Protagonist

The book I chose is an authobiography, not a play, so there is no protagonist nor antagonist. The main character, Henry Miller describes his life in Paris, France. He is an artist, who except for taking advantage of the rich and chasing women does not really do anything. The book does not really have a plot, it is just Henry meeting people. Most of the characters were not even interesting or were not introduced at all, so I found myself confused about who was who. Actually, from the book it seems that almost every character is an antagonist. Henry hates or just disagrees with most of the people mentioned in the book. He hates Boris, because he never takes him out between the people from the high society. He does not like Carl and Van Norden for being too pessimistic. Sylvester for his pride and for being in a relationship with Tania, Ginette for lying, Claude for being a delicate whore, Borowski for being a pain in the ass. And others just for being Jewish. Henry is sarcastic most of the time, so the characteristics he gives might be exagerrated. Even though he thinks Boris is an idiot, it is still his friend and they work on a book together. He hates Sylvester for being with Tania, but he visits them every Friday for supper. He hangs out with Borowski too. While reading the book I wished I could meet the people, some of them seemed to be really fun around.

Protagonist - The main character in a novel, or other fictional text

Antagonist - The rival of the novel's main character

This is an interesting video - Henry talks about taking advantage of people - this is exactly the dinner he enjoys, good food, wine, cheese... Enjoy watching

HM Bio

Henry Miller was born to his German parents on December 26, 1891 in New York. He spent his childhood in Brooklyn. He could barely speak English when he started going to school. Henry left the City College of New York just after two months, and started working. Henry married 5 times. In 1917, he married his first wife, Beatrice Sylvas Wickens. He had an affair with her mother. Two of his wives, June and Hiroko, were dancers. Hiroko, whom he divorced after she refused to have sex with him, opened a nightclub in Tokyo. Henry tried a variety of jobs, and when working as a messenger for the Western Union Telegraph Company, he started writing his first book ever, Clipped Wings. During this time, he met the grinding poverty of America, who strongly affected him and was the base fot Tropic of Capricorn. In 1924, he married June and focused on writing. She got money from a random guy and she used it to pay them a trip to Europe. They visited Paris, where he in 1930 returned alone. He had no money, no job, and slept where he could. He had a relationship with a French author Anais Nin, whose diaries made them both famous. This is the time when he worked on Tropic of Cancer, where he described his life in Paris. June came to paris and started an affair with Anais Nin, which was one of the reasons why Miller divorced her in 1934. -Don't tell me that made you jealous, Henry, after you cheated on her almost every day.- After their divorce, Tropic of Cancer was published. It gained popularity pretty soon, but the British and American censors decided to ban it, due to long descriptions of sex. After the book was finally published in the 1960's, Henry moved to California, where he died on June 7, 1980.

Henry Miller with his parents and his sister Lauretta.

Miller was also a very successful painter - Henry Miller Museum of Art was opened in Japan.
-> check this out: http://www.henrymiller.info/gallery/

Major Theme(s)

The book is all about sex and writing. The book is actually about the process of writing of the book. Henry and his friends sleep with prostitutes, they go from one brothel to another. Miller loves sex and  writing about sex. He describes the acts in depth. Sometimes he talks about things that happened before and after it. Miller is uneployed, and his wife lives in the United States. He has no money, so he just walks around and writes. About sex. Sometimes he seems to be in love, but it is never for a long time. Another theme of the book is friendship. Henry has friends, people who he wastes time with, authors and journalists, who help and support Henry.

'Henry was so enthralled by women that he sought to demystify their mysterious parts through the violent magic of his books' - Erica Jong

Memories

Miller loves writing. So he keeps writing down his memories. There is no plot, just memories put together. Henry hangs around Paris, meets his friends and sleeps with prostitutes. That is pretty much it.

Mona is about to come back to Paris. Henry feels in love with her and  he can't wait for her to come. When she finally arrives, he sleeps with her in a cheap hotel. Other memories follow. Henry sleeps with Elsa, a German girl who works as a maid in Villa Borghese. She makes breakfast, so Henry isn't angry anymore when Boris eats out. Henry and Boris are planning to write a book. They think that the book is going to have a huge impact on the world. The name of the book is The Last Book, and it is going to be anonymous. In the evening of the same day, he goes to Sylvester and Tania's place for dinner. Henry is upstairs and writes, and he hears them talking downstairs. He is angry at Tania but wants her to speak at the same time, so he can write. New paragraph starts with a new memory. An american woman comes to look at the apartment. Henry likes her. He wants Boris to introduce him to her, but he doesn't. Henry wants to write, but there is nothing he can write about. He keeps thinking of the woman, and what would happen if she bought the apartment. "A little talent and a fat purse."

Paris, the City of Love

The book is set in the 1930s, a few years before the World War II. Before the war, Paris was a city, where all the worldwide known intellectuals, artists and authors used to live. People that we know today, like Samuel Beckett, Ernest Hemingway or James Joyce. There were many English publishers, so the British and American authors could write in English. This is important to know for understanding the book. As I mentioned earlier, the book is the autobiography of Henry Miller. His affair  with Anais Nin made them both famous after she published her diaries in the 1960s. Things got complicated when his wife June came to Paris, and the two women fell in love. This all had an impact on Miller's writing - the book's character Mona and Miller's wife June are alike.

It is now 2012, almost a hundred years later after Tropic of Cancer was published. The city of Paris itself has changed a lot during the decades. However, it is still considered to be one of the most beautiful cities of Europe, visited by thousands of tourists each year. There are still famous authors living in Paris, such as Milan Kundera, one of the best Czech authors in the 20th century. All the people spending lives there have their own experiences, that might be similar or absolutely different to Miller's experiences. Miller had a passion for writing, so he put all of them down.


When June decided to divorce Henry, she told him: "Now you have the last chapter for your book". So he had.

Rated X

Tropic of Cancer, directed by Joseph Strick is a movie that follows Henry Miller's novel. The movie was awarded an X rating in the USA and banned outright in the UK. Even though it had a very positive feedback, US newspapers refused to carry advertisements for the movie. 

Rip Torn as Henry, speaks with a slurred voice. It is due to the opiates he was taking during the filming to numb the pain of an accident.

The First Few Pages

The book opens with Miller describing his life in Villa Borghese in Paris, France. It is his second year in Paris. He is broke, without a job and with no hopes. He consideres himself an artist. Henry claims the book is not a book, but a song. "To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing. It is to you, Tania, that I am singing." (page 10). What I have learnt about Tania so far is, that she is Henry's friend's wife. She is Henry's lover. His loveliest Jew of all. He compares her to other ladies that he met before. Their relationship is mainly physical, but Henry seems to be in love. Tania's husband, Sylvester, is a famous author. Henry does not think he is a good one though, just like the other authors that he mentions. "Moldorf is word drunk. He is a portable trunk." (page 12). He lives with one of them, Boris. Henry enjoys eating, but Boris never takes him to eat out with him. 

A la Durrel, Henry Miller

So far, the book is just opinnions and memories. I am sorry, a song. What I like about the song is the style. There is philosophy combined with sarcasm, and irony. He loves prostitutes. I was shocked by the way he describes Tania's sexual organs and their sexual relationship.

'A momentous event in the history of modern writing' Samuel Beckett