"Seven Gothic Tales" 1934 DINESEN, Isak
$1,500
[522] pp.
DINESEN, Isak
1st Edition
Putnam
1934
8.25" x 5.75"
Frontispiece by Rex Whistler
Blixen's first book, published first in the United States under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen. These intricate and imaginative tales, all set in the nineteenth century, won wide acclaim in America and soon appeared in this edition in Britain and then in Denmark (as Syv fantastiske fortællinger). "Since her pseudonym was quickly penetrated, she published under her own name in every country, except the United States, where 'Isak Dinesen' swiftly became a valuable brand. Among the main stylistic influences on Blixen's tales can be counted the English gothic novel, German Romanticism, Boccacio's Decameron, and The Arabian Nights. When asked why she set her tales over a hundred years in the past, Blixen responded that the past could be more easily recompounded in her imagination, and she would not be forced to resort to realism.