Cities of the Interior

Anais Nin

Contents (2)

CITIES OF THE INTERIOR

by

Anaïs Nin

The Authoritative Edition

With character descriptions, publishing histories

and

comments by Anaïs Nin

Published by Sky Blue Press at Smashwords

http://www.skybluepress.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Ladders to Fire

Main Characters

Publishing History

Prologue

This Hunger

Bread and the Wafer

Children of the Albatross

Main Characters

Publishing History

Introduction

The Sealed Room

The Café

The Four-Chambered Heart

Main Characters

Publishing History

Introduction

Beginning

A Spy in the House of Love

Main Characters

Publishing History

Introduction

Beginning

Seduction of the Minotaur

Main Characters

Publishing History

Introduction

Beginning

About the Author

More Titles from Sky Blue Press

PREFACE

The story of Cities of the Interior has never been told, and it is time to clear up misunderstandings. I have never planned my novels ahead. I have always improvised on a theme. My only preconception was that it was to be a study of women. The ﬁrst book turned out to be Ladders to Fire. All the women I was to write about appeared in it, including Stella, whom I later dropped because she seemed so complete in herself rather than related to the other women. (Stella, with two other novelettes, Winter of Artiﬁce and The Voice, was later published under the title Winter of Artiﬁce by Alan Swallow.)

When Ladders to Fire was accepted by E. P. Dutton, I explained that it was part of a larger design, and that other novels would follow and round out the characters. The editors were aghast. They said the American public would never read a novel which threatened to continue, a “roman ﬂeuve” as it is called in France. In 1946 the book was published as an independent novel, and nothing was said about development and continuity. For that reason, I did not develop a method of linking the various narratives.

I began the next novel, Children of the Albatross, as if it were a new story. Though the same characters appeared, the theme was altogether different. Dutton’s nervousness was dissipated. Children of the Albatross was published a year after Ladders to Fire, but the link had to be made by the reader (or the critics), and naturally it was not.

Then Dutton planned to wait four years before publishing the third novel, The Four-Chambered Heart, and I feared the continuity would be lost in the waiting, so I gave it to Duell, Sloan and Pearce. But it was still to take three years after Children of the Albatross appeared before The Four-Chambered Heart was published. Much was lost by never stressing the continuity and interrelatedness of the novels. Unlike Durrell’s Quartet, which was openly described as a unity, my novels (in a much earlier period) appeared without explanation. Duell, Sloan and Pearce turned down the fourth book, A Spy in the House of Love. It was ﬁnally done by British Book Centre four years after The Four-Chambered Heart saw print. The continuity was totally erased by then.