House of Incest by Anais Nin - 1974

Chicago, IL: The Swallow Press, 1974 The Swallow Press, Chicago. c1958/1974 (?). Softcover/Trade Wraps. Edition Printing no stated. Book is tight, square, and unmarked. Book Condition: Very Good +; light shelfwear to tips, edges, and spine shoulders; light rubbing to wraps. No DJ. Pictorial card stock wraps. Wraps are not bent or folded; spine is not creased or split; text is secure in binding. 72 pp 8vo. This book with this identical wrap was printed several times between 1961 and 1979. The 1961 copy is dated with a 1958 copyright. In 1979 Ohio University bought Swallow Press and all titles from that date have both names. In 1972 ISBNs were commonly used which this copy does have. I have found a mention of a 1974 printing, so this my best guess. The price on the 1961 is $1.25 and this one is $1.50. Originally published in 1936, this book is Anaïs Nin’s first work of fiction. Based on her dreams, the novel is a surrealistic look within the narrator’s subconscious as she attempts to distance herself from a series of all-consuming and often taboo desires she cannot bear to let go. The incest Nin depicts is a metaphor—a selfish love wherein a woman can appreciate only qualities in a lover that are similar to her own. Through a descriptive exploration of romances and attractions between women, between a sister and her beloved brother, and with a Christ-like man, Nin’s narrator discovers what she thinks is truth: that a woman’s most perfect love is of herself. At first, this self-love seems ideal because it is attainable without fear and risk of heartbreak. But in time, the narrator’s chosen isolation and self-possessed anguish give way to a visceral nightmare from which she is unable to wake. A clean very presentable copy.