrote this knowing posterity would read it — and that calculated intimacy is what makes every confession feel both confessional and performed.
- Great if you want: interior, literary memoir from Paris's bohemian 1930s circle
- Listening experience: slow and languid — deeply interior, best in uninterrupted stretches
- Narration: Lagelee's French cadence suits the Paris milieu naturally
- Skip if: you expect plot or events over relentless self-examination
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About This Audiobook
The first volume of Anaïs Nin's celebrated diaries covers the years 1931 to 1934, when she was living in Paris on the cusp of publishing her first book and moving in the extraordinary circle that included Henry Miller, his wife June, and the psychoanalyst Otto Rank. Nin writes about writing, love, desire, and her own nature with the same scrutiny she brings to the people around her, creating a document that is simultaneously self-portrait, literary memoir, and portrait of a particular moment in modernist intellectual life.
Elisabeth Lagelee narrates with a quality of intimate gravity that suits Nin's prose perfectly, capturing the diarist's sense of being perpetually engaged in the serious work of self-examination. Her voice carries the slight distance of someone reading from a document, which is appropriate for diary material: the listener is always aware of reading over a shoulder. The audiobook format works exceptionally well for diary prose, which has an inherent spoken quality.