Most Popular Books by Isak Dinesen

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time In this book, the author of Seven Gothic Tales gives a true account of her life on her plantation in Kenya. She tells with classic simplicity of the ways of the country and the natives: of the beauty of the Ngong Hills and coffee trees in blossom: of her guests, from the Prince of Wales to Knudsen, the old charcoal burner, who visited her: of primitive festivals: of big game that were her near neighbors--lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras, buffaloes--and of Lulu, the little gazelle who came to live with her, unbelievably ladylike and beautiful. The Random House colophon made its debut in February 1927 on the cover of a little pamphlet called "Announcement Number One." Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, the company''s founders, had acquired the Modern Library from publishers Boni and Liveright two years earlier. One day, their friend the illustrator Rockwell Kent stopped by their office. Cerf later recalled, "Rockwell was sitting at my desk facing Donald, and we were talking about doing a few books on the side, when suddenly I got an inspiration and said, ''I''ve got the name for our publishing house. We just said we were go-ing to publish a few books on the side at random. Let''s call it Random House.'' Donald liked the idea, and Rockwell Kent said, ''That''s a great name. I''ll draw your trademark.'' So, sitting at my desk, he took a piece of paper and in five minutes drew Random House, which has been our colophon ever since." Throughout the years, the mission of Random House has remained consistent: to publish books of the highest quality, at random. We are proud to continue this tradition today. This edition is set from the first American edition of 1937 and commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of Random House.

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 night''s wandering, he learns love''s true value and returns to her, only to find her a different woman than the one he left. A landowner, seeking to prove a principle, inadvertently exposes the ferocity of mother love. A wealthy young traveler melts the hauteur of a lovely woman by masquerading as her aged and loyal servant. Shimmering and haunting, Dinesen''s Winter''s Tales transport us, through their author''s deft guidance of our desire to imagine, to the mysterious place where all stories are born.

"Isak Dinesen . . . had an original approach to life that permeated all her work. She loved storytelling, with the result that most of her essays are quasi-narratives, which proceed not from major to minor premise but from one anecdote to another as the way of making concrete whatever idea she is considering. Her work is a delight and at times a marvel."—The New Yorker "Through these daguerreotypes we begin to understand other periods, the renunciations of World War I, the purpose of houses and mansions, of ritual ceremonials, such as tatooing. We are given a fresh and vivid view of the women''s movement . . . which urges that what our ''small society'' needs beyond human beings who have demonstrated what they can do, is people who are. ''Indeed, our own time,'' she wrote in 1953, ''can be said to need a revision from doing to being.'' She demonstrated it in her own work and craft, with courage and with dignity. This collection is as real as a gallery of old daguerreotypes, moving and unfaded. The work, as Hannah Arendt says, of a wise woman."—Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times "These essays . . . have the flavor of good conversation: humorous, easy, personal but not oppressive, the distillation of reading, thought, and experience. Their subjects are of surprisingly current interest. We need make no concessions to the past, need not set our watches back to ''historical.'' Isak Dinesen was not a faddish thinker. . . . ''In history it is always the human element that has a chance for eternal life,'' Dinesen remarks, and she gives these essays their chance."—Penelope Mesic, Chicago

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 the modern short story with the haunting mystery of the nineteenth-century Gothic tale, in the tradition of writers such as Goethe, Hoffmann, and Poe.

�And it happened when Martine or Philippa spoke to Babette that they would get no answers, and would wonder if she had even heard what they said � Orshe would sit immovable on the three-legged kitchen chair, her strong hands in her lap and her dark eyes wide open, as enigmatical and fatal as a Pythia upon her tripod. At such moments, they realised that Babette was deep, and that in the soundings of her being there were passions, there were memories and longings of which they knew nothing at all.� Babette�s Feast is a sublime celebration of eating, drinking and sensual pleasure. In Isak Dinesen�s life-affirming short story, two elderly sisters living in a remote, god-fearing Norwegian community take in a mysterious refugee from Paris one night � and are rewarded for their kindness with the most decadent, luxurious feast of a lifetime.

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 bedeviled by an old letter and a gypsy''s spell; and three tales of winter, including "Converse at Night in Copenhagen," a drunken, all-night conversation between a boy-king, a prostitute, and a poor young poet.

Old Times in Oildom, published in 1911 by the Derrick Publishing Company of Oil City, Pennsylvania, contains the memoirs and stories of George W. Brown, who was deeply involved in the oil business in Pennsylvania in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Brown was a witness to times of profound change in the industrial and economic landscapes of Pennsylvania s oil regions, when technology rapidly developed and oil wells sprang up across the northern part of the state, irrevocably altering both the land itself and the communities living on it. He provides a detailed account of what life was like in the oildom of nineteenth-century Pennsylvania, from the striking of the first oil well, the famous Drake Well in Titusville, to the solidification of the industry in the early twentieth century. In addition to stories from his own life, Brown tells those of his prominent contemporaries, and includes a series of biographical sketches of men who played important roles in the Pennsylvania oil industry."

Baden-Baden, 1875: an aristocratic spa town haven where Europe''s elite might ''take the waters'' and continue to perpetuate centuries of upper class tradition. Axel Leth, a young Danish nobleman, quietly performs his established role amidst ageing widows and retired generals. Enter Mizzie, a red-haired beauty, shy and demure in the custody of her governess, Miss Rabe. Axel quickly falls in love. But overhearing their tête-à-tête, he soon learns that their performance runs much deeper than the superficial customs of an upper-class watering-hole. In this tale of servants, owners and the sham of the aristocratic world, Isak Dinesen unravels the deep-rooted desire of rulers to rule and the crushing burden of pretence, upbringing and social acceptance.

Carnival is an animated collection of works from every stage of Isak Dinesen''s career. Many were written during her most creative years but set aside; others she wrote "just for entertainment." The collection includes "Second Meeting," her last work, and the title story, the first written under her now-famous pen name. None of these stories has previously appeared in book form in English. Three of them were translated especially for this collection by P. M. Mitchell and W. D. Paden. "The editors have included only material that will stand easily with her more familiar work and satisfy her large following. . . . The rough drafts and variant treatments have been set aside for scholars."—Joseph McLellan, Washington Post "The wit, the imagination, the elevated philosophical dialogue mark most of the stories in this volume as vintage Dinesen . . . of special interest to Dinesen fans."—Robert Langbaum, New York Times Book Review

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 wishes for power and finds redemption as he turns an oft-told sailors'' tale into reality for a young man and woman. And in the magnificent novella Ehrengard, Dinesen tells of the powerful yet restrained rapport between a noble Wagnerian beauty and a rakish artist. Hauntingly evoked and sensuously realized, the five stories read and novella collected here have the hold of "fairy stories read in childhood . . . of dreams . . . and of our life as dreams" (The New York Times).

Isak Dinesen pertenece a una antiquísima tradición narrativa en la que un relato contiene a otro como si se tratase de cajas chinas, y su escritura ejerce sobre el lector pura fascinación y sorpresa. En el universo de la autora, el encanto mágico de los cuentos de hadas y la resonancia moral de los mitos coexisten con el conmovedor retrato de las fortalezas y debilidades humanas. Un escritor desesperado abandona a su mujer, pero en el transcurso de una noche vagando, comprende el verdadero valor del amor y vuelve a ella, solo para encontrar una mujer diferente a la que dejó. Un terrateniente, tratando de demostrar un principio, expone inadvertidamente la ferocidad del amor materno. Un joven y rico viajante derrite la altanería de una encantadora mujer disfrazándose de su viejo y leal sirviente...

Primer volumen de los dos que componen los Cuentos completos de Isak Dinesen. El cuento fue uno de los géneros literarios en que más se prodigó y despuntó Karen Blixen, siempre bajo el seudónimo por el que fue conocida y saludada como voz imprescindible de la literatura del siglo XX: Isak Dinesen. Este volumen recoge su narrativa breve temprana, desde su primer libro, publicado en 1934, Siete cuentos góticos, hasta el compendio Anécdotas del destino (1958), pasando por sus célebres Cuentos de invierno (1942). Se incluyen así algunos de sus relatos más afamados, como «El mono», «La historia inmortal» o «El festín de Babette», en lo que constituye una puerta de entrada excepcional al universo literario de su autora. Mario Vargas Llosa dijo sobre Isak Dinesen... «Para ella contar era encantar. Sus cuentos son siempre engañosos, impregnados de elementos secretos e inapresables.»

Cuando una tiene «nazis en el jardín y judíos en la cocina», lo mejor es ponerse a escribir una novela. Eso hizo Isak Dinesen, autora de Memorias de África, en 1944, con su país ocupado por los alemanes, y de ello resultó Vengadoras angelicales. En su momento, Vengadoras angelicales se leyó como una alegoría política. Hoy sabemos que su contenido era mucho más ancho y más profundo. Una reflexión sobre la fuerza de la maldad, la potencia del amor, el significado y la necesidad del coraje. Y también una lúcida visión del papel contradictorio de la mujer en el mundo: adorada y ultrajada, apenas libre, objeto de comercio infame, manipulada hasta todos los abusos. Lectura amena y reveladora, Vengadoras angelicales es el más ambicioso trabajo narrativo de IsakDinesen. Ernest Hemingway dijo... «Hubiera sido feliz -más feliz- hoy si el Premio Nobel hubiese sido concedido a la maravillosa escritora Isak Dinesen.»

Segundo volumen de los dos que componen los Cuentos completos de Isak Dinesen. El presente libro recoge las últimas obras de narrativa breve publicadas, en vida o póstumamente, por Isak Dinesen, sobrenombre literario de la baronesa Karen Blixen, y cierra la colección de todos sus cuentos. De este modo, en este segundo volumen compilatorio se presentan los Cuentos de «Albondocani», los dos Nuevos cuentos góticos, así como los tres Nuevos cuentos de invierno, y las obras póstumas Carnival y Ehrengard, el más extenso de todos los relatos que llegó a concebir. Estos Cuentos completos 2 son el reflejo del desarrollo literario de Dinesen hasta su madurez y plenitud como escritora, y la culminación de la trayectoria de una voz esencial de la narrativa universal de los últimos años. Javier Marías dijo sobre la obra de Isak Dinesen... «Los cuentos de Isak Dinesen constituyen uno de los conjuntos más originales de la literatura del siglo XX.»

Blixen takes up the absorbing story of her life in Kenya begun in the unforgettable Out of Africa, which she published under the name of Isak Dinesen. With warmth and humanity these four stories illuminate her love both for the African people, their dignity and traditions, and for the beauty and wildness of the landscape. The first three were written in the 1950s and the last, ''Echoes from the Hills'', was written especially for this volume in the summer of 1960 when the author was in her seventies. In all they provide a moving final chapter to her African reminiscences.Blixen takes up the absorbing story of her life in Kenya begun in the unforgettable Out of Africa, which she published under the name of Isak Dinesen. With warmth and humanity these four stories illuminate her love both for the African people, their dignity and traditions, and for the beauty and wildness of the landscape. The first three were written in the 1950s and the last, ''Echoes from the Hills'', was written especially for this volume in the summer of 1960 when the author was in her seventies. In all they provide a moving final chapter to her African reminiscences.

Set in Africa, it is the story of Dinesen''s years in Africa--together with Shadows on the Grass. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

The 12 tales in this volume represent the last things that Dinesen wrote prior to her death in 1962.

Sombras en la hierba prolonga y completa los recuerdos que Isak Dinesen recogió de su increíble vida en Kenia, cuya parte principal quedó plasmada en uno de los libros de memorias más bellos jamás escritos: Memorias de África. Son muchos los personajes y muchas las anécdotas que recorren como corrientes subterráneas las páginas de Sombras en la hierba: el comercio en Nairobi, la caza de leones homicidas, el mundo de los sueños, las danzas rituales en la granja y una multitud de pequeños acontecimientos extraordinarios vividos entre gentes más extraordinarias aún. Pero, a pesar de todo, no se puede hablar de autobiografía: de una u otra forma, la autora permanece al margen de la narración y cede el papel protagonista a quien nunca ha dejado de tenerlo: la vida, siempre diversa, indomable, cruel y tierna.

Este libro es una recopilación de las cartas que Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) escribió desde África, y cubre el periodo 1914-1934 (con una lapso de dos años y medio, correspondiente al tiempo que la autora pasó en Dinamarca con su familia). En realidad, su estancia en África duró sólo catorce años, si se excluyen las ausencias, pero son pocos los lectores de Memorias de África que han llegado a percatarse del detalle: la autora oscurece deliberadamente la cronología de los acontecimientos a que se refiere su libro más famoso, consiguiendo así una homogeneidad épica y progresiva que hace de Memorias de África una obra insólita. Entre las preguntas a que responden las cartas aquí incluidas está precisamente esta cuestión de la cronología a que se atienen las experiencias y los incidentes cotidianos recogidos en Memorias de África. Innumerables rasgos, observaciones y reflexiones de las cartas nos remiten al libro de memorias: no hace falta adentrarse mucho en esta colección para comprender que Karen Blixen escribió Memorias de África basándose en las cartas que escribió a sus familiares más próximos. Cartas de África es, pues, un relato de pasiones, detalles, amor y sacrificio, expuesto antes de la manipulación a que todo artista en su derecho somete el material de la existencia. Cosas y hechos en caliente, recién vividos, volcados en el texto, ignorantes de su futura condición de obra literaria. Un tesoro de sensaciones, para cualquier lector.