The Rosy Crucifixion
| The Rosy Crucifixion | |
|---|---|
 First American printing of Plexus by Grove Press, 1965 |
|
| Author(s) | Henry Miller |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Autobiographical novel |
| Publisher | Obelisk Press Grove Press |
| Publication date | Sexus - 1949 Plexus - 1953 Nexus - 1959 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 1,462 |
The Rosy Crucifixion, a trilogy consisting of Sexus, Plexus, and Nexus, is a fictionalized account documenting the six-year period of Henry Miller’s life in Brooklyn as he falls for his second wife June and struggles to become a writer, leading up to his initial departure for Paris in 1928.
Contents |
Sexus [edit]
Sexus (1949), the first volume, describes the break-up of Miller’s first marriage as he meets, falls in love with and marries his second wife, the captivating and mysterious dancer Mona (June). At the beginning of Sexus, Miller is 33 years old. June is at first called Mara, but at the beginning of chapter 8, and for the remainder of the trilogy, her name is changed to Mona. Miller states that this is under the influence of his friend Dr. Kronski, and that the name change accompanied "other, more significant changes." She is one who has changed many details of her life: "her name, her birthplace, her mother, her upbringing, her friends, her tastes, even her desires."[1]
The New York Times stated, "Miller uses licentious sex scenes to set the stage for his philosophical discussions of self, love, marriage and happiness."[2]
Miller said that, in a burst of inspiration one night in 1927, he stayed up all night plotting out Tropic of Capricorn (1938) and The Rosy Crucifixion in forty or fifty typewritten pages.[3] The original manuscript for Sexus was written in 1942.[4] It was first put out in Paris as two volumes by Obelisk Press.[5]
Plexus [edit]
Plexus (1953), the second volume, continues with the story of Miller’s marriage to Mona, and covers Miller’s attempts to become a writer after leaving his job at the Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company.
Nexus [edit]
In Nexus (1959), the final installment, Miller finds himself an outsider in his own marriage, as Mona’s relationship with Anastasia (Jean Kronski) grows, with the pair finally abandoning Miller to travel to Paris. After Mona’s return on her own, the trilogy ends with Miller and his wife departing for Paris.
A fourth volume [edit]
According to biographer Robert Ferguson, Miller had in mind to write a fourth volume. It would have covered his time in France with Mona, their return to New York, and his return to Paris on his own, concluding with him writing the opening lines of Tropic of Cancer at 18 Villa Seurat. He made several attempts to write the book before ultimately abandoning the undertaking.[6]
Publication [edit]
The three books in the trilogy were initially banned in the United States, published only in France and Japan.[7] Sexus, Plexus and Nexus were ultimately published by Grove Press in 1965.[8] Their publication followed the U.S. Supreme Court's 1964 decision that the also-banned Tropic of Cancer was a work of literature and therefore should not be banned.
Criticism [edit]
Miller’s close friend Lawrence Durrell was severely disappointed in Sexus. In a letter dated September 5, 1949, he wrote that Miller was lost “in this shower of lavatory filth which no longer seems tonic and bracing, but just excrementitious and sad.”[9]
“I am trying to reproduce in words a block of my life which to me has the utmost significance – every bit of it," Miller responded. "Since 1927 I have carried inside me the material of this book. Do you suppose it’s possible that I could have a miscarriage after such a period of gestation? … But Larry, I can never go back on what I’ve written. If it was not good, it was true; if it was not artistic, it was sincere; if it was in bad taste, it was on the side of life.”[9]
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Henry Miller, Sexus, New York: Grove Press, 1965, pp. 154, 165-66.
- ^ "France Lifts Its Long Ban On Henry Miller's 'Sexus,'" New York Times, November 20, 1968. By subscription only.
- ^ George Wickes, "Interviews: Henry Miller, The Art of Fiction No. 28," The Paris Review, Summer-Fall 1962, No. 28.
- ^ Robert Ferguson, Henry Miller: A Life, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991, p. 295.
- ^ Ferguson, Henry Miller: A Life, p. 306.
- ^ Ferguson, Henry Miller: A Life, p. 330.
- ^ Frank Getlein, "Henry Miller's Crowded Simple Life," Milwaukee Journal, June 9, 1957.
- ^ Henry Miller, Preface to Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, New York: New Directions, 1957, p. ix.
- ^ a b George Brassaï, Henry Miller: The Paris Years, New York: Arcade Publishing, 1975 (translation copyright 1995), pp. 203-4.
