About the Author:
Isak Dinesen (1885-1962) is the pseudonym of Danish Countess Karen Blixen. Writer and story teller, she was born in Rungsted, Denmark and studied in Denmark, England, Switzerland, Italy, and France. In 1914 she married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen Finecke, and went with him to Kenya. They were divorced in 1921, and in 1931 she returned to Denmark. She wrote Seven Gothic Tales (1934), which she later translated into Danish. Her other works include Out of Africa (1937) and Last Tales
Review:
"Part of the special joy of Isak Dinesen, the pseudonym of Karen Blixen, the Danish writer who wrote primarily in English, is that no matter what her subject, she wrote as though it were fantasy. This includes "Sorrow Acre," a lyrical story of heartbreaking beauty about an old woman who gives her life for her son." -- Sun-Sentinel, Dec. 25, 1988
"Some years back, when "Babette's Feast" met with great acclaim as a movie, not all viewers realized it was based on a story by Danish writer Isak Dinesen. For those who loved the film, the audio production proves all the more appealing because it is read by the late actress Colleen Dewhurst. Her warmly personal interpretation makes a listening feast of this story about a young woman named Babette who flees politically ravaged Paris. Arriving at the doorstep of two maiden sisters in a small coastal village in Norway, Babette is taken into this poor but charitable home and given work as a domestic and cook. The story of Babette's plan, 14 years later, to prepare a feast for the two sisters and the members of their strict religious sect is enhanced by the subtle amusement in Dewhurst's rich, velvety voice. In the same package is "Sorrow Acre" from Dinesen's Winter's Tales, the most anthologized of her stories. This touching parable about honor and choices in life is also read by Dewhurst in an engaging voice that seems always to float between a lisp and a whisky whisper." -- Sharon Cadwallader, San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle, January 25, 1998
Short story by Isak Dinesen, published serially in the Ladies' Home Journal (1950), and later collected in the volume Anecdotes of Destiny (1958). It was also published in Danish in 1958. The tale concerns a French refugee whose artistic sensuality contrasts with the puritanical ethos of her new home in Norway. Fleeing the Commune of Paris in 1871, Babette arrives in a small Norwegian town, where she is taken in as a servant in the home of Martine and Philippa, two elderly daughters of the town's late minister who maintain the austere lifestyle of their father's sect. When Babette wins the French lottery, she spends the fortune to lovingly prepare a magnificent French feast for the sisters and their friends. -- The Merriam-Webster Encylopedia of Literature
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