Anaïs Nin's 'Henry and June' Explores Female Desire

A review of the French publication of Anaïs Nin's 'Henry and June' (Stock, 2008), edited by Rupert Pole and translated by Béatrice Commengé, examines the question of female desire through Nin's secret diaries from October 1931 to October 1932. The text focuses on the tumultuous love triangle between Nin, Henry Miller, and June Miller, highlighting Nin's contradictory perceptions of Miller as both a 'magnificent animal' and a 'gnome,' and her fascination with June as both a 'destructive' femme fatale and a 'timid' woman. The review critiques psychoanalytic interpretations by Freud and Lacan, noting that Nin's own chaotic desires—oscillating between virgin and whore, fidelity and promiscuity, possession and submission—resist easy answers. The book includes excerpts from notebooks 32–36 and unpublished journal fragments, offering a raw look at the psychodrama. The reviewer suggests that Nin's writings provide richer insight into female desire than theoretical works.