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ISAK DINESEN was the pen-name of Karen Blixen, who was born in Rungsted, Denmark in 1885. After studying art at Copenhagen, Paris and Rome, she married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, in 1914. Together they went to Kenya to manage a coffee plantation. After their divorce in 1921, she continued to run the plantation until a collapse in the coffee market forced her back to Denmark in 1931. Although she had written occasional contributions to Danish periodicals since 1905 (under the nom de plume of Osceola), her real debut took place in 1934 with the publication of Seven Gothic Tales, written in English under her pen-name. Out of Africa (1937) is an autobiographical account of the years she spent in Kenya. Most of her subsequent books were published in English and Danish simultaneously, including Winter's Tales (1942) and The Angelic Avengers (1946), under the name of Pierre Andrezol. Among her other collections of stories are Last Tales (1957), Anecdotes of Destiny (1958), Shadows on the Grass (1960) and Ehrengard (1963). All of these books are published by Penguin. Baroness Blixen died in Rungsted in 1962.
Anyone who was caught unaware by the magic of Seven Gothic Tales will welcome this new volume of short stories from the pen of this gifted Danish writer. Fourteen tales in all, for the most part quite different from her first group - or is it perhaps that there is no longer quite the zest of discovery? These are more realistic; the symbolism, where it occurs, is clearer cut; the period - a world that is no more - Europe of the 19th century for the most part. There is a recurrent theme of the relation of foster or adopted child to parents; there are psychological stories of love, of marriage; there is a definite class consciousness, an awareness of the survival of a feudal system; and now and again, there is a fairy tale pattern of kings and princesses, of magic and unearthly powers. Isak Dinesen is one of today's greatest spinners of tales. She keys her style to her period, which at times gives one a feeling of almost too deliberate a patterning, too lush a metier. But on the whole, it is a delight to sense the delicacy and beauty of perfect craftsmanship. Definitely for an intellectual market, caviare to the general . (Kirkus Reviews)
