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Loading... een lied van afrikaby Karen Blixen
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Objectivement Karen Blixen est une mauvaise gestionnaire qui mene sa ferme a la perte. Elle est pedante et imbue de sa personne. Note speciale: elle ne parle de son mari qu une seule fois, a la page 320! (  ) nikela | Nov 14, 2009 |  Out of Africa (1937) is a book that has changed lives. The heady romanticism on the frontier of colonial Kenya is enough to make anyone want to pack up and head for Africa - and many have tried, in reality by going, and by deep immersion in biographical study of the Kenyan colonialists that form the fabric of this book. The 1980's movie just re-enforced the legend and further spurred the Blixen fan club. It's a beautiful book told with grace and insight that captures the dieing spirit of colonialism in the middle 20th century between the wars. Sadly for me the book is marred by a certain moroseness, an emphasis on death and dieing. Every chapter and incident seems to be focused on someone or something - tribe, culture, way of life - that is dead or dieing. Her coldness comes through in the end when she (almost) shoots her pets and animals. And we learn she later in life committed suicide. All this cast a pale of darkness over the beautiful atmosphere she describes to render it a deeply sad and ultimately tragic story. Yet the power of it is real, and for that it is and will remain a classic. (  ) Stbalbach | Nov 9, 2009 | "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills... It was Africa distilled up through six thousand feet, like the strong and refined essence of a continent... In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be." - from Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa was not exactly what I expected. I went into reading it thinking that it was a traditional memoir, but it is actually a series of lyrical vignettes describing the life of Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen in Africa. Written sometime after she left Africa, the stories contained in Out of Africa reflect the distance Dinesen was able to put between herself and much of the hardship she suffered as a first-time coffee farmer in Kenya. Among my favorite of her stories were the accounts of "Kamanate and Lulu." In the four stories included in this first part of Out of Africa, Dinesen describes her efforts to cure a young native boy who has a debilitating illness, and to adopt an orphaned bushbuck fawn, probably destined for someone's dinner table. From the beginning, it is clear that Dinesen has a sense of humility where the native Africans were concerned, that is practically unheard of in other white colonists of her time. Her strong feelings for the native people and the harsh beauty of the land surrounding her farm is obvious to the reader. As she struggles to better understand the Kikuyu, Masai and Somali people, she comes to the realization that despite being dependent on them, she will never truly "know" them. This notwithstanding, she never stops admiring them, and learns a great deal from them in her time. Isak Dinesen wrote beautifully of her love for Africa and it's people. Her stories are delicate and enthralling, and sweep you up in the words and imagery they contain. The language she uses is luminous, and her descriptions of the people and animals of East Africa are simply magical. Out of Africa is exquisitely written and will keep you turning pages late into the night. (  ) susanbevans | Oct 11, 2009 | her writing made me feel as if I was in Africa. ( ) laurie_library | Oct 10, 2009 | Read this for my book club. I have a vague memory of seeing the movie years ago, but don't remember much about it. I think it was the love story of Dinesen and Denys Finch-Hatton, so that was what I was expecting the book to be. Dinesen ran a coffee farm in Africa, a few miles away fron Nairobi. The book is almost entirely about Dinesen's relationships with the Natives she lived with. It is a little frustrating to read, because she has something of the colonial attitude of superiority, but not enough for her to not see the Africans as individuals and appreciating them in many ways. It is, however, a picture of the dealings of people with very different cultures and habits of mind. And in many ways I agree that Western culture is better, but not in all ways, and certainly colonialism had its extremely dark side. Dineson mentions casually that the African's weren't allowed to own land! Dinesen's descriptions of Africa are lyrical, and one feels how much of a tragedy it was in her life for the farm to fail and for her to be forced to leave Africa. She does talk about Finch-Hatton and his untimely death. An impressive work i was glad to read. (  ) reannon | Sep 29, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0679600213, Hardcover)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. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:55 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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