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Угощението на Бабет и други анекдоти на съдбата
За пръв път на български език се появява прочутия разказ на датската писателка Карен Бликсен, “Угощението на Бабет”, по който е създадена великолепната едноименна кинотворба, спечелила “Оскар” за чуждестранен филм през 1988.
Литературният първообраз на филма е част от книгата “Угощението на Бабет и други анекдоти на съдбата” - четири необикновени истории, четири класически литературни перли.
В разказите от тази книга авторката смесва свръхестествени елементи, религиозен аскетизъм, еротични нюанси и култ към изкуството с една аристократична представа за живота. Бликсен винаги е подчертавала, че е разказвачка на истории в най-традиционния смисъл. Вдъхновение черпи от Библията, 1001 нощи, творбите на Омир, исландските саги, Бокачо и приказките на знаменития й сънародник Андерсен.
„Угощението на Бабет и други анекдоти на съдбата“ включва: „Ловецът на бисери“, „Угощението на Бабет“, „Неумиращата история“ и „Пръстенът“. Това е последната колекция с разкази на Карен Бликсен, публикувана през живота й. Излиза в Дания през октомври 1958, а същата година се публикува във Великобритания и САЩ. „Анекдоти на съдбата“ наподобяват притчи и се занимават с връзката между живота, духовния свят и изкуството - едни класически литературни бисери, увличащи и вдъхновяващи.
Литературният първообраз на филма е част от книгата “Угощението на Бабет и други анекдоти на съдбата” - четири необикновени истории, четири класически литературни перли.
В разказите от тази книга авторката смесва свръхестествени елементи, религиозен аскетизъм, еротични нюанси и култ към изкуството с една аристократична представа за живота. Бликсен винаги е подчертавала, че е разказвачка на истории в най-традиционния смисъл. Вдъхновение черпи от Библията, 1001 нощи, творбите на Омир, исландските саги, Бокачо и приказките на знаменития й сънародник Андерсен.
„Угощението на Бабет и други анекдоти на съдбата“ включва: „Ловецът на бисери“, „Угощението на Бабет“, „Неумиращата история“ и „Пръстенът“. Това е последната колекция с разкази на Карен Бликсен, публикувана през живота й. Излиза в Дания през октомври 1958, а същата година се публикува във Великобритания и САЩ. „Анекдоти на съдбата“ наподобяват притчи и се занимават с връзката между живота, духовния свят и изкуството - едни класически литературни бисери, увличащи и вдъхновяващи.
184 pages, Paperback
First published May 31, 1958
About the author
Isak Dinesen
153 books489 followersPseudonym used by the Danish author Karen Blixen.
Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (Danish: [kʰɑːɑn ˈb̥leɡ̊sn̩]; 17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962), born Karen Christentze Dinesen, was a Danish author, also known by the pen name Isak Dinesen, who wrote works in Danish, French and English. She also at times used the pen names Tania Blixen, Osceola, and Pierre Andrézel.
Blixen is best known for Out of Africa, an account of her life while living in Kenya, and for one of her stories, Babette's Feast, both of which have been adapted into Academy Award-winning motion pictures. She is also noted for her Seven Gothic Tales, particularly in Denmark.
(wikipedia)
Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (Danish: [kʰɑːɑn ˈb̥leɡ̊sn̩]; 17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962), born Karen Christentze Dinesen, was a Danish author, also known by the pen name Isak Dinesen, who wrote works in Danish, French and English. She also at times used the pen names Tania Blixen, Osceola, and Pierre Andrézel.
Blixen is best known for Out of Africa, an account of her life while living in Kenya, and for one of her stories, Babette's Feast, both of which have been adapted into Academy Award-winning motion pictures. She is also noted for her Seven Gothic Tales, particularly in Denmark.
(wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 206 reviews
April 30, 2016
This is the first time I have read this collection, but I have read the single story Babette's Feast in the past, after seeing the movie of the same name. The story of the mysterious servant and what she does to repay her benefactors for their thoughtfulness toward her is beautifully told. Very few authors are able to create the moods that Dinesen manages with her words.
The 'Other Anecdotes of Destiny' in this volume include The Diver, with its main character who yearns to talk with angels so much that he builds himself a pair of wings.
There is also Tempests, dealing with a young actress and the way her life is affected by a shipwreck in Norway.
The Immortal Story talks of two men, a merchant in Canton China and his clerk, and how their lives become woven together.
And finally, The Ring, relating what happens to a young Danish couple one July.
I know I am not giving much detail, but I am still lost in Dinesen's world. I feel as if I have just eaten a lovely, flaky pastry; something full of layers, flavors and textures that need time to settle before I understand it all. I want to savor just now, not analyze. But I found passion, hope, despair, joy, love, philosophy, terror, poetry, images that change subtly into unexpected reflections of the world, stories within stories within stories.
I felt very much as if I were sitting by a fire listening to an expert storyteller. Aren't we lucky when we find books that make us feel that way?!
The 'Other Anecdotes of Destiny' in this volume include The Diver, with its main character who yearns to talk with angels so much that he builds himself a pair of wings.
There is also Tempests, dealing with a young actress and the way her life is affected by a shipwreck in Norway.
The Immortal Story talks of two men, a merchant in Canton China and his clerk, and how their lives become woven together.
And finally, The Ring, relating what happens to a young Danish couple one July.
I know I am not giving much detail, but I am still lost in Dinesen's world. I feel as if I have just eaten a lovely, flaky pastry; something full of layers, flavors and textures that need time to settle before I understand it all. I want to savor just now, not analyze. But I found passion, hope, despair, joy, love, philosophy, terror, poetry, images that change subtly into unexpected reflections of the world, stories within stories within stories.
I felt very much as if I were sitting by a fire listening to an expert storyteller. Aren't we lucky when we find books that make us feel that way?!
May 2, 2021
Esta edição é composta por cinco contos:
-A Festa de Babette;
-O Mergulhador;
-Tempestades;
-A História Imortal;
-O Anel.
Os meus contos preferidos foram Tempestades e A História Imortal. Este último já tinha lido numa edição autónoma mas foi bom relembrá-lo. A escrita quase hipnotizante de Karen Blixen está lá, com histórias que misturam um pouco do fantástico com o mundano, lendas com pessoas banais. Não senti que tivessem alguma lição ou algum sentido oculto, mas poderei não ter estado suficientemente atenta para descortinar se teriam ou não. Independentemente disso é sempre bom ler Karen Blixen, uma excelente contadora de histórias.
-A Festa de Babette;
-O Mergulhador;
-Tempestades;
-A História Imortal;
-O Anel.
Os meus contos preferidos foram Tempestades e A História Imortal. Este último já tinha lido numa edição autónoma mas foi bom relembrá-lo. A escrita quase hipnotizante de Karen Blixen está lá, com histórias que misturam um pouco do fantástico com o mundano, lendas com pessoas banais. Não senti que tivessem alguma lição ou algum sentido oculto, mas poderei não ter estado suficientemente atenta para descortinar se teriam ou não. Independentemente disso é sempre bom ler Karen Blixen, uma excelente contadora de histórias.
August 13, 2014
Only read the title story with this book club
It's a story that makes you laugh with delight, about puritanism and food and sensuality, with a sexy undercurrent of political rebellion and a sweet crisp crust of female friendship and mutual support (if made into a film it would be Bechdel-passing) even if male mediation and infatuation have a hand in bringing it about.
Mmm but what is the take out? What's in my goodie bag? Egalite and... Sorority? Am I to conclude that Babette's sensibilities season or threaten the bland yet stable culture of her protectors? And what's this about the nobility of willing servitude?
I enjoyed it but I feel I might have swallowed too much qu'ils mangent de la brioche
It's a story that makes you laugh with delight, about puritanism and food and sensuality, with a sexy undercurrent of political rebellion and a sweet crisp crust of female friendship and mutual support (if made into a film it would be Bechdel-passing) even if male mediation and infatuation have a hand in bringing it about.
Mmm but what is the take out? What's in my goodie bag? Egalite and... Sorority? Am I to conclude that Babette's sensibilities season or threaten the bland yet stable culture of her protectors? And what's this about the nobility of willing servitude?
I enjoyed it but I feel I might have swallowed too much qu'ils mangent de la brioche
February 17, 2019
" Na Noruega existe um fiorde - um braço de mar longo e estreito entre montanhas altas - chamado fiorde de Berlevaag. No sopé das montanhas, a pequena povoação de Berlevaag assemelha-se a uma aldeia de brincar construída com pequenas peças de madeira pintadas de cinzento, amarelo, rosa e muitas outras cores. ".
Karen Blixen escreve muito bem; o excerto acima corresponde ao inicio do conto A Festa de Babette.
Karen Blixen escreve muito bem; o excerto acima corresponde ao inicio do conto A Festa de Babette.
November 13, 2020
The stories in this book are broadly linked by the theme of seafaring: stowaways; tempests; and the stories of sailors. They were all decent reads but it is only the first, Babette’s Feast, that I review here.
Madame Babette Hersant, a celebrated chef, flees Paris in the 1870s to escape the persecution of the French civil war and arrives, destitute, on the shores of a remote village on the edge of a Norwegian Fjord. She is taken in by two poor spinster sisters who are members of a devout Lutheran sect. Babette becomes their cook and maid in exchange for modest bed and board and though they live on dried herring, potatoes and milk, Babette works wonders with these limited foodstuffs. When she comes into money twelve years later, Babette insists on treating the sisters and their pious friends to the finest meal she can produce to thank them for their kindness and so a procession of sumptuous ingredients, wines, champagnes, silverware and fine china starts to arrive from Paris.
This is a story about the power of contrasts. It is a story that asks what ingredients make a good life. Dinesen acknowledges the spiritual grace of simple living but challenges the belief that asceticism, of itself, confers righteousness. She reminds us that a true celebration of these physical lives rightly includes full-bodied sensual experiences. And where better to start than with food?
PS. An excellent film was made of this story in the late 1980s which is well worth a look.
Madame Babette Hersant, a celebrated chef, flees Paris in the 1870s to escape the persecution of the French civil war and arrives, destitute, on the shores of a remote village on the edge of a Norwegian Fjord. She is taken in by two poor spinster sisters who are members of a devout Lutheran sect. Babette becomes their cook and maid in exchange for modest bed and board and though they live on dried herring, potatoes and milk, Babette works wonders with these limited foodstuffs. When she comes into money twelve years later, Babette insists on treating the sisters and their pious friends to the finest meal she can produce to thank them for their kindness and so a procession of sumptuous ingredients, wines, champagnes, silverware and fine china starts to arrive from Paris.
This is a story about the power of contrasts. It is a story that asks what ingredients make a good life. Dinesen acknowledges the spiritual grace of simple living but challenges the belief that asceticism, of itself, confers righteousness. She reminds us that a true celebration of these physical lives rightly includes full-bodied sensual experiences. And where better to start than with food?
PS. An excellent film was made of this story in the late 1980s which is well worth a look.
December 8, 2016
My parents recently went to a party where the hosts recreated the great feast from the book Babette’s Feast, by Isak Dinesen. This famous meal features a dish, “Cailles en Sarcophage.”
Translation: Quail in Coffins.
It’s quail in a puff pastry shell with truffles and fois gras. I found a picture of it on Wikipedia and in my opinion, it’s about the most un-romantic thing I’ve ever seen on a plate. If I could get beyond it looking like poultry suicide, and were inclined to make it, I do currently have the package of puff pastry in my freezer. But I still don’t know how or where to get quail.
What I did have however, were two cornish hens in the fridge, and Anna Shapiro’s terrific book A Feast of Words: For Lovers of Food and Fiction. She has taken the quail dish from Babette’s Feast and altered it to a more appealing Quail with Potatoes and Grapes. It sounded delicious and just the kind of special thing I was wanting to make for Valentine's Day. I didn’t follow the exactly: first, Cornish hens need longer cooking time than quail. Second, I used about half the amount of butter.
More here: http://suannelaqueurwrites.com/litera...
Translation: Quail in Coffins.
It’s quail in a puff pastry shell with truffles and fois gras. I found a picture of it on Wikipedia and in my opinion, it’s about the most un-romantic thing I’ve ever seen on a plate. If I could get beyond it looking like poultry suicide, and were inclined to make it, I do currently have the package of puff pastry in my freezer. But I still don’t know how or where to get quail.
What I did have however, were two cornish hens in the fridge, and Anna Shapiro’s terrific book A Feast of Words: For Lovers of Food and Fiction. She has taken the quail dish from Babette’s Feast and altered it to a more appealing Quail with Potatoes and Grapes. It sounded delicious and just the kind of special thing I was wanting to make for Valentine's Day. I didn’t follow the exactly: first, Cornish hens need longer cooking time than quail. Second, I used about half the amount of butter.
More here: http://suannelaqueurwrites.com/litera...
June 13, 2009
All of the stories in this collection center around the idea of art and creative power. The most famous story in the collection is "Babette's Feast" and not only shows how art comes in more than one form, but also how the artist can be an unknown quality. The story "Tempests" has echos of Tennyson's "Lady of Shallot". The most touching story is "The Immortal Story" where reality and myth mix.
February 12, 2021
Nonostante il riduttivo voto in stelline non particolarmente alto, a mio avviso vale assolutamente la pena di leggere questa raccolta di racconti per uno in particolare di essi, La storia immortale.
Il pranzo di Babette ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Il pescatore di perle⭐️
Tempeste⭐️⭐️⭐️
La storia immortale⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ma anche di più
L’anello ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Il pranzo di Babette ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Il pescatore di perle⭐️
Tempeste⭐️⭐️⭐️
La storia immortale⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ma anche di più
L’anello ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
September 29, 2019
Dopo La mia Africa, avevo alte aspettative su questa raccolta di Karen Blixen. Purtroppo ho trovato una scrittura molto diversa, non corrispondente a quella che ricordavo. Una Blixen irriconoscibile! e tanto mi era piaciuta quella prima lettura, tanto mi ha deluso questa.
Complice, forse, il fatto di non essere adatta, per l'esposizione faticosa e oscillante tra fantasia e realtà, alla mia ascoltatrice ultranovantenne. Dopo il terzo racconto, su cinque, abbiamo abbandonato! Forse concluderò la lettura per conto mio, più avanti.
Complice, forse, il fatto di non essere adatta, per l'esposizione faticosa e oscillante tra fantasia e realtà, alla mia ascoltatrice ultranovantenne. Dopo il terzo racconto, su cinque, abbiamo abbandonato! Forse concluderò la lettura per conto mio, più avanti.
December 8, 2021
For ages I've been hearing amazing things about Babette's Feast and how it is a phenomenal piece of writing. It comes up repeatedly on lists of books you should definitely read as it is so inspired. Well, you know what they say about curiosity and the cat?!! This cat ordered said book from Penguin! And it was awful, just bloody awful!! Consider me literarily dead!
Every story with the exception of The Ring (which was just plain whimsical and mediocre) had a weird religious undertone to it, with frequent quotes from biblical texts of different denominations.
The characters were flat and lacking reality. The stories were just bumbling and bizarre.
The Tempests was maybe the best of a bad bunch but even then, the ending was just plain strange.
So you know what Babette, off you trot with your little feast to the library for donation, tara!
Every story with the exception of The Ring (which was just plain whimsical and mediocre) had a weird religious undertone to it, with frequent quotes from biblical texts of different denominations.
The characters were flat and lacking reality. The stories were just bumbling and bizarre.
The Tempests was maybe the best of a bad bunch but even then, the ending was just plain strange.
So you know what Babette, off you trot with your little feast to the library for donation, tara!
June 5, 2022
The more effort I spend devoting a significant portion of each year's reading to a certain stretch of reads by women, the further I find myself ranging over names that I once avoided for one reason or another and picking them up regardless. Mounting impatience with less than rewarding methods of procuring books certainly plays a role, but I've found in my increasing age that a better way of avoiding wasted resources when it comes to reading is to allot a minimum of one taste before forswearing the rest, rather than cutting it off wholesale and be plagued with what if wonderings ever on. So when I once again came across a work by Karen Blixen, popularly termed Isak Dinesen, noted that it was one of her shorter and far less popular offerings, and that the publication date fitted my challenge-reading concerns, I decided now was as good a time as any to see what all the fuss was about. Now that I'm through, I can tell that this is a certain breed of writing caught betwixt the luxurious sensory details of certain book series of my childhood and the grimmer greeds and lusts of adulthood, and had I been lured in by it five, ten years earlier, I too may have swooned at Blixen's authorial feet. These days, I've learned enough, read enough, and experienced enough to observe when I am being drawn in by inhuman calcifications and when I am truly resonating with literature as is my preference, and while the author has her moments of poignancy, she can't seem to hold it together without too much reliance on unnecessary exoticisms and other nonsensical systems of ethnic behaviorism. So, while there was a certain pleasure to be had in places, it wasn't enough for me to commit to more of it, knowing now how much picking and choosing I would have to do to bypass the minefields in order to enjoy orchards.
This is the third book I've read this year where I find among the reviews folks proclaiming how watching the film version first made it difficult for them to be critical of the book version later. It's not as if I haven't done the same, and within the past six months I might add, but I'd like to think there's a difference between being able to comprehend an extremely complicated plot revolving around unraveling a conspiracy due to having seen it visually represented beforehand and being nostalgic about certain refractions of light and sound and color to the point of not caring much what actually happens in the originating (although, with '2001: A Space Odyssey,' what was origin and what originated from is rather up to debate) text. In any case, beyond some flashes I had seen of the titular's story's film adaptation in a food documentary of all things, I went into this with certain assumptions about the writing styles and choices of a colonialist woman with certain royal pretensions who was born in Denmark and chose to compose in English. The most well known of the five included stories is certainly the best put together and the least reliant on the more odious tropes of literature, and if I had to name the writer's source of both strength and weakness, it's every story's almost total submission to the romance of a plot, place, or allusion, leaving little support to characters and even less as consequence to means of encouraging suspension of disbelief. Fantastic when successful, almost embarrassing when otherwise, but easy enough to complete in less than 250 pages, and giving me what experience I need to bypass the rest of her bibliography without much looking back. Perhaps I'll find my way to Seven Gothic Tales when I'm in the rare sort of spooky mood that can't be satisfied by video games, but I'm in no rush.
Another first encounter with a relatively well known classic author, another middling experience. Still, the thing about pushing for newer pastures is the certainty that something completely unforeseen and wondrously brilliant is bound to come from it eventually; in other words, nothing ventured, nothing gained. It's not as if reading Blixen was in any way a painful experience, but only that she was lazy in her composition in many ways that writers like her have been and continue to be, and while I have an easier time of navigating through such murky waters due to previous experience, it doesn't make the antisemitism and the Orientalism and co. any less dreary. Still, if someone's looking to set forth on a Women in Translation journey, or even saw the term in combination with Blixen's pseudonym and was intrigued by the former due to its (mistaken at times) conjunction with the latter, this would be one of the more comfortable introductory works to settle down into, and for that, I am grateful to this work. It also gave me a craving for some of the nicer, more enticing aspects of prose entwined with ye olden historical fictioning, and if there are any writers today who adore Blixen's style but are able to lift it to more extraordinary heights without need of the backs of silent others, well. I'd be very pleased indeed to make their acquaintance.
This is the third book I've read this year where I find among the reviews folks proclaiming how watching the film version first made it difficult for them to be critical of the book version later. It's not as if I haven't done the same, and within the past six months I might add, but I'd like to think there's a difference between being able to comprehend an extremely complicated plot revolving around unraveling a conspiracy due to having seen it visually represented beforehand and being nostalgic about certain refractions of light and sound and color to the point of not caring much what actually happens in the originating (although, with '2001: A Space Odyssey,' what was origin and what originated from is rather up to debate) text. In any case, beyond some flashes I had seen of the titular's story's film adaptation in a food documentary of all things, I went into this with certain assumptions about the writing styles and choices of a colonialist woman with certain royal pretensions who was born in Denmark and chose to compose in English. The most well known of the five included stories is certainly the best put together and the least reliant on the more odious tropes of literature, and if I had to name the writer's source of both strength and weakness, it's every story's almost total submission to the romance of a plot, place, or allusion, leaving little support to characters and even less as consequence to means of encouraging suspension of disbelief. Fantastic when successful, almost embarrassing when otherwise, but easy enough to complete in less than 250 pages, and giving me what experience I need to bypass the rest of her bibliography without much looking back. Perhaps I'll find my way to Seven Gothic Tales when I'm in the rare sort of spooky mood that can't be satisfied by video games, but I'm in no rush.
Another first encounter with a relatively well known classic author, another middling experience. Still, the thing about pushing for newer pastures is the certainty that something completely unforeseen and wondrously brilliant is bound to come from it eventually; in other words, nothing ventured, nothing gained. It's not as if reading Blixen was in any way a painful experience, but only that she was lazy in her composition in many ways that writers like her have been and continue to be, and while I have an easier time of navigating through such murky waters due to previous experience, it doesn't make the antisemitism and the Orientalism and co. any less dreary. Still, if someone's looking to set forth on a Women in Translation journey, or even saw the term in combination with Blixen's pseudonym and was intrigued by the former due to its (mistaken at times) conjunction with the latter, this would be one of the more comfortable introductory works to settle down into, and for that, I am grateful to this work. It also gave me a craving for some of the nicer, more enticing aspects of prose entwined with ye olden historical fictioning, and if there are any writers today who adore Blixen's style but are able to lift it to more extraordinary heights without need of the backs of silent others, well. I'd be very pleased indeed to make their acquaintance.
...she would have liked her lovers better had they left her free to love them in her own way, as poor pitiful people in need of sympathy. She might have put up with her present lover....if she could have made him see their liaison such as she herself saw it—as two lonely people's attempt to make, in an unpretentious bourgeois way and by means of a little mutual gentleness, the best of a sorry world.
December 8, 2016
TheMobileRead Literary bookclub's choice of "Babette's Feast" for December led me to read the book of short stories. I enjoyed the layers in the "Feast" story very much and felt for Babette, who was indeed a great artist, for having to restrict her cooking to the plainest of food for so many years.
I also enjoyed "The Immortal Story" very much; the other stories in the book did not appeal to me so much, but they were all worth reading.
I also enjoyed "The Immortal Story" very much; the other stories in the book did not appeal to me so much, but they were all worth reading.
March 9, 2016
To me the only story that stood out was "Tempests". But then again I'm a sucker for Shakespeare.
July 23, 2018
Il pranzo di Babette è certamente il più noto tra questi cinque racconti, tuttavia non è quello che mi è piaciuto maggiormente.
Ho trovato molto più interessante ed innovativo La storia immortale e sono rimasta stregata da L'anello, un racconto che si sviluppa con sorprendente capacità evocativa in appena una manciata di pagine, una vicenda di soli quattro minuti - un nulla nel corso dell'umana esistenza - capaci di sconvolgere interamente le vite dei protagonisti.
Ho trovato molto più interessante ed innovativo La storia immortale e sono rimasta stregata da L'anello, un racconto che si sviluppa con sorprendente capacità evocativa in appena una manciata di pagine, una vicenda di soli quattro minuti - un nulla nel corso dell'umana esistenza - capaci di sconvolgere interamente le vite dei protagonisti.
May 30, 2021
So much to reflect upon in reading the five stories in this collection. Words like tranquil, ethereal, and mystical come to mind in trying to describe them. But also very deep. Full of religious and cultural references and philosophical thoughts.
1. The Diver
The first story The Diver, introduces the theme of Ariel and reads like a fable or fairy tale. A young man's religious fervour gets tested and interrupted by a sexual awakening.
I picked up this book in order to read Babette’s Feast along with the group Catching up in Classics's monthly short story . The film has been my favourite film for a very long time, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading the story that it was based on.
Footnote : The origins of this story is mentioned in this fascinating documentary: Karen Blixen - Out of This World. Apparently she deliberately wrote it for Americans, because "Americans like food"!
3. Tempests
The story Tempests is a fairy tale mixed with a big dollop of Shakespeare. Blixen has fun with the characters of Prospero and Ariel as she shows us the inner drive that rules the artist's life.
4. The Immortal Story
I was both perplexed and intrigued by The Immortal Story. An unsettling tale. One thinks that the moral tale behind a rich man who thinks he can play god over other people, just because he has the money to do so, is obvious. But then there are the cultural references to The Wandering Jew and the 18th century French novel Paul et Virginie. Made me doubt whether I did fully understand it. Maybe there is now too much time and distance between our current world and the world of the author?
5. The Ring
Over a very short period of time, in the final, rather short The Ring, the mood changes from light and happiness to somber, menacing and sinister. To be honest I didn't quite know what to make of this one.
Film Adaptations
The thought occurred to me that, were it not for the films Out of Africa and Babette's Feast, our generation might have remained unaware of Karen Blixen and would have been deprived of these beautiful tales.
I also discovered that even earlier, in the 1960s, The Immortal Story was also adapted into a film by Orson Welles. Apparently, he was a great admirer of Karen Blixen's writing.
Alltogether a very worthwhile read.
1. The Diver
The first story The Diver, introduces the theme of Ariel and reads like a fable or fairy tale. A young man's religious fervour gets tested and interrupted by a sexual awakening.
We will both prove and disprove to him the existence of angels.2. Babette's Feast
I picked up this book in order to read Babette’s Feast along with the group Catching up in Classics's monthly short story . The film has been my favourite film for a very long time, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading the story that it was based on.
Ah, how you will enchant the angels!So beautiful in its description of religious piety being confronted with great art in a rather comical way, about the far reaching consequences of an act of kindness and generosity, but also underpinned by the sadness of 'the road not taken'. Breaks your heart whilst making you laugh at the same time.
Footnote : The origins of this story is mentioned in this fascinating documentary: Karen Blixen - Out of This World. Apparently she deliberately wrote it for Americans, because "Americans like food"!
3. Tempests
The story Tempests is a fairy tale mixed with a big dollop of Shakespeare. Blixen has fun with the characters of Prospero and Ariel as she shows us the inner drive that rules the artist's life.
"I have made you mad,
And even with such like valor, men hang and drown their proper selves." -- Shakespeare
4. The Immortal Story
I was both perplexed and intrigued by The Immortal Story. An unsettling tale. One thinks that the moral tale behind a rich man who thinks he can play god over other people, just because he has the money to do so, is obvious. But then there are the cultural references to The Wandering Jew and the 18th century French novel Paul et Virginie. Made me doubt whether I did fully understand it. Maybe there is now too much time and distance between our current world and the world of the author?
5. The Ring
Over a very short period of time, in the final, rather short The Ring, the mood changes from light and happiness to somber, menacing and sinister. To be honest I didn't quite know what to make of this one.
Film Adaptations
The thought occurred to me that, were it not for the films Out of Africa and Babette's Feast, our generation might have remained unaware of Karen Blixen and would have been deprived of these beautiful tales.
I also discovered that even earlier, in the 1960s, The Immortal Story was also adapted into a film by Orson Welles. Apparently, he was a great admirer of Karen Blixen's writing.
Alltogether a very worthwhile read.
October 27, 2014
In my GR catalog, short stories are being tagged dewey 800s, which is where literature and short stories would likely be found on public library shelves.
Also, I'm in the process of re-tagging "fiction" by searching to see with which genres other GR users are tagging their short stories books. Often they are classics.
Smiled when this title came up at the memory of pleasant surprises it brought to the reading chair.
Also, I'm in the process of re-tagging "fiction" by searching to see with which genres other GR users are tagging their short stories books. Often they are classics.
Smiled when this title came up at the memory of pleasant surprises it brought to the reading chair.
November 24, 2009
What was this story about? Because I'm not sure I could tell you. Ok I did like the two spinster sisters and the carefully written background of religious extremes. Maybe this is like a Norwegian version of Footloose. And Babette is Kevin Bacon.
November 17, 2017
Raccolta di cinque racconti, tutti apprezzabili. A mio avviso l'apice è "La tempesta", ma non si può non ricordare anche "Il pranzo di Babette". Dove si scontrano con più forza realtà e immaginazione ( "La tempesta", "La storia immortale", "Il pescatore di perle" ), il risultato è notevole.
August 26, 2022
4,7*
Skillfully written and very captivating stories on destiny, the mix of reality and fiction, one's relationship with Divinity, love and unexpected choices. A wonderful discovery.
I would've liked 'The Immortal Story' to have a different, less predictable ending.
Skillfully written and very captivating stories on destiny, the mix of reality and fiction, one's relationship with Divinity, love and unexpected choices. A wonderful discovery.
I would've liked 'The Immortal Story' to have a different, less predictable ending.
February 3, 2011
5 splendidi racconti. Il pranzo di Babette e' un gioiello.
June 14, 2013
boring
October 14, 2014
Seleção de cinco contos, alguns contendo elementos das lendas nórdicas, um deles ficou muito famoso após ter sido adaptado para o cinema: A Festa de Babette. Sensacional.
August 27, 2017
Babette, solo Babette
Salvo solo "Il pranzo di Babette": stupendo!
Il resto mi ha annoiato. Forse non ero in vena.
Salvo solo "Il pranzo di Babette": stupendo!
Il resto mi ha annoiato. Forse non ero in vena.
November 9, 2022
Karen Blixen kojarzy mi się przede wszystkim z filmem "Pożegnanie z Afryką", który zdarzyło mi się już wielokrotnie obejrzeć, nie czytałam natomiast jeszcze nic co wyszło spod pióra tej autorki - jakoś nie było nam po drodze. Powyższa lektura wpadła mi w ręce z polecenia i mam co do niej trochę mieszane uczucia bo jednak nie wszystkie opowiadania równo mnie wciągnęły poza tym jednym, tytułowym, które najbardziej przypadło mi do gustu. "Uczta Babette" to nie tylko arcydzieło kulinarne, pełne smaków i zapachów, ale i wysmakowna literacka uczta opowiedziana pięknym poetyckim językiem i plastycznymi opisami, nasycona głębokimi przemyśleniami o ludzkim losie.
Od razu zaznaczam, że nie ogladałam nagrodzonego Oscarem filmu Gabriela Axela o tym samym tytule, jednak po przeczytaniu tego opowiadania moja ciekawość nie pozwoli mi przejść koło tej ekranizacji obojętnie, ponoć bardzo zmysłowej i znakomitej.
Od razu zaznaczam, że nie ogladałam nagrodzonego Oscarem filmu Gabriela Axela o tym samym tytule, jednak po przeczytaniu tego opowiadania moja ciekawość nie pozwoli mi przejść koło tej ekranizacji obojętnie, ponoć bardzo zmysłowej i znakomitej.
January 22, 2023
2,75/5
Sięgnęłam ładnych kilka tygodni na fali zachwytu Pożegnaniem z Afryką. Początkowo byłam bardzo na "tak" finalnie jestem rozczarowana. Zabrakło mi w tym emocji, które by do mnie trafiły
Pod względem literackim jednak bardzo doceniam. Najlepsze okazało się tytułowe opowiadanie Uczta Babette ale do Pożegnania z Afryką mu i tak daleko
Sięgnęłam ładnych kilka tygodni na fali zachwytu Pożegnaniem z Afryką. Początkowo byłam bardzo na "tak" finalnie jestem rozczarowana. Zabrakło mi w tym emocji, które by do mnie trafiły
Pod względem literackim jednak bardzo doceniam. Najlepsze okazało się tytułowe opowiadanie Uczta Babette ale do Pożegnania z Afryką mu i tak daleko
July 10, 2023
Señoras, señores: Isak Dinesen, baronesa Karen Blixen. Nunca ha existido, ni existirá, una cuentista igual. Mañana explico por qué.
November 27, 2017
Five stories: three long ones (Babette’s Feast; Tempests; The Immortal Story) and two shorter ones that bookend them. Karen Blixen wrote most of her work in English and Danish versions, and I wonder how the Danish ones read, because I find her use of English strange. Her prose is very ornate in a very literary sort of way: she seems to be always carefully choosing her words, but I get the feeling that she read English more than she spoke it. She has a very distinctive voice, but it is one drawn from literature, not the spoken word. Generally I don’t like this sort of writing, finding it false, finding the failure to respond to spoken language corresponding with a failure to respond to the world around us in any direct way. But Blixen is an exception. Her stories are separated from the world, reading as though they are fables: she takes a step back from the world and distils an experience in a highly formalized way. Yet, if we expect an obvious truth or statement from a fable, Blixen does not provide us with it: I find the stories strangely disconcerting in the way they seem to strive for an obviousness of meaning, but then deny it. The stories do, however, create a consistent world: not just formally and stylistically consistent, but there are reoccurrences of theme and character. So, for example, Tempests explicitly plays upon Shakespeare’s The Tempest, being about a theatrical troupe who are preparing a version of the play, but the actor-manager also takes on the role of Prospero off stage, being the controller and creator of the girl who is to play Ariel; in The Immortal Story, Mr Clay is a sort of negative Prospero, staging an enactment of a much told story, thereby annulling the imaginary by making it actual. Mr Clay is also an old man looking back at his life, trying to find meaning; while in Babette’s Feast, the general who ‘accidentally’ comes to the feast is also at a similar stage of self assessment. And so it could go on, repeated motifs and themes carrying over from one story to the next, although with important variations in their enactments. I find the stories strange and there are limitations in Blixen’s methods, but her strange literary world is unique and entrancing. (Following the Art House success of the film Babette’s Feast in the late 1980s, Anecdotes of Destiny has been republished in editions that package Babette’s Feast as the starring story and the others as supporting acts. This is unfair and there is no particular superiority in that story. If, however, like me, you found the film to be a self-congratulatory feel-good inconsequentiality, don’t let it put you off Blixen’s stories.)
January 17, 2022
Five stories that invite the reader to suspend their disbelief and accept that destiny acts by means of strange coincidences or simply stages elaborate variations of the same immortal morality plays. What is more real: life, artifice or art? All the characters in these tales are archetypes of sort, ideas made flesh, but while in some cases they come to life and transcend the plot device, in some others I just couldn't make myself care about them or their fate.
Two of the tales, Babette's Feast and The Immortal Story, are small masterpieces, the other three are either a bit sketchy or overwrought. But even in the less accomplished tales, Karen Blixen's vivid and graceful prose is always a joy to read.
Two of the tales, Babette's Feast and The Immortal Story, are small masterpieces, the other three are either a bit sketchy or overwrought. But even in the less accomplished tales, Karen Blixen's vivid and graceful prose is always a joy to read.
October 23, 2021
Wanted to love...ended up unsure whether I even liked it as a collection.
Whilst I found it "interesting" - the weird narrative technique jarred with me. It felt (albeit cleverly) like a distant voice honing the bits of story to tell. The stories largely felt like proverbs and I enjoyed that we weren't spoon fed a learning experience but we were being prompted to consider the implications of our behaviour.
I felt left besieged by biblical fairy stories which does not actually reflect the content but how it made me feel
Whilst I found it "interesting" - the weird narrative technique jarred with me. It felt (albeit cleverly) like a distant voice honing the bits of story to tell. The stories largely felt like proverbs and I enjoyed that we weren't spoon fed a learning experience but we were being prompted to consider the implications of our behaviour.
I felt left besieged by biblical fairy stories which does not actually reflect the content but how it made me feel
July 7, 2009
I did not really care for this novella about two spinster sisters who live an austere life in memory of their father, and only after 14 years discover their cook and servant is an artist with food. Even so, our book group had a wonderful meeting. Our hostess replicated the feast, her husband played the role of the general, we all wore simple (somber) black dresses, and the darkened dining room was lit with only the line of candles down the center of the table.
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