Out of Africa (Modern Library)
Editorial Reviews
From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Lynne Auld
From 1914 to 1931, Danish aristocrat Baroness Karen Blixen owned and operated a coffee plantation in Kenya. After the plantation failed, she returned to Europe and began to write under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Out of Africa reads like a collection of stories in which she adheres to no strict chronology, gives no explanation of the facts of her life, and apologizes for nothing. First published in 1937, Out of Africa is not free of the colonial or racist attitudes of its time; yet, within that context, Isak Dinesen is an enlightened observer and participant as she describes the experience of British East Africa before World War II. She portrays in rich detail the vast land around her, alive with strange and wonderful human populations; the thrilling terror of a nocturnal lion hunt; a shooting accident among the Africans on her farm and its repercussions; raising and freeing an orphaned antelope fawn; getting to know the Africans and the colonial adventurers who found their way into her life. "If I know a song of Africa," she writes, "of the Giraffe, and the African new moon lying on her back, of the ploughs in the fields, and the sweaty faces of the coffee-pickers, does Africa know a song of me?" Out of Africa is that song. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.
Kliatt, January 1992
"This audiobook is stirring and remarkable."
--This text refers to the
Audio Cassette
edition.
Out of Africa (Modern Library)
Out of Africa (Modern Library),Isak Dinesen,Modern Library,0679600213,1895-1963,20th century,Authors, Danish,Biography,Biography/Autobiography,Classics,Country life,Description And Travel,General,Kenya,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Social life and customs,Biography: general,Dinesen, Isak,Fiction / General,Homes and haunts,Travel writing
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