Other ladies at that time wore a bustle, and the two sisters might have worn it as gracefully as any of them, for they were tall and willowy. Sixty-five years ago two elderly ladies lived in one of the yellow houses. At the foot of the mountains the small town of Berlevaag looks like a child’s toy-town of little wooden pieces painted grey, yellow, pink and many other colours. In Norway there is a fjord – a long narrow arm of the sea between tall mountains – named Berlevaag Fjord. So without much ado, here is Part I of ‘Babette’s Feast’ (with a link to the rest of the short story below that). Her works display her vivid imagination clearly but it is really the way she lets a story unfold, as if by itself, that proves her a master at her art. In contrast to this, Blixen would have the most plethoric flower arrangements adorning every room of her house displayed in perfectly polished silver urns, this was clearly something she took great pleasure for she would insist on assorting the arrangements herself.Īnother great pleasure in Blixen’s life was storytelling. As a result of this her family house in Rungestedlund, where she spent the rest of her years following her divorce from Baron Blixen, has much memorabilia from her African days including her beautifully drawn portraits of local Kenyan villagers.
Although she married very well and became a baroness, she chose to live relatively plainly in a manor house in Kenya for the first few years of her married life. Like the protagonist in ‘Babette’s Feast’, Blixen had a duality to her that reflected both the simple life and extravagance. Plethoric flower arrangements adorning every room of her house displayed in perfectly polished silver urns… Breathing in the fresh sea air on a winter’s day in Scandinavia was lovely experience. I’m so glad I did because it was a wonderful seeing her perfectly preserved coastal house and gardens, and wandering around the portion of her estate that has been turned into a bird sanctuary.
When I was on holiday in Denmark a couple of years ago, I took the train north of Copenhagen to visit Blixen’s family home. Her short story, ‘Babette’s Feast’ was published in 1958 in her collection Anecdotes of Destiny. Karen Blixen is best known for two things: her psuedonym, which is Isak Dinesen, and her memoir Out of Africa which was turned into a film in 1985 starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.
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