Under a Glass Bell by Anais Nin (1944)

Thirteen short stories by the infamous diarist.

Book Review: Under a Glass Bell is collection of stories about language, the poetry of language, the beauty and magic of language, how to capture words that can describe indescribable emotions. In some of her work, Anais Nin can seem like one of those charming narcissists whose interest in their own life is so total that it becomes contagious, and only later does one wonder about spending a day wholly absorbed in someone else's, not-that-interesting, life. Of course, this is still better than those histrionic narcissists who drive one screaming from the room to avoid injury, to oneself or others. But Under a Glass Bell is not that, is not Anais Nin examining her life in microscopic and obsessive detail. This is not for everybody. This is a book for those who love language. Who love sentences that believe in spells and incantations and the power of language all in itself. This is not about plot or revelation, meaning or understanding. The only revelation is in the language. It can only be read slowly. Here is a sentence about the tramps living by the Seine: "They threw the newspapers in the river and this was their prayer: to be carried, lifted, borne down, without feeling the hard bone of pain in man, lodged in his skeleton, but only the pulse of flowing blood." From the same story ("Houseboat"): "Tiny birds sat in weeds asking for no food and singing no song but the soft chant of metamorphosis, and each time they opened their beaks the webbed stained-glass windows decomposed into snakes and ribbons of sulphur." If those sentences speak to you, you'll love Under a Glass Bell. I can see this book as a cult favorite for those who enjoy getting lost and then found again, overwhelmed and buried by emotions, sleep walking, mesmerized by words and syllables and images ("the dew of her anxiety clouded her face"). I can see Patti Smith enjoying this as some of the passages reminded me of her memoirs. Many of the stories are deep character sketches and portraits of people Nin knew ("The Mouse," "The Mohican"). Some are stories of people she did not know, but imagined. Some are fables and fairy tales found in old houses. A couple entries, the "labyrinth" stories, relate to her famous diaries. Others are fantasies, illusions, hallucinations. Nin's deepest emotions are touched on here. One note: there's some controversy about the order of the stories. In 1995, Gunther Stuhlmann rearranged the stories in "chronological order" per a revelatory introduction, which I haven't found yet. My collection, from 1948, was the original sequence. Under a Glass Bell is for those with unique and esoteric taste. This a book for wizards who can find a whole universe in 17 words.  [3½★]