Isak Dinesen

In describing her experiences managing a coffee plantation in Kenya, the author provides insights into the nature of African life

Out of Africa ; And, Shadows on the Grass

In describing her experiences managing a coffee plantation in Kenya, the author provides insight into the nature of African life

Out of Africa

Barbara Williford

Wow! What a book and what an adventure. The book is well written with just the right amount of description where it seems you are immersed in Africa living with the author. From the beautiful landscape, the native animals and people, you get a full experience as the author lived. The narration of the Audible is amazing! The emotion in the narrator’s voice is so vivid as if she is the author herself.

Karen Blixen

From the moment Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya in 1914 to manage a coffee plantation, her heart belonged to Africa. Drawn to the intense colours and ravishing landscapes, Blixen spent her happiest years on the farm, and her experiences and friendships with the people around her are vividly recalled in these memoirs.

Nona G

I have mixed feelings about this book. I bought it on a whim and because I wanted to see the movie, which is a classic that everyone raves about. To be honest, I still want to see the movie, and I have a feeling it's way better than the novel, because, well, freaking Meryl Streep, but the book... oh well, let's just say I won't be re-reading it or recommending it.

It's not that the writing is bad, it really isn't. It paints a picture of colonial Africa that one probably won't see anywhere else. It's almost poetic at times. I quite admire Karen Blixen for being so ahead of her times (remember, we're talking about the 20s, when women weren't, as a rule, very self sufficient, so being a woman who owned a farm was very progressive). She sincerely loved her farm and Africa and it must have hurt a lot to lose it all at once and return to Europe all alone. 

But the thing is, I simply cannot put myself in her shoes and get over the fact that she is so condescending in her speech about the people of the land (the Kikuyus and the Masai), about white people versus natives, about hunting... I get it that this was the norm of the era, but Europeans laid waste to so many territories due to their excessive desire for wealth and power that I cannot read this book without being biased (and yes, I'm European and I still don't agree with this).

If you manage not to be biased or horrified about the treatment of the people and animals and can see only the beauty of the writing, the novel is a good read and it paints a lovely picture of Africa and its people and culture. I, unfortunately, could only see the destruction left behind by the colonists.

In Out of Africa, author Isak Dinesen takes a wistful and nostalgic look back on her years living in Africa on a Kenyan coffee plantation. Recalling the lives of friends and neighbours—both African and European—Dinesen provides a first-hand perspective of colonial Africa. Through her obvious love of both the landscape and her time in Africa, Dinesen’s meditative writing style deeply reflects the themes of loss as her plantation fails and she returns to Europe. HarperTorch brings great works of non-fiction and the dramatic arts to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperTorch collection to build your digital library.

Out Of Africa

Simone Larsen

Stef Hite

Andrew John Kinney

Wynter

Vilandra

Joshua Line

Anna

Rikke Lohse

Andrew Ireland

Michele Bruwer

Bee 

Jessie

Jenni Pertuset

Chiara Bogi

Julia A.

Luisina Rivoira

Den afrikanske farm

Julie Kristine Veaas

Karen Blixen went to Kenya in 1914 to run a coffee farm; its failure in 1931 caused her to return to Denmark where she wrote this classic account of her experiences. OUT OF AFRICA is a celebration of her life there; her friendship with the various peoples of the area and her sympathetic response to the landscape and animals are drawn with warmth and unusual clarity. Although the book is pervaded by her sense of loss, Karen Blixen looks back with an unsentimental intelligence to portray a way oflife that is now gone forever.

Out of Africa ; And, Shadows on the Grass

Reviews