Welcome to Rich's Rarities and RJS Rarities, enjoying over two decades as an eBay seller.

Win the day with a creative gift idea for a dear friend! A visit to my eBay store is like a visit to my attic, which contains a 70+ year accumulation of Americana that piqued my interest and may outshine your next best gift idea. 


This item

consists of one, 5.25 x 8.25", 187-page softcover book in card covers. Pristine condition. “The Four-Chambered Heart” is a novel by Anaïs Nin, first published in 1950. It recounts the real-life affair she conducted with café guitarist Gonzalo Moré in 1936. Nin and Moré rented a houseboat on the Seine, and their relationship developed under the influence of the boat’s watchman and Moré’s wife, Helba. The novel weaves autobiographical threads into its characters: Djuna, an embodiment of Nin herself, and Rango, the gypsy musician (who represents Moré). Water serves as a recurring theme, symbolizing depth and the struggle to remain afloat. Nin’s exquisite writing captures the details of their experience, from black lacquered cobblestones to silver filigree trees. If you’re interested in passionate, introspective fiction, this book is worth exploring. It is one of five books that Nin called, her continuous novel. Illustrated by Ian Hugo, her husband's pseudonym. "The Four-Chambered Heart is one of Nin's most compelling books, with well-defined characters (Djuna, Rango, and Zora), rhythmic waves of tension, and a powerful climax. Based on Nin's own relationship with the Peruvian radical Gonzalo More and his wife Helba, The Four-Chambered Heart examines how each of us experiences love in our own way, and how we are sometimes forced by social mores to compartmentalize one relationship in order to preserve the other. Nin's use of symbolism has never been more effective: the river Seine represents the immutable force of life, the houseboat is the elusive dream, the shore is reality, and a doll found by a fisherman represents the part of Djuna that has committed suicide to allow the rest of her to grow. Djuna, through her torturous journey with Rango and Zora, arrives at a conclusion that is bitter yet critical to her survival as a woman seeking an understanding of how the exterior world affects the interior: "...very rarely did midnight strike in two hearts at once, very rarely did midnight arouse two equal desires, and that any dislocation in this, any indifference, was an indication of disunity, of the difficulties, the impossibilities of fusion between two human beings." The novel has been compared to the work of D.H. Lawrence and Carson McCullers." (from the website Fantastic Fiction)


 

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I do offer combined shipping for multiple purchases. Wait for me to send you a revised invoice before you check out, or I'll refund any over-payment.  If I can mail your item for less than you've paid, you will receive a refund for the difference.

EXPERT, WORRY-FREE PACKAGING! All paper items are poly-sleeved and boarded to prevent damage during mailing.

(If you send me an ebay message and I don't reply, don't take it personal. I ignore no one, but stuff happens.) 

Thanks for looking! Good browsing! Dick.

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