Isak Dinesen, Judith Thurman
Isak Dinesen, Judith Thurman
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
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Isak Dinesen
The Life of a Storyteller

Author: Judith Thurman

Narrator: Davina Porter

Unabridged: 21 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 06/13/2008


Synopsis

Isak Dinesen earned international fame for Seven Gothic Tales and Out of Africa, and other stories that skillfully combine elements of fable, social conflict, and psychological drama. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. Yet the story of her life-her travels, affairs, and friendships-remains the greatest story of all. Christened with the name Karen, the moody, headstrong, youngest of three sisters was nicknamed "Tanne" for much of her childhood. She was determined to become an artist. After she married Baron Blixen, she was the mistress and landowner "Tania" to those she knew and loved in her new African home. Finally, it was with the name "Isak" meaning "one who laughs" that she became known to the world as a master storyteller. Each period of her life provided Dinesen with rich characters and horizons for her brilliant writing. Noted biographer and critic Judith Thurman draws on Isak Dinesen's letters, unpublished manuscripts, and family documents in this compelling biography. Winner of the National Book Award, Isak Dinesen gracefully reveals the connections between a remarkable woman's literary creations and her fascinating life.

About Judith Thurman

Judith Thurman is the author of Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire; Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller, winner of the National Book Award for Autobiography/Biography; and Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette. A staff writer at The New Yorker, she lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Anastasia on August 18, 2012

This is an intense biography by a writer every bit as talented as Isak Dinesen but much more sane, thank God. By any measure, Isak Dinesen was about as complicated, tempestuous, and megalomaniacal as they come. Midway through this giant tombstone of a book, I was wishing I hadn't opted to find out s......more

Goodreads review by Mary on June 15, 2016

This book. Wow. I'm only halfway done and feel I need to capture some thoughts. I read Out of Africa although I don't remember much except feeling frustrated. Now I know why!! It wasn't a memoir, it wasn't a novel, it was a hodgepodge and it confused me. I put Isak Dinesen on my list because it won th......more

Goodreads review by Celia on January 13, 2020

This is a very good book. Much better, IMHO, than the book that Dinesen wrote herself, Out of Africa. Coupled with another great book, Circling the Sun, by Paula McClain, it describes an unknown and romantic world in the country of Kenya.......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on December 28, 2008

I appreciate literary biography, and I consider this particular book to be at the very apex of that genre. Meticulously researched, richly described, not only of the culture and times of late 19th and early 20th century Europe and Africa, but of the fascinating, difficult, frequently unlikable chara......more

Goodreads review by Chris on May 24, 2022

This is a meticulously researched and highly detailed biography of a writer and author about whom I knew very little apart from having read, and thoroughly enjoyed 'Out of Africa' (twice over the years) and seen the film at some point in between. What a remarkable woman Isak Dinesen was! Her childhoo......more