Last Tales by Isak Dinesen , Karen Blixen
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Read and Download Ebook Last Tales... Last Tales Isak Dinesen , Karen Blixen PDF File: Last Tales... 1 Read and Download Ebook Last Tales... Last Tales Isak Dinesen , Karen Blixen Last Tales Isak Dinesen , Karen Blixen Last Tales is a collection of twelve of the last tales that Isak Dinesen wrote before her death in 1962. They include seven tales from Albondocani, a projected novel that was never completed; "The Caryatids," an unfinished Gothic tale of a couple bedeviled by an old letter and a gypsy's spell; and three tales of winter, including "Converse at Night in Copenhagen," a drunken, all-night conversation between a boy-king, a prostitute, and a poor young poet. Last Tales Details Date : Published December 1991 by Vintage (first published November 4th 1957) ISBN : Author : Isak Dinesen , Karen Blixen Format : Paperback 341 pages Genre : Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Classics, European Literature, Danish, Scandinavian Literature Download Last Tales ...pdf Read Online Last Tales ...pdf Download and Read Free Online Last Tales Isak Dinesen , Karen Blixen PDF File: Last Tales... 2 Read and Download Ebook Last Tales... From Reader Review Last Tales for online ebook Robert Walrod says "The Cardinal's Third Tale," "Echoes," "The Caryatids," "A Country Tale" Lindsay says I was fairly amused with the bio, which said that the author married her cousin (my immature sense of humour). These are tales that you can imagine someone telling you, full of easily imagined characters and random offshoots. The stories were varied, but one of the problems I have with short stories is that you never really lose yourself in them. mlady_rebecca says Shelving and rating this simply for the short story "The Blank Page" which I first read in college. Terence Manleigh says More wonderful, old-fashioned, magical tales from the incomparable Dinesen. A.D. Jansen says Not as compelling plot-wise, or as complex theme-wise, or as deep character-wise, or as rich language-wise, as Seven Gothic Tales or Winter’s Tales. But then again, those are two of the greatest books I’ve ever read, so take the three star rating with a grain of salt. It’s probably a little unrealistic to expect that she could sustain that level of brilliance throughout her entire career. Anyway, though this was something of a disappointment, I don’t remotely regret reading it, and I still plan to read the rest of Dinesen’s ouevre. Stephaniedean says I am currently re-reading this. This is a book I will keep coming back to again and again. Elisabeth says 3.5 stars PDF File: Last Tales... 3 Read and Download Ebook Last Tales... Andrew Miller says I picked this book up from Arkbooks in Copenhagen (an English language bookseller) as I wanted to grab some works by Danish authors while there on holiday. As much as I knew a collection of Karen Blixen stories wasn't likely to be my thing, given my experience with Out of Africa, but I tried keeping an open mind throughout the book. Ultimately while I recognize her skill as a storyteller the themes and cast of characters weren't accessible for me. That doesn't make this a poor collection it just wasn't my taste. Chris says To get to Rungstedlund from Copenhagen, one takes a train. One walks from the station, past a farm that seems bred Norwegian Fjords, past a restaurant, to the harbor, where ones turns left. Shortly thereafter, you are at the home of Isak Dinesen. It is a white house surrounded by green. It seems to exist in its own world. When I was there, it wasn’t very crowded, and most of the visitors were older, causing me to wonder if they were coming because of the books or because of the movie with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. After a tour of the house, one can visit Dinesen’s grave. It is set back, along a short path. It rests in a bird sanctuary. There is a stunning beauty and peacefulness about the whole plot of land. Plain on the outside but surrounding underneath. Layered, like Russian nesting dolls with the exception that the smaller ones, the ones buried deep inside, are more beautiful colored. It is a fitting home for Dinesen. It matches her fiction exactly. For many people, Dinesen’s best work is Seven Gothic Tales or Out of Africa, but for me her best tale collection is Last Tales. This is because it contains the first short story I ever read by Dinesen, “The Cloak”, a story that I fell in love with, that made me hunt down Dinesen’s work. In some ways, “The Cloak” is like Stockton’s “The Lady or the Tiger?”. The answer to the key question, the question that reader will ask is left unspoken, unanswered. It is left up to the reader, and the reader’s answer says more about the reader than about the writer, like Stockton’s short story. “The Cloak” is actually the start of a trilogy of stories that deal with the redemption and life of a man called Angelo. The three stories deal with the power of the human soul as well as the power faith. All the stories are haunting and touching. They deal with the soul. Most of the stories in this collection focus on the aspects of faith and art that coincide, that ran in tandem. This is true from the first story of the collection, “The Cardinal’s First Tale”, which is about an artist who is also a priest. It also is about masks, and who we really are inside. Then there is “The Blank Page” a wonderful story, very much like “Sorrow Acre” from Winter Tales. In this tale, Dinesen plays with the idea of the bloody bridal sheet as well as how stories become stories and story tellers become story tellers. It is a quiet tale. “The Caryatids: An Unfinished Gothic Tale” discusses the price of knowledge, the cost of hidden knowledge, and the cost of knowledge that we hid from ourselves. It is a strange, effecting story. Gothic in tone, but human in its ending. As is the story that follows it, “Echoes”. This story is about a singer who has lost her voice, but finds it again. “A Country Tale” deal with redemption in the sense of justice. What is justice? Can revenge go too far? PDF File: Last Tales... 4 Read and Download Ebook Last Tales... Slightly similar in vein is “Copenhagen Season”, a dual plotted love story that shows understanding of the human heart, and the consequences that can come. All the stories in this collection deal with forgiveness, whether it is an ability to forgive someone or an inability to forgiven oneself. All the souls deal with the effect of secrets upon the soul. All the stories deal with art and soul, how faith and art can be one. Asya says Rereading this because of "The Blank Page," upon a friend's suggestion (you know who you are!) I love what she writes about the art of narrative vs. character study and how these are 2 profoundly different ways of storytelling (this is in "The Cardinal's First Tale." Brian says Dinesen blends art and philosophy in an engaging way in many of these tales, particularly in the "Tales from Albondocani". Though not all part of the same story, the “Tales from Albondocani” nevertheless serve as strands that are woven together to suggest a philosophy of nothing else than that to which they owe their existence: story-telling. Dinesen takes her philosophy of story-telling not just to aesthetic levels but also to theological ones, as she draws parallels between finding meaning in a story to the discovery of oneself in life. Her tales have a blend of charm and mystery to them, some dealing with the supernatural, others with simple country life. But in all her stories one encounters characters seeking to develop meaningful existence in their lives, and the story showing the struggle of living out that development in a world that places limits on one’s efforts. Annabelle says Except for the last story, there are some excellent tales, stories within stories, and captivating visuals here. The catch: most of them are unfinished. And I don't think these were written intentionally without closure. They are simply unfinished. The yarns unfold like a thread of fairy tales, grisly ones. Incest, witchcraft, curses are in order. How and where did she get all this material? I really should read up on Isak Dinesen's biography... robyn says She's a simply gorgeous writer. I've been thinking about story-telling ever since I read it, weeks ago; there are a couple of stories here which either reference story telling, or are outright about it. You'll never read anything like her, and yet I can only really describe her by comparing her - to Victor Hugo or Somerset Maugham, the way that all three have of diving deeply into their characters' mind, of telling a story that is truly about a person, because it is of and in them... but that's not quite right either, because in this book at least not a lot actually HAPPENS to these people; small things, internal things, there is very little in the way of external drama that forces self PDF File: Last Tales... 5 Read and Download Ebook Last Tales... revelation or a plot line - but I've read books full of dragons, wars, and the fall of kingdoms that struck less deeply. I'd have given this 5 stars if only these stories were finished.