“ Learn to light a candle in the darkest moments of someone’s life. Be the light that helps others see; it is what gives life its deepest significance. ” ― Roy T. Bennett
In Isak Dinesen's universe, the magical enchantment of the fairy tale and the moral resonance of myth coexist with an unflinching grasp of the most obscure human strengths and weaknesses. A despairing author abandons his wife, but in the course of a long
Last Tales is a collection of twelve of the last tales that Isak Dinesen wrote before her death in 1962. They include seven tales from Albondocani, a projected novel that was never completed; "The Caryatids," an unfinished Gothic tale of a couple bedevile
Out of Africa tells the story of a farm that the narrator once had in Africa. The farm is located at the foot of the Ngong hills outside of Nairobi, in what is now Kenya. It sits at an altitude of six thousand feet. The farm grows coffee, although only pa
One of the last works completed by Isak Dinesen before her recent death, Ehrengard belongs to her Gothic Tales, in her own words "fairy tales with dark shadows". It is concerned – on one level – with the dynastic complications of a small but turbulent
In the classic "Babette's Feast," a mysterious Frenchwoman prepares a sumptuous feast for a gathering of religious ascetics and, in doing so, introduces them to the true essence of grace. In "The Immortal Story," a miserly old tea-trader living in Canton
Isak Dinesen takes up the absorbing story of her life in Kenya begun in the unforgettable Out of Africa, which she published under the name of Karen Blixen. With warmth and humanity these four stories illuminate her love both for the African people, their
Martine and Philippa are the daughters of a forceful priest of a Lutheran sect. Reared to deny all earthly pleasures, they live out their lives performing good work on behalf of the inhabitants of the tiny Scandinavian fishing village in which they reside
Originally published in 1934, Seven Gothic Tales, the first book by "one of the finest and most singular artists of our time" (The Atlantic), is a modern classic. Here are seven exquisite tales combining the keen psychological insight characteristic of th
On a lovely evening in April, Lucca Montale is rushed to the hospital after the car she was driving collided head-on with a truck. Robert, her doctor, has to break the news that she may never see again. Lucca is an actress with a string of love affairs be
