Anaïs Nin: Letter to Her Father

Anaïs Nin is known to us mainly because of her Diaries, a more elaborate, re-written version of a daily notes she had gotten into the habit of writing as a child, as a “letter to Father”, who had just deserted his family. Twenty years later, they finally saw each other again. The incestuous relation already sketched out in childhood, tinged, it would seem, with a sadistic hue, was relived, in either reality or fantasy… despite the peril for Anaïs, who dreams confusedly of being her father’s “mystical fiancée”, and is liable to submit herself wholly to his needs. This “flawed father”, uncomfortable with his anima, projects it onto his daughter. But Anaïs is not Antigone…