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Rating: 
Summary: beatiful and haunting
Review: If only the fiction writers of the moment displayed as much generosity towards their readers as the Baroness Blixen did, there might be more freshman efforts out there as satisfying and enriching as this. She shared so much of herself in nearly everything she wrote -- a deep, respectful love of literature, of the odd folk of the remoter corners of the world, of Europe's waning aristos, and always with that supremely ironic fundament to her character: one foot (bare) wriggling its toes in the Id's squishy mud, and the other (impeccably shod) pacing the red carpet. "The Dreamer" is especially memorable.
Rating:
Summary: Weird & Wonderful, a journey to another world next door...
Review: Such melancholy has been portrayed in these stories, so dark, yet exquisitely sweet. The characterisation is incredible, I could feel the emotions of the characters - loss, frustration, hope and fear as I read, the mood of the book enveloped me. The tales are almost timeless, set in a dark and dreary Europe, moving slowly yet they were not laborious, rather they were sensual. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to curl up by a fire, in the middle of winter, and wants to be alternately delighted and dismayed.
Rating:
Summary: Weird & Wonderful, a journey to another world next door...
Review: Such melancholy has been portrayed in these stories, so dark, yet exquisitely sweet. The characterisation is incredible, I could feel the emotions of the characters - loss, frustration, hope and fear as I read, the mood of the book enveloped me. The tales are almost timeless, set in a dark and dreary Europe, moving slowly yet they were not laborious, rather they were sensual. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to curl up by a fire, in the middle of winter, and wants to be alternately delighted and dismayed.
Rating: 
Summary: Many layered tales
Review: This is a demanding work of seven multilayered and esoteric stories in this, Dinesen's first book.
We know of Dinesen more commonly by way of Meryl Streep, who played Dinesen, or the Baroness Karen Blixen, in "Out of Africa." But the woman we find here as the author of these stories is no easily-understood, Hollywood character. Her stories within stories are rich in symbolism, imagination, and a "long ago and far away" feeling that is carefully, carefully, controlled by the author. Dinesen wrote some of these tales in Africa, and finished others along with ordering the book back home in Denmark, after her farm had failed. She wrote, interestingly, in English (and did her own translations back into Danish later on). Many books follow this one, including LAST TALES and, of course, OUT OF AFRICA. Dinesen, while the heroic, strong, individualist of Streep's portrayal, is also kind of strange, introspective, and fabulously bizarre. She uses her stories' plot lines as a means, one feels, to work out her life philosophies, reshape and recast ideas and symbolic imagery, and impart creative insights. After getting to about the fourth or fifth story, one can see that she uses the same imagery repeatedly and even the same turns of phrase.
I have read this volume at least once before, and wanted to go through it again knowing just that much more literature and biblical references. (It helps to be well read in the classics when reading Dinesen.) Anything is up for her use, and if you don't see it, something will be lost to you as you interpret the stories and what they meant, or even, what happened. She loves Shakespeare (OUT OF AFRICA was written in five sections, after the five-act structure of Shakespearian drama), and Don Giovanni, she has interesting ideas about femininity and independent women, and symbolizes these issues with women who are doll-like, women who seem as if they can fly, women who are witches in some way or another, etc. She likes to toy with the mind of God, as well, having characters pronounce his proclivities, likes and dislikes, etc., quite often. I found these to be some of the most interesting passages, after some of the gender-defining ones, that is. (She chose her pseudonym, "Isak," as it is Hebrew for "He who laughs" and she definitely plays with many ideas here, many humorously.)
Of the seven tales (The Old Chevalier, The Roads Round Pisa, The Monkey, The Supper at Elsinore, The Dreamers, The Poet, and The Deluge at Norderney), The Roads Round Pisa is my favorite, and I have studied it for a graduate class. In the book, a mistake is the central event, and we learn of it only at the end. Our main character, Count Augustus Von Schimmelmann, is writing a letter to a friend, when a carriage accident occurs in front of him. An old woman, who seemed at first to him to be a man, is injured and asks that he go and seek out her granddaughter so that she may forgive her for an estrangement before she dies, as she believes she will do shortly. Augustus sets out for Pisa and in an inn meets a young man, with whom he engages in an interesting conversation. Soon, however, he finds out that this man is a woman, and whereas before he had been asking "him" for help in finding his way into the city, now he offers her his assistance as a gentleman. Their subsequent conversation holds a particularly compelling passage I have never forgotten. In it, Dinesen explicates a concept of women's differences, physically, psychologically and societally, from men through the artful use of the host and guest metaphor.This passage is a key to the story's mood when toward the end the mistake around which the characters swirl is revealed. But the passage is also an interesting philosophical and societal analogy that provokes thought and discussion. This is, then, quintessential Dinesen.
The other stories deal with identity and loss (The Dreamers), a ghost who is allowed to rise up from hell whenever the sound between Denmark and Sweden freezes over (Supper at Elsinore), the mirage of lost love (The Old Chevalier), poetry and power (The Poet), the societal roles of women (The Monkey), and identity (The Deluge at Norderney), but these are very brief and basic categorizations. One could safely say that all the stories deal with many of the others' main themes. The book as a whole is an excellent study of the power of fiction to suggest and manipulate, with beautiful, evocative writing and deep and stirring underlying meanings. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Best 19th Century Stories written in the 20th Century
Review: Years ago, I wrote a review on Amazon for Karen Blixen's
_Winter's Tales_, where I observed that it was the equal
of this book. I have no reason to revise that estimate, but
feel I should point out that this book is extremely fine,
and should not be ignored by people who like good writing
and aren't scared off by a bit of melodrama. The title of this review tries to make a small point: Blixen
didn't write her stories with notions of the prevailing literary
fashions in mind. She wrote them as she felt them, and she used
a style and technique that harken back to earlier writers. In
her introduction to the book, Dorothy Canfield, attempting to
characterise this style, made reference to an array of writers
from E.T.A. Hoffmann to Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Mann.
Although I think the reference to Mann has merit, the truth is
Blixen was genuinely unique. She doesn't really have any real
imitators, either, although I've seen a number of writers allude
to being influenced by her. Back to this book: it was her first volume of short stories. Not
many writers hit gold on their first book, but Blixen was
already in full stride as a writer. And, goodness, she could
*write*. The stories in the volume I'd single out for special praise are
"The Deluge at Nordenrey," "The Monkey," "The Poet," "The Supper
at Elsinore," and "The Roads Round Pisa." The other stories are
all a pleasure to read, although I don't feel that the story "The Dreamers" comes off; Blixen reused the heroine of this
story in ways that lead me to think she was invested with some
sort of personal significance for the author. Perhaps that's why
the story seems less well controlled. Blixen's other books of stories are interesting-to-fascinating.
Each book has its attractions. Admirers of this book might find
_Winter's Tales_ worth their time. _Anecdotes of Destiny_,
which contains "Babette's Feast," is fine collection, too,
just not quite up to this one.
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