Winter’s Tales

After the huge success of her autobiography, Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen returned to a European setting in these exquisite, rapturous tales of rebirth and redemption. Beginning with a sailor-boy’s bold progression to manhood, the stories are full of longing, a theme often mirrored in the desire to escape to sea, as in ‘the Young Man with the Carnation’ and ‘Peter and Rosa’. This collection also includes ‘Sorrow-Acre’, a modern rendition of a folk-tale in which old ideals clash with the new order, and is considered by many to be one of her finest stories. Full of psychological insights, these luminous tales reveal the mystery and unexpectedness of human behaviour.