- Paperback
- Publisher: Vintage (1993)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679743340
- ISBN-13: 978-0679743347
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 1.7 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 204 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,066,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Winter's Tales is refined prose and wisdom of a lost age.,
By
This review is from: Winter's Tales (Paperback)
Isak Diensen's book of ornate, Baroque prose is on an unreachable echelon separate from any writer writing literature today or even from her era. Her stories transport readers to a period where thinking and intelligence were elegant and refined, smooth and intermixed with tints of religiosity. Stories such as "The Invincible Slave-Owner" and "The Sailor-Boy's Tale" show Diensen's strong knowledge of Danish folklore and Baroque description. Mind you, this is not easy reading! The messages are simple, but yet they are dense, and it is very easy to overlook these simple truths as a result of that flamboyance and extravagant complexity for which she has become internationally recognized. Her themes are like those of any writer: strength, courage during adversity, love, etc... But it is how these themes are conveyed that make these tales remarkable. Isak Diensen a.k.a. Baroness Karen Blixen's childhood was not one of the best, and these tales seem to indicate that. They transport the reader, take him or her away to places that seem unreachable, but her life does not mitigate the beautiful intelligence and language that she is able to convey. Diensen was twice nominated for the Noble Prize in Literature, losing to Ernest Hemmingway and Albert Camus. For more on her life and stories, read Judith Thurman's Life of a Storyteller: The Biography of Isak Diensen.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Her "other" great book of short stories,
By A Customer
This review is from: Winter's Tales (Paperback)
Karen Blixen wrote a number of fine books, but only 4 could be called short story collections. Her first book, _Seven Gothic Tales_ is usually the book of stories that people remember first-- deservedly, because any book that contains "The Deluge at Norderney," "The Monkey," and "The Poet" gets high marks. The other stories in the book aren't exactly chopped liver, either.However, I will submit that _Winter's Tales_ deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as _Seven Gothic Tales_. Indeed, in some ways, it surpasses the earlier book as a work of art. The level of writing is uniformly high; the style is still ornate and surprising, but better controlled. There is some excellent work here, such as the story "Alkmene." But what puts this book over the top is that it contains "Sorrow Acre," probably the best of Blixen's fiction. In fact, one could argue that "Sorrow Acre" is on of the finest stories written in the 20th century by *anyone*. It's a marvel of subtle irony. By itself, it was worth the price of admission. Her two later collections, _Anecdotes of Destiny_ and _Last Tales_ have their moments, but to my mind, she hit her high water mark in _Seven Gothic Tales_ and _Winter's Tales_.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful, rich, bizarre, and moving,
By A Customer
This review is from: Winter's Tales (Paperback)
I am a long time fan of Isak Dinesen's short stories. They are little jewels of rich, sometimes ornate, always beautiful and strange prose. Winter's Tales holds together from beginning to end especially well, and includes my favorite tale of all, "Alkmene." Isak Dinesen's stories are like fairy tales remembered in a dream (or is it dreams remembered in a fairy tale?). They resonate with deep longing and sadness as well as an appreciation for the jokester in the universe.
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