Introduction & Overview of Babette's Feast

This Study Guide consists of approximately 30 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Babette's Feast.

Introduction & Overview of Babette's Feast

This Study Guide consists of approximately 30 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Babette's Feast.
This section contains 222 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the Babette's Feast Study Guide

Babette's Feast Summary & Study Guide Description

Babette's Feast Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:

This detailed literature summary also contains Bibliography on Babette's Feast by Karen Blixen.

Perhaps best known for Out of Africa (1937), Isak Dinesen is the pseudonym of Karen Blixen. Having established her reputation as an author in the 1930s and 1940s, she sought to increase her income in the 1950s by having stories published in American magazines. A number of her stories were featured in Ladies' Home Journal, including "Babette's Feast," which was first published in 1950. A friend had advised her to write about food because Americans love food, so she crafted a story about the transformative powers of a very special feast. In 1958, "Babette's Feast," along with other stories published in magazines, was compiled into Anecdotes of Destiny, which was available as of 2004.

As a child, Dinesen suffered the loss of her father by suicide. In the wake of this tragedy, her grandmother and a nearby aunt helped care for the family. Through this experience, Dinesen came to understand and appreciate the ways women take care of loved ones and of each other. As an adult, Dinesen found herself operating a coffee farm in East Africa, an experience that taught her a great deal about contrasting people and cultures. Dinesen's admirers and scholars often seek parallels between her life and her writing, and in "Babette's Feast" Dinesen seems to draw on her childhood and adult experiences to give the story depth and authenticity.

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This section contains 222 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the Babette's Feast Study Guide
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Gale
Babette's Feast from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.