SEVEN GOTHIC TALES

Author: Karen Blixen
Year: 1955 (1934)
Publisher: Albert Bonniers Förlag
Language: Swedish (Translator Sonja Vougt)

There are writers of mystery, and then there are mysterious writers. Karen Blixen, also known under her pen name Isak Dinesen, strikes me as the latter; easy to love, difficult to understand, impossible to categorise... other than just that: mysterious. Her writing has been compared to Edgar Allan Poe’s horror, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s mysticism and E.T.A. Hoffman’s magic realism but still, it says little of the tales that this Danish adventurer and storyteller forged.

A way, perchance, to illustrate this is the struggle the editors must have had trying to name her debut work, a collection of seven short stories published in 1934. In its original English, it is known as “Seven Gothic Tales”. The Swedish edition and the first translation that the author herself approved of, is “Sju romantiska berättelser” i.e. Seven Romantic Tales. Blixen’s own translation into Danish bore the title “Syv fantastiske fortaellinger” or Seven Fantastic Tales. The first German translation was called "Die Sintflut von Norderney und andere seltsame Geschichten", or in English The Deluge at Norderney and Other Remarkable Tales, whereas the Poles published it under the title "Siedem niesamowitych opowiesci" or Seven Incredible Tales. 

After having read them, I can fully relate. This is a collection of peculiar stories presented in a, for Blixen’s time, unusual way in many respects.

One is that, instead of being ahead of her time, or at least of it, Blixen wrote in an oddly conservative, almost archaic fashion. Although being published in the 1930s which was a decade that gave the world titles such as Brave New World, Grapes of Wrath, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, and Le Mur, all of which are milestones for literary modernity and much influenced by the seeming progress of psychoanalysis and political turmoil of the time between the wars, Sju romantiska berättelser is written in a style that predates it by a century. The language is intricate and theatrical, the characters stereotypical and unnatural, and the aristocratic setting old-fashioned.

True to form, Blixen allows most of her stories to be recounted in the shape of memories. Often the frame is a conversation during which one of the characters tells a story to their companions about something that happened a long time ago. In some cases, Blixen’s story-teller tells a story about a story-teller who tells a story. In so doing, Blixen tries to connect the story she wants to tell to the reader in her own era. Moreover, it seems to me like she has put an additional layer in her narrative to, as it were, distance herself from the content of the story and give it a veil of uncertainty that just may be enough to make it more credible.

The stories themselves are of varying quality ranging from pointless to brilliant. The most famous item, “The Deluge at Norderney”, is certainly the strongest of the tales and also presents the most interesting characters and a surprising finale. I consider “The Dreamers” to be another solid performance, which I enjoyed quite a bit even though it took me a moment to come to terms with the different levels of narration and the graphic way certain ethnic groups are presented. At her best, Blixen manages to lure her reader into an atmosphere of anticipation, where something can happen at any time. And when it finally happens, the turn of events propels the story into a completely different direction than expected. At her worst, the story resembles a rock anthem that builds up to a powerful climax only to fade out and leave the listener wondering what on earth happened to the chorus.

Two things to look out for is how the stories sometimes are interconnected. A character that only quickly flashes by in one of the tales can be the protagonist of another. Another is Blixen’s habit of challenging her readers with quotes in German, French, Latin, and Italian without providing neither a translation or a source. I do not know if the meanings of the quotes were obvious to an average reader of her days, but they certainly weren’t always clear to me. My guess is that she took delight in the thought of making her reader feel a tad bit uneducated in the presence of her writing.

That would correspond well to the person that Karen Blixen seems to have been. She has been described as a highly complex person, arrogant, egocentric, and in constant need of attention and accolade. Highly intelligent but unreliable. Innovative but lazy. Perhaps it makes sense that a person like that would write stories like these.

Although a few of Blixen’s Sju romantiska berättelser were barely sufferable, others are highly stimulating, which, all things considered, makes me want to recommend this collection for those who take an interest in historical books and who do not mind obsolete stereotypes and outdated language.