| A Spy in the House of Love | |
|---|---|
1st edition (1954) |
|
| Author(s) | Anaïs Nin |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Erotic literature Character study |
| Publisher | Swallow Press (1954) Penguin (1973) |
| Publication date | 1954 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 136 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | 9780804002806 |
| Followed by | Seduction of the Minotaur |
A Spy in the House of Love is a 1954 novel by Anaïs Nin, part of her Cities of the Interior sequence, published by Swallow Press and British Book Centre, Paris and New York. It was published in the UK by Peter Owen, London, 1971, and in paperback by Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1973 (Penguin book 3600).
The book is a journey into the mind of Sabina, who is assumed by many to be a fictionalized version of author Anaïs Nin herself. The book portrays an adulterous woman working with a therapist to try to come to terms with her dishonest ways. Anaïs Nin wrote the book at a time that she was having many affairs.
The genre is best described as erotic fiction. The story is a character study of a woman in torment.
The leading character of the novel, Sabina, is a beautiful lying wife who desires to seduce every attractive man she can. She regards herself as an international spy in the house of love. All the while she is living a double life with staid Alan, her unsuspecting husband. She tells Alan that she's an actress in a play and she must leave for weeks at a time. She hides herself under makeup and clothing to disguise her flaws as she goes in search of someone who can save her from herself. At the same time, she's telling her story to a "lie detector", whom she dials at random in order to hear an unfamiliar voice on the other line. The lie detector is something like a detective and somewhat of a professional psychologist, listening to others and separating truth from lies. He traces her call and continues to follow Sabina, revealing in the end the folly of her ways.
Fans of the book speak of Sabina as not only special, but as endowed with a touching need. Initially, Nin meant Sabina to be based on her friend June Miller, and wrote House of Incest with Sabina standing in for June. However, as Nin seems to have held June as a role model and deliberately imitated her, the character borrowed traits from both women. Nin said that of all her novels, this was the one she worked on most diligently. Many readers and critics speak of the lie detector as one of her best characters.