Crazy lust
Verrückte Lust ( Crazy Cock ) is the third, albeit posthumously published novel by the American writer Henry Miller . It was published in German translation in 1993 by Goldmann Verlag in Munich.
action
Tony Bring, an aspiring writer, lived in New York in the 1920s with his wife, Hildred . While Tony is writing his novel at home, Hildred waits in the artist and trendy bar “Caravan” and tries to earn money there with her male acquaintances. Hildred meets Vanya at work and they have a love affair. This unbearable situation for Tony seems to dissolve when Vanya disappears. A short time later, however, a letter arrives from her in which she asks Hildred to get her out of custody in a psychiatric institution. Hildred only succeeds in doing this by taking over Vanya's guardianship. Against Tony's resistance, Hildred lets her lover move into the marital apartment. A triangular relationship develops that is stressful for all involved. Among other things, Tony burns the manuscript of his novel in a fit of anger. In addition, he repeatedly tries to win his wife back for himself. Drug use, arguments, suicide attempts and psychological near-breakdowns determine the lives of the three, and Tony Bring is accordingly pessimistic about their future at the end of the novel.
Biographical parallels
"Verrückte Lust" is a little alienated representation of a section of Miller's own biography. Tony Bring corresponds to the author himself, Hildred to his wife June Miller and Vanya to their lover Jean Kronski. In Miller's life, the menage á trois ends with Jean and June's secret departure for Paris in April 1927 and June's subsequent return.
Creation and publication
The notes for Crazy Lust were made while June Miller and Jean Kronski were in Paris. June returned to Henry Miller alone after two months, and he did not begin writing the novel until 1928. He wrote three different versions, changed the original title Lovely Lesbians to Crazy Cock , revised the manuscript several times and opted for a different ending. When Miller left for Paris in 1930 at June's request, he gave her the manuscript in the hope that she could find a publisher for it. After the publication of the Tropic of Cancer , Miller paid no more attention to his earlier work. It was not until 1960 that a scientist became interested again in the manuscript. She managed to convince June to publish the book, and so it was eventually returned to Miller. However, he did not publish it, but sent it to the Department of Special Collections at the University of California, where it remained until it was published by Grove-Weidenfeld-Verlag in 1991. In Germany, Goldmann Verlag published the book in 1993, translated by Dirk van Gunsteren, under the title Crazy Lust .
Reviews
Some press articles certified clear stylistic deficiencies in the novel and justified this with the fact that Miller was still in the process of finding his way of expression at the time of writing: "[...] originated when he was still painfully practicing the art of writing." And "[...] there is an abundance of stylistic uncertainties, inadequate comparisons and swollen expressions through to extravagant surreal language images [...] ”.
literature
Text output
- Henry Miller: Crazy Lust . Goldmann-Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-42818-1 (American English: Crazy Cock . Translated by Dirk van Gunsteren).
- Henry Miller: Crazy cock . 1st edition. Grove-Weidenfeld-Verlag, New York 1991, ISBN 0-8021-1412-1 .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Mary V. Dearborn: Afterword . In: Crazy Lust . Goldmann-Verlag, 1993, p. 252-256 .
- ↑ Lament of lesbian lust . In: Der Spiegel . No. 8 , 1993 ( online ).
- ↑ Tilman Urbach : Violence, Fear and Need of a Ménage á trois . In: Focus . May 3, 1993.