Isak Dinesen . . . had an original approach to life that permeated all
her work. She loved storytelling, with the result that most of her
essays are quasi-narratives, which proceed not from major to minor
premise but from one anecdote to another as the way of making concrete
whatever idea she is considering. Her work is a delight and at times a
marvel.--The New Yorker
Through these daguerreotypes we begin to understand other periods, the
renunciations of World War I, the purpose of houses and mansions, of
ritual ceremonials, such as tatooing. We are given a fresh and vivid
view of the women's movement . . . which urges that what our 'small
society' needs beyond human beings who have demonstrated what they can
do, is people who are. 'Indeed, our own time, ' she wrote in 1953,
'can be said to need a revision from doing to being.' She
demonstrated it in her own work and craft, with courage and with
dignity. This collection is as real as a gallery of old daguerreotypes,
moving and unfaded. The work, as Hannah Arendt says, of a wise
woman.--Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times
These essays . . . have the flavor of good conversation: humorous, easy,
personal but not oppressive, the distillation of reading, thought, and
experience. Their subjects are of surprisingly current interest. We need
make no concessions to the past, need not set our watches back to
'historical.' Isak Dinesen was not a faddish thinker. . . . 'In history
it is always the human element that has a chance for eternal life, '
Dinesen remarks, and she gives these essays their chance.--Penelope
Mesic, Chicago
