Acquire Today Seven Gothic Tales Articulated By Isak Dinesen Available Through Ebook

book that feels like it was "worth it in the end" isn't a good read during the actual reading, This was too layered for my taste: inset stories were everywhere extraneous details and plots made my head spin melodrama abounded, Potentially, these are hall,arks of the era in which Dinesen Karen Blixen, she of Out of Africa fame was writing,
Am I glad I read it Do I feel accomplished Sure, Would I have been able to complete it on my own, if I didn't have a grade and a discussion for class hingeing on it Highly, highly doubtful.
That said, if you're looking for some truly Gothic tales with twisty turns bits, this might be your cuppa, But if you're looking for "Gothic" and you mean "horror," skip it, Traveling alone in a strange country, as you pass through a dark pine woods, you see an abandoned, halfruined castle through the trees.
Entering it, and walking through hallways hung with faded crimson and paved with black marble, you catch a glimpse of yourself in a tarnished mirror.
But another face looks back at you, skeletal, In a great hall, upon a stage, tattered golden curtains are drawn back and manycoloured marionettes come forward, The story has begun. This is the world of Isak Dinesen Karen Blixen, Each of the stories in "Seven Gothic Tales" is a world of magic, where people are not who they seem, masks are worn and removed, and each tale spirals into another and another.
Especially powerful: "The Deluge at Norderney", "The Supper at Elsinore" and "The Dreamers", CÈ DEL FANTASTICO IN DANIMARCA


Nicolai A, Abildgaard: Lincubo.

E qui nasce Isak Dinesen, A quasi cinquantanni.
Nel senso che Karen Blixen, dopo gli anni africani, dopo aver scritto quella meraviglia di sue memorie di quel lungo periodo, La mia Africa, debutta nella narrativa di finzione sotto pseudonimo, Isak Dinesen, e si dedica a storiestorie, di quelle che si raccontano tra loro i marinai, di quelle che si evitano ai bimbi prima di andare a letto, di quelle che si raccontano davanti a un fuoco gli sconosciuti in una notte senza eguali, di quelle che raccontavano i cantastorie per intrattenere con fremiti di suspense il loro re, di quelle


Nicolai A.
Abildgaard: Malvina che piange il morto Oscar oppure Il fantasma di Culmin appare a sua madre,sulla copertina della mia edizione

Blixen cominciò a scriverle proprio in Kenia, sembra per distrarsi da un periodo particolarmente duro: considerato lelemento gotico, i fantasmi, i brividi che leggendo qualcuno può provare, le ambientazioni spesso nordiche, notturne, innevate, mi viene da pensare che fosse il suo modo per tenere a bada il caldo africano.

E forse davvero tutto nasce a contatto con il gusto del racconto orale africano, quella sensibilità per loscuro il nascosto e il sovrannaturale, chissà che non abbiano davvero inciso le tradizioni e la cultura di quella parte di mondo.

A rimarcare la gestazione africana credo si possa anche notare che il ritorno in Europa della Blixen è nel, queste storie sono pubblicate tre anni dopo.



Nicolai A, Abildgaard: Fingal vede i fantasmi dei suoi antenati al chiaro di luna,

Mario Praz, che di letteratura ma non solo sintendeva bene e molto, scrisse della Blixen e di questi suoi racconti:
In lei il fiabesco nasce spontaneo, e altrettanto spontaneamente si ambienta contro lo sfondo del suo Paese, la Danimarca.
I fantasmi entrano in scena come la cosa più naturale del mondo, nei suoi racconti,
E giustamente cita E, T. A. Hoffmann, La principessa Brambilla, ma non solo, e raramente collegamento sembra più giustificato,


Nicolai A, Abildgaard: Riccardo III la notte prima della battaglia di Bosworth,

Blixen ambienta le sue storie a cavallo tra la fine dele la prima metà dellOttocento, nel periodo il cui la letteratura gotica e fantastica esplodeva in Europa.
Le costruisce come scatole cinesi, contenitore nel contenitore, il narratore parte con il racconto e da questo si dipana una nuova storia, e a volte anche unaltra, per poi tornare al filo principale, quello davvio.
Sembra che Blixen progettasse di concatenarle davvero in trama unica, come un vaso di Pandora,


Johann Heinrich Füssli: Lincubo, Storie sublimi

Karen Blixen, che scrittrice, Sorprende ogni volta per la sua ineguagliabile capacità di raccontare storie e mondi incantati, ricchi di fascino e nobiltà, sontuosi e ancestrali, ambigui e misteriosi.
Signorile, nelle atmosfere e nel linguaggio, evocatrice di luoghi lontani e impolverate consuetudini, oscura e indisciplinata negli estri poliedrici, la Blixen fa deflagrare tutta la sua densità culturale ed esperienziale in mille rivoli narrativi, che si intersecano e si esaltano a vicenda.
Il suo stile, impegnativo e al contempo inebriante, è impreziosito da questa mirabile traduzione di Alessandra Scalero del, lievemente rivista da Adriana Motti, che rende onore alla corposa e inesauribile sapidità della lingua italiana.
Lettura incantevole. Siete magnificas muestras del talento como narradora de Isak Dinesen, Siete largos cuentos ambientados en la Europa del siglo XIX y protagonizados por personajes cultos y sofisticados de nombres largos e impronunciables De que van estos cuentos Es complicado de explicar si uno no está familiarizado con el modo de narrar de esta autora.
Karen Blixen pues ese era su verdadero nombre recoge el testigo de Sherezade y se sienta a la luz del hogar a contarnos cuentos de gente que se sienta a la luz del hogar a contar cuentos.
Esa sería la forma más resumida de explicar esta autora desarrolla su escritura: recuperando la tradición oral del cuento y llevándolo a la pagina en blanco sin perder un ápice de su musicalidad y sugestión.


Sería, por tanto, inane resumir las tramas de estos siete cuentos, pues todos son historias dentro de historias que inician de un suceso tan cotidiano como un encuentro casual entre desconocidos, conocidos o íntimos amigos.
Estos personajes se sientan y hablan entre ellos, contando sus historias y los historias de otros, y estas historias llevaran a nuevas historias que estarán relacionadas con la historia inicial de manera tan impredecible como orgánica.
Este don para imbricar relatos viene unido a un pequeño defecto, y es que es fácil perderse entre historia e historia, especialmente debido a la erudición de algunas conversaciones y tanto nombres alemanes o centroeuropeos, difíciles de recordar en largas distancias algo parecido me sucede con la literatura japonesa con el Doctor Zhivago, que no pude terminar.
Sin embargo, si caes bajo su hechizo la propia musicalidad de la prosa de Blixen será acicate suficiente para terminar el cuento, aunque no llegues a comprenderlo del todo sentirás de manera inconsciente la satisfacción de haber leído o escuchado hermosas historias.


Esta colección exuda nostalgia, no por el hecho de estar todos los cuentos ambientados en ese idealizado siglo XIX de castillos, palacios y salones de te, que también, sino por ese sabor a cuento para dormir, a cuento despectivamente llamado de viejas, a historia de campamento.
Leyendo a Blixen uno recuerda cómo nace el amor por la lectura, que tuvo su inicio con esa primera historia que nos contaron de pequeños y nos fascino tanto que, desde entonces, no podemos vivir sin disfrutar de nuevas historias.
Esa es la magia de Karen Blixen, el recuerdo, Dineson really writes like no one else, . not even her worthy heirs like Angela Carter or Rikki Ducornet, . or those she inherited from like Potocki or E, T. A. Hoffmann. . simplely some of the most otherwordly and beautiful writing in the world, Words fail me. I have had this book out from the library for several weeks, but every time I open it, the phone rings, I think it is cursed, I suspect that this is a book I will have to reread in the future, I had to put it down many times just to try and remember all the twisting and turning threads that spilled over from one story to another.
Don't be mislead by the title this isn't simply seven gothic yarns but rather a great coiling mass of tales coiled up upon one another.
As soon as you are consumed by one you will find yourself chewed up and spat out by others, Tales within tales within tales within tales it can be a little dizzying,

I suppose that this is a book about reading, writing and story telling echoes flit between one story and another.
A girl may be observed in a mirror in one story before observing herself in the same mirror in another entirely different tale out of time and space.
A character may stalk between different narrators and narratives each where they have cast themselves the hero where they are surely walk on parts.
Nobody is who they say they are, No story is what it says it is notably in "The Monkey" where uproariously the real story begins just as the narrative ends.
Hamlet seems to ink up the margins as if all stories live cheek by jowl with one another bleeding over into one another's business a courtier named Guildenstern may appear or a ghost story set in Elsinore will wryly announce itself before deciding it is something else entirely.
Goethe is paraphrased and borrowed "The Poet" seems to walk into scenery just vacated from Elective Affinities, Even, and surely Dinesen is playing with us here, the story of Echo and Narcissus will be, well yes, echoed,

Gothic I suppose they are in the manner that a fairground mirror reflects back a distorted and disturbed reality, These are fairy tales and yet they are utterly prosaic, They are about witches and sorceresses or simply confused madmen suffering delusions of grandeur, Pragmatic magic or magical pragmatism whatever it is it is confusing, frustrating, disorientating and absolutely marvellous, “Mira took up the tale, his whole countenance suddenly changing, his dark eyes brightening and his hands coming to life in the old telltale manner, like two aged dancing snakes called out from their basket by the flute.
”

Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen must have lived fully and intensely, because in these tales, she conjures up for us a view from the eyes of someone who knows many things deep and delightful.


Ive yet to read sitelinkOut of Africa, but have seen the film multiple times, One of my favorite parts is when Karen weaves a story from a line given to her by her listeners, shown in the beginning of this video: sitelink youtube. com/watchvInnCI

I thought of that scene repeatedly as I was reading this collection, What a gift for storytelling! Each tale begins with that same mystical feeling captured in the film clip, The scene is carefully set, There is what feels like a savoring of character names and settings, You can almost hear the whir of the spinning wheel as the yarn is spun,

For a number of reasons, this is difficult reading, The writing is oldfashioned and a bit formal, and there is so much here I didnt understand: history, mythology, Danish aristocracy, flora, fauna, hunting, Goethe The sheer volume of what this writer obviously knew and/or experienced blew my mind.
The lines drip with a kind of sensuality that is heady and thoughtprovoking, and you want to savor the words in small bites.
And to stay focused on the full banquet put before me, I had to read very slowly,

A theme that ran through all of these was the very idea of stories and of using your imagination to reinvent yourself.
Most of the tales have stories within stories, We are introduced to a character who begins a story, and then in the story, a character tells a story, and on and on.
It can be confusing, but in the endoh, the endings! You feel like youve been to the mountaintop and seen what life has been trying to teach you all along.


“The stillness and silence of the night was filled with a deep life, as if within a moment the universe would give up its secret.
”

I wont try to describe each tale, They must be experienced. What I will do is share an excerpt/quote from each to read below, if you wish,

The Deluge at Norderney
“While we are young the idea of death or failure is intolerable to us even the possibility of ridicule we cannot bear.
But we have also an unconquerable faith in our own, and in the impossibility of anything venturing to go against us.
As we grow old we slowly come to believe that everything will turn out badly for us, and that failure is the nature of things but then we do not much mind what happens to us one way or the other.
In this way a

balance is obtained, ”

The Old Chevalier
“But most women, when they feel free to experiment with life, will go straight to the witches Sabbath.
I myself respect them for it, and do not think that I could ever really love a woman who had not, at some time or other, been up on a broomstick.
”

The Monkey
“The old Count started to speak of the Wendish idols, from whose country his own family originally came, and which the goddess of love had the face and façade of a beautiful woman, while, if you turned her around, she presented at the back the image of a monkey.
”

The Roads Round Pisa
“'Now God, she said, when he created Adam and Eveshe also looked at them across the roomarranged it so that man takes, in these matters, the part of a guest, and woman that of a hostess.
Therefore man takes love lightly, for the honor and dignity of his house is not involved herein, And you can also, surely, be a guest to many people to whom you would never want to be a host, Now, tell me, Count, what does a guest want

I believe, said Augustus when he had thought for a moment, that if we do, as I think we ought to here, leave out the crude guest, who comes to be regaled, takes what he can get and goes away, a guest wants first of all to be diverted, to get out of his daily monotony or worry.
Secondly the decent guest wants to shine, to expand himself and impress his own personality upon his surroundings, And thirdly, perhaps, he wants to find some justification for his existence altogether, But since you put it so charmingly, Signora, please tell me now: What does a hostess want

The hostess, said the young lady, wants to be thanked.
”

The Supper at Elsinore
“The De Coninck sisters, on the contrary, felt that the old house might well have deplored the signs of age and decay at this meeting again of theirs, and have cried: Heavens, heavens! Are these the damaskcheeked, silvervoiced girls in my dancing sandals who used to slide down the bannisters of my stairssighing down its long chimneys, Oh God! Fare away, fare away! When, then, it chose to pass over its feelings and pretend that they were the same, it was a fine piece of courtesy on its part.
”

The Dreamers
“If you want to go to sleep at night, Lincoln, you must not think, as people tell you, of a long row of sheep or camels passing through a gate, for they go in one direction, and your thoughts will go along with them.
You should think instead of a deep well, In the bottom of that well, just in the middle of it, there comes up a spring of water, which runs out in little streamlets to all possible sides, like the rays of a star.
If you can make your thoughts run out with that water, not in one direction, but equally to all sides, you will fall asleep.
If you can make your heart do it thoroughly enough, as the coffee tree does with the little surface roots, you will die.
”

The Poet
“He had already been a rajah hunting tigers from the backs of elephants, and watching bayaderes dancing he had been the director of the great opera of Paris and he had been Shamyl, pushing onward with his rebellious freemen, through the towering, snowclad mountain passes of the Caucasus.
But tonight what would he choose to dream”,