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)
After the huge success of her autobiography Out of Africa, Dinesen returned to a European setting in these exquisite, rapturous tales of rebirth and redemption. Beginning with a sailor-boy’s bold progression to manhood, the stories are full of longing, a theme often mirrored in the desire to escape to sea as in ‘The Young Man with the Carnation’ and ‘Peter and Rosa’. This collection also includes ‘Sorrow-Acre’, a modern rendition of a folk-tale in which old ideals clash with the new order, and is considered by many to be one of her finest stories. Full of psychological insights, these luminous tales reveal the mystery and unexpectedness of human behaviour.
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