Ladders to Fire

Ladders to Fire, Anaïs Nin's first full-length novel, was revolutionary in that it addressed woman's role in a male-dominated world in the mid-1940s. Through her iconic characters Lillian, Djuna, and Sabina, and their relationship with Jay, Nin was able to examine "the destruction in woman…woman's struggle to understand her own nature."

Lillian, trapped in a conventional marriage, was "traversing a street… She was not attacked, raped, or mutilated. She was not kidnapped for white slavery. Bu...