Summary
OUT OF AFRICA is the classic account of the experiences of Karen Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen) in Kenya, where she managed a coffee plantation for 17 years, from 1914 to 1931, first with her difficult husband the Baron von Blixen and, after their divorce, by herself. One of the most popular books of the 20th century, it provides a vivid and lyrical but very realistic description of colonial Africa and life in the bush country far inland. The book was made into an acclaimed film in 1985 starring Meryl Streep (as Karen Blixen) and Robert Redford (as Denys Finch-Hatton, her longtime lover, who was killed in a plane crash in 1931).
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Media Reviews
"The story moves in clear, quiet prose from the author's early African days to the selling and breaking-up of her farm eight years later; its unpretentiousness and sense are particularly impressive and never is there any falling back upon obvious bring-'em-back-alive anecdotes to awe the foreign reader."
-- New Republic
"This writing is without redundancies, bared to its lines of strength and beauty....[T]here is no sentimentality, no elaboration."
-- New York Times
"The outstanding quality of this book is charm: its delightful jacket, in green tapestry, of African beasts and birds, clothes a body of careful pleasant writing, abounding in the mot juste, and a soul of sympathy, insight, and unusual sensibility."
-- Spectator
"Here is something very different from most of the books written about Kenya. The direct unaffected style of the narrative and the strength and integrity of feeling in which it has its source make it a book of unusual quality."
-- Times Literary Supplement
"I think Isak Dinesen never wrote anything to compare with OUT OF AFRICA." -- Elizabeth Bishop
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Random House Inc
Published date: 2002
Size: 6 x 8.5 inches
Weight: 1.2 pounds
Pages: 389
Publisher's Notes
In this book, the author of Seven Gothic Tales gives a true account of her life on her plantation in Kenya. She tells with classic simplicity of the ways of the country and the natives: of the beauty of the Ngong Hills and coffee trees in blossom: of her guests, from the Prince of Wales to Knudsen, the old charcoal burner, who visited her: of primitive festivals: of big game that were her near neighbors--lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras, buffaloes--and of Lulu, the little gazelle who came to live with her, unbelievably ladylike and beautiful.
The Random House colophon made its debut in February 1927 on the cover of a little pamphlet called "Announcement Number One." Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, the company's founders, had acquired the Modern Library from publishers Boni and Liveright two years earlier. One day, their friend the illustrator Rockwell Kent stopped by their office. Cerf later recalled, "Rockwell was sitting at my desk facing Donald, and we were talking about doing a few books on the side, when suddenly I got an inspiration and said, 'I've got the name for our publishing house. We just said we were go-ing to publish a few books on the side at random. Let's call it Random House.' Donald liked the idea, and Rockwell Kent said, 'That's a great name. I'll draw your trademark.' So, sitting at my desk, he took a piece of paper and in five minutes drew Random House, which has been our colophon ever since." Throughout the years, the mission of Random House has remained consistent: to publish books of the highest quality, at random. We are proud to continue this tradition today.
This edition is set from the first American edition of 1937 and commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of Random House.
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