Anecdotes of Destiny

Here again are stories with a suggestion of the "Gothic". Each of these five stories bears the hallmark of Isak Dinesen. The Diver is an ironical tale of a young theological student who thinks his fate belongs with the birds - and the angels. When human jokers trick him into betrayal, he seeks instead the secrets of the deeps. Babette's Feast is the author's most famous tale and this reader's favorite of the five - the story of the mysterious French maid-of-all-work who choses to fulfill her genius as a great artist creating one perfect meal, even though the staid Norwegian guests refuse to acknowledge it. Tempests is a tragic romance, in the story of a young and promising actress who feels herself condemned to fulfill completely the destiny decreed in Shakespeare's Tempest. The Immortal Story tells how an immensely rich and lonely tea-trader endeavores to make a story told by all sailors come true. The Ring is a brief story of a bride of high estate who marries beneath her - and who on her honeymoon has an experience that persuades her that the end of her marriage perhaps has come before it has even begun...