BLIXEN, Karen, as Isak Dinesen.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Seven Gothic Tales. First British edition of the author's first book. Originally published in America a few months earlier, this collection of short, enigmatic stories became instantly popular. A Danish translation by the author appeared in print the following year. As a student, Dinesen had already published a number of tales in Danish under the pseudonym Osceola. She began drafting Seven Gothic Tales in English while still living in Kenya, eventually seeking publication as a means of alleviating her financial crises. The fact that the English-language book market was much larger than the Danish informed her choice of language. The jacket of this edition, depicting a dramatic landscape within a Gothic architectural border, was designed by the prominent British artist Rex Whistler (1905-1944).Many of the author's favourite motifs "appear here fully formed: cross-dressing, siblings of opposite sexes who seem like aspects of each other, royal personages (Danish) corrupted by patriarchy, young women threatened by misogynistic patriarchy, other women chained by ideals of sexual purity, wild animals, artists, and whores, as well as witches, shape-shifters, and other wielders of magic" (Orlando).

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