SOURCE: Henriksen, Aage. “Karen Blixen and Marionettes.” In Isak Dinesen: Critical Views, edited by Olga Anastasia Pelensky and William Mishler, pp. 1-17. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1993.

In the following essay, originally published in Karen Blixen og Marionetterne in 1952, Henriksen illustrates the use of the marionette symbol in Isak Dinesen's works, including Out of Africa and Seven Gothic Tales.

Seven Gothic Tales

The qualities that have led to Karen Blixen's literary fame are the first ones to strike the readers of her stories. The exquisite and refined narrative manner and the mysterious and fantastic elements of their plots have given her readers a somewhat intimidating impression of her: Karen Blixen as the aristocrat and sybil in Danish literature, the great anachronism who manages to combine old culture with archaic unculture. But this portrait reveals only half the truth, and it suffers a bit from banality. There is much spirit...