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Out of Africa

Isak Dinesen,

Karen Blixen

3.93 · Rating details · 35,188 ratings · 1,997 reviews

Out of Africa is Isak Dinesen's memoir of her years in Africa, from 1914 to 1931, on a four-thousand-acre coffee plantation in the hills near Nairobi. She had come to Kenya from Denmark with her husband, and when they separated she stayed on to manage the farm by herself, visited frequently by her lover, the big-game hunter Denys Finch-Hatton, for whom she would make up ...more

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Hardcover, 399 pages

Published 1992 by Modern Library (first published 1937)

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Mar 23, 2017 Jeffrey Keeten rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: book-to-film, africa

Up in this air you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be.

Karen Blixen in 1913. Her whole life was before her.

When Karen Blixen married her second cousin Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke in 1914 and followed along as a devoted wife should to help him run a coffee plantation in Kenya, Im sure she had an idea of what her life was to be, but the story of our lives generally deviates ...more

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Nov 05, 2016 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, favorites

I once had a crush on Karen Blixen, at the shores of Rungstedlund.

Travelling my life like Odysseus the mythical Mediterranean seas, I found myself in front of a majestic house on a strip of Danish coastline, some ten years ago, and in the company of my lively bunch of toddlers, aged approximately 4, 2.5 and 0.5 years. While I walked reverently in the footsteps of Karen Blixen, studiously scrutinising every single letter and photograph on display in the exhibition, my family ran wild outside, ...more

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Dec 19, 2018 Candi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, africa, biography-autobiography-memoir, kindle, adventurers-explorers

4.5 stars

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills Everything that you saw made for greatness and freedom, and unequalled nobility."

A beautiful and evocative memoir of Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, Out of Africa is a tribute to that magnificent continent from a woman who truly loved both the land and its people. One must remember while reading this memoir that it was written during a period of colonialism, but I never sensed that Blixen felt herself superior to the native 4.5 stars

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills… Everything that you saw made for greatness and freedom, and unequalled nobility."

A beautiful and evocative memoir of Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, Out of Africa is a tribute to that magnificent continent from a woman who truly loved both the land and its people. One must remember while reading this memoir that it was written during a period of colonialism, but I never sensed that Blixen felt herself superior to the native Kikuyu people of Kenya, where she worked tirelessly alongside them on her coffee plantation. The Kikuyu held much respect for Blixen and she in turn respected their values and traditions. She sympathized with various points of view, while at the same time admitting that the Kikuyu perhaps had a greater understanding of her than the other way round. "I reconciled myself to the fact that while I should never quite know or understand them, they knew me through and through, and were conscious of the decisions that I was going to take, before I was certain about them myself."

The descriptions of the landscape and the wildlife of Africa are as stunning as one would expect. Everything comes to life with Blixen’s vivid and lovely prose. One can believe she really wanted to become a part of Africa herself, not just one that wanted to ‘claim’ a piece of it. I loved her story about little Lulu, a young bushbuck antelope that at one time became a member of the household in her own right. "Lulu came in from the wild world to show that we were on good terms with it, and she made my house one with the African landscape, so that nobody could tell where the one stopped and the other began." Those who are sensitive to the topic should be warned that there are a couple of hunting scenes and mentions of safaris. These were unfortunately common events of the day, but quite regrettable nevertheless. They did not affect my overall enjoyment of this book. The majesty of the lion and lioness in his and her natural environment is something that I will always recall with a sense of awe.

I’m not sure what I liked most about this book – the country or the people that Blixen got to know over the twelve or so years she spent on her plantation. Both aspects are so very captivating. Throughout this time, many visitors came and went from her home. It was a place of refuge for Europeans traveling to the continent. "They had been over vast countries and had raised and broken their tents in many places, now they were pleased to round my drive that was steadfast as the orbit of a star. They liked to be met by familiar faces, and I had the same servants all the time that I was in Africa." It was also a place of gathering for the ngomas, the Kikuyu’s great social dances. One of the most memorable visitors to the farm was Denys Finch-Hatton, a gentleman Blixen held in high regard and with whom she spent much time between his various safari outings. "Denys had watched and followed all the ways of the African Highlands, and better than any other white man, he had known their soil and seasons, the vegetation and the wild animals, the winds and smells. He had observed the changes of weather in them, their people, clouds, the stars at night." One of her greatest joys was when she had the opportunity to fly over Africa with Denys and see its riches from above.

Parting with her coffee plantation, her servants, and the Kikuyu was a time of great sadness for Blixen, but she made sure to see that all of those who had depended on her and the farm for their own livelihood were taken care of to the best of her ability. Blixen will always stand out in my mind as a woman of courage, compassion and great dignity. Highly recommended to those that enjoy memoirs, Africa, and admirable women.

"If I know a song of Africa,—I thought,—of the Giraffe, and the African new moon lying on her back, of the ploughs in the fields, and the sweaty faces of the coffee-pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Would the air over the plain quiver with a colour that I had had on, or the children invent a game in which my name was, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or would the eagles of Ngong look out for me?" ...more

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Nov 20, 2019 Kylie D rated it really liked it

Shelves: atwi80b-2019, read-the-world, non-fiction

Out Of Africa is the poignant memoir of Karen Blixen, a Danish woman, who lived on a coffee farm in Kenya for many years. It is not a strict chronological biography, more a rambling series of memories. Beautifully written, it portrays a life among the native peoples, wild vistas and animals. This one will stay with you for a long while. Recommended.

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Jun 04, 2014 Duane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biographies, memoir, 2016-book-challenge, reviewed-books, 5-star-books, non-fiction, africa, rated-books

"I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills".

After finishing the book I turned back to read this opening line again, and in this first sentence one can sense the pride that Blixen felt for this place, and one can also feel the sadness, the disappointment in the word "had", knowing that it slipped away from her at the end. Losing her farm and also losing her beloved Denys Finch Hatton must have been devastating.

This is one of those memoirs that is as compelling as good fiction. ...more

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Nov 12, 2018 Brina rated it liked it

Shelves: 500-great-books-women, africa, memoirs, nonfiction

It is November and it is to the point where many of the books in my library pile are meant to check off books remaining in yearly challenges in some capacity. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen, the pen name for Karen Blixen, is highly regarded. As such, it was chosen as a buddy read in the group Retro Chapter Chicks this month. I also happened to have the book on my bingo card in the group Catching up on Classics so I could read to check off that box as well, and now I only have one box left to It is November and it is to the point where many of the books in my library pile are meant to check off books remaining in yearly challenges in some capacity. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen, the pen name for Karen Blixen, is highly regarded. As such, it was chosen as a buddy read in the group Retro Chapter Chicks this month. I also happened to have the book on my bingo card in the group Catching up on Classics so I could read to check off that box as well, and now I only have one box left to complete the full card. Besides being able to check off multiple boxes at a time, I enjoy memoirs and biographies so I was looking forward to reading a memoir of the classic variety. There is something about this book that I can not quite pinpoint that just does not do it for me.

Karen Blixen managed a coffee farm in the Ngong hills of Kenya during the interwar years. In her memoir she passionately describes the time and place where she lived. One could get a feeling that this memoir focuses on Blixen's love affair with Africa as she describes her farm, the relationships she forged with both natives and Europeans, the Kenyan way of life, and the luscious scenery. Yet, I need action. I need a narrator of a memoir to move quickly from one point to the other or I find myself bored. Despite my fascination with the African way of life during the 1920s, this memoir read slow. As Blixen described the daily life on her farm, the prose had me dosing off; however, when a car went to the bustling city of Nairobi or the natives held a festive dance or people decided to go on a safari, I had my interest piqued. Thus is the contrast between past and modern settings.

I do give Blixen credit for managing her farm alone with a delinquent husband for nearly ten years during an era when women were for the most part property of their husbands. Blixen was well respected by the natives and enjoyed a working relationship with government officials in Nairobi. She treated the native Kikuyu and Masai people with dignity and they in turn asked Blixen to intercede on their behalf in most government matters. Because of Blixen's position in Kenyan and Somali society, Out of Africa has remained a well read book among feminist circles. Critics laud Blixen's spirit of adventure and spunk during this bygone era. For that reason I was willing to read to the conclusion and give the memoir the benefit of the doubt.

While I got a feel for Kenya of ninety years ago, the prose moved too slow to rank Out of Africa among my favorite classics read. The subject matter makes it a worthy read and I would still urge people to give it a try on a lazy day especially as the scenery sounds breathtaking. Out of Africa aptly check off the classic I put off reading square on my bingo card as this was a book that felt like one that I wanted to give up on throughout; yet, I managed to endure Blixen's stay on African soil. A worthy read, just not completely my taste.

3 stars ...more

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Nov 18, 2015 Lizzy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: stars-5, read-2015, biography-memoirs, favorites-of-all-times

I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills.
From its first sentence Out of Africa captivated me. It was enchanting, old-fashioned, poignant, wistful and insightful. Karen Blixens story of her life in Africa, a series of reminiscences from 1914 to 1931, portrays her love for that country the people, the land, the animals. It has a fairy tale quality at times. Blixen is a master story-teller; its easy to understand why Denys Finch Hatton loved to hear her recount her stories.

The ...more

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Jan 04, 2008 Andrea rated it it was ok

I chose to read this book in high school as one of those free-reading things for which you later have to give a presentation. This is a book about Africa for white people who want to go on a safari and see the cool animals, which is basically what the author did. I kinda hated Karen Blixen for her condescending attitude towards the "natives" and I felt the whole book was nothing but pretentious, self-aggrandizing bullshit. If I had had any courage, I would have done two things differently for my ...more

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Feb 18, 2017 Sidharth Vardhan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bio-memoir, bestest, list-1001, non-fiction, 1-africa, list-feminsta, woman-authors

I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.

This very first line of Dinesen's memoir is like down Alice's rabbit hole; Platform Nine and three quarters, King's Cross or that cyclone that took Dorothy to Oz. Except this time, the world is a real one. Though not imaginary, it isn't lacking in adventures because of that and is unlike anything that modern city dwelling readers can know.

It is a sad hardship and slavery to people who live in towns, that in their movements they know of

“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”

“It is a sad hardship and slavery to people who live in towns, that in their movements they know of one dimension only; they walk along the line as if they were led on a string. The transition from the line to the plane into the two dimensions, when you wander across a field or through a wood, is a splendid liberation to the slaves, like the French Revolution. But in the air you are taken into the full freedom of the three dimensions; after long ages of exile and dreams the homesick heart throws itself into the arms of space.”

What sets this book apart from other books on Africa by European travellers who always seemed to be filled with horrors, is that she probably loves it more than her homeland and is at one with it:

"Here I am, where I ought to be.”

“When you have caught the rhythm of Africa, you find out that it is the same in all her music.”

And Dinesen is filled with love for everything she found in this world. And she has a beautiful prose with which to describe this love:

"As they had become used to the idea of poetry, they begged: "Speak again. Speak like rain." Why they should feel verse to be like rain I do not know."

“People who dream when they sleep at night know of a special kind of happiness which the world of the day holds not, a placid ecstasy, and ease of heart, that are like honey on the tongue.”

And, since she is an avid reader, she is able to further beautify her prose with quotes from other books:

"Kepler writes of what he felt when, after many years' work, he at last found the laws of the movements of the planets: "I give myself over to my rapture. The die is cast. Nothing I have ever felt before is like this. I tremble, my blood leaps. God has waited six thousand years for a looker-on to his work. His wisdom is infinite, that of which we are ignorant is contained in him, as well as the little that we know."

"So sad did it seem that I remembered the saying of the hero in a book that I had read as a child: "I have conquered them all, but I am standing amongst graves."

The two criticisms it has drawn is that it is racist and talks about hunting. As regards hunting, a lot of it is rendered neccesary by conditions though she does sometimes do for fun of it, also she manages to show a compassion for animals. Moreover I never really understand why it should be a taboo. People never really care about the number of lives they take in doing pest controls at homes.

As regards racism, I don't think she is racist. Racism, like every other prejudice, guards the ignorance which is at its roots and is unapreiciative and uncomprenhending of beauty in the prejudiced. Dinesen is the very opposite of that, she shows a great love and respect for African people and their culture as well a great willingness to understand them:

"The Masai when they were moved from their old country, North of the railway line, to the present Masai Reserve, took with them the names of their hills, plains and rivers; and gave them to the hills, plains and rivers in the new country."

"perhaps the white men of the past, indeed of any past, would have been in better understanding and sympathy with the coloured races than we, of our Industrial Age, shall ever be. When the first steam engine was constructed, the roads of the races of the world parted, and we have never found one another since."

“Up at Meru I saw a young Native girl with a bracelet on, a leather strap two inches wide, and embroidered all over with very small turquoise-coloured beads which varied a little in colour and played in green, light blue, and ultramarine. It was an extraordinarily live thing; it seemed to draw breath on her arm, so that I wanted it for myself, and made Farah buy it from her. No sooner had it come upon my own arm than it gave up the ghost. It was nothing now, a small, cheap, purchased article of finery. It had been the play of colours, the duet between the turquoise and the 'nègre' - that quick, sweet, brownish black, like peat and black pottery, of the Native's skin - that had created the life of the bracelet.”

...more

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Aug 12, 2015 Dianne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: best-of-2015

Really lovely - a living, breathing piece of history with writing that will make your heart sing. Of its time, certainly not "politically correct" with its colonial viewpoint, but nevertheless, the author's love of Africa and its people shines through. I felt as though I was sitting at Scheherazade's knee as she spun her 1001 tales. Dinesen/Blixen is a master story-teller - I can understand why Denys Finch Hatton loved to hear her tell her stories.

Highly recommend.

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Sep 06, 2018 Beverly rated it liked it

This woman led an extraordinary life. She tells of her struggles to make a coffee tree farm profitable in Kenya (17 years she lived there, 10 with a dissolute husband and 7 on her own after their divorce, you get the feeling she wasn't too keen about him, as she only mentions him once in the narrative) with lyrical, lovely prose. This is not a linear story, but rather a collection of short vignettes about Africa: her friends there, animals she loved and those she hunted, the beauty of the ...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Forrest rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.

For better or worse, this opening sentence rekindled my love affair with literature. Granted, I never lost my love of reading, but from my late teens to my early-twenties, the relationship was rather shallow, mostly maintained through movies about books, comic books/graphic novels (still a great love for me), and role-playing game books and modules, all interspersed with one-night-stands with real books that I loved for a night, then left I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.

For better or worse, this opening sentence rekindled my love affair with literature. Granted, I never lost my love of reading, but from my late teens to my early-twenties, the relationship was rather shallow, mostly maintained through movies about books, comic books/graphic novels (still a great love for me), and role-playing game books and modules, all interspersed with one-night-stands with real books that I loved for a night, then left on the bedside. I still engage in some these dalliances, but Out of Africa, from its first sentence, grabbed me by the lapels and ripped my shirt apart. I was smitten. It was the new beginning to a lifelong love of the written word.

The book isn't without its issues, not the least of which are deeply embedded assumptions about "The Native". Thankfully, Blixen challenges and refutes some of her own assumptions about Africa and Africans while acknowledging her inevitable cultural distance from those around her. Of course, she has brushes with condescension, as any European colonial of the time would have had. But any analysis of the book that doesn't acknowledge that Blixen and her attitude are a product of the time is unashamedly disingenuous.

Blixen is careful to observe that she is also being observed. She is in Africa, but not of Africa:

If I know a song of Africa,-I thought,-of the Giraffe, and the African new moon lying on her back, of the ploughs in the fields, and the sweaty faces of the coffee-pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Would the air over the plain quiver with a colour that I had had on, or the children invent a game in which my name was, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or would the eagles of Ngong look out for me?

Throughout the book, Blixen seems to want to be a part of this place in which she finds herself. But even her separation from the spiritual ideal of full integration serves its own utilitarian purposes. For instance, when the locals ask her to judge between them in their disputes, it is precisely this distance that allows them to trust her impartiality:

It is likely that the Kikuyu of the farm saw my greatness as a judge in the fact that I knew nothing whatever of the laws according to which I judged.

But the heart of Out of Africa is not about intellectual stances or empty academic discussions about signifiers and signified. It is about the people, African and European, that Karen Blixen interacts with. On this level, I connected with the author and wanted to know more about those she interacted with. I don't think it's an accident, then, that four years after reading this book, I undertook graduate studies in African History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. To say this book had an effect on my life would be a gross understatement. That first sentence shattered a number of possible futures and, eventually, opened up windows on vistas I might never have otherwise imagined. ...more

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May 02, 2009 Tinea rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: no one! why are we still pretending this colonial drivel has value?

Recommended to Tinea by: Mom

Shelves: place, colonialism-imperialism-war

I have no idea why my mom recommended this book to me. A white British colonist tells the story of her privileged life on her coffee plantation in Kenya. She writes some great imagery about the Kenyan landscape and tells funny stories about animals, except that her idea of the landscape and animals includes all the Black servants and workers and "squatters" on her plantation. She is really stupid and proudly naive. It's awful. For example, when she jokingly threatens to fire all of her servants ...more

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Jul 01, 2016 Connie G rated it it was amazing

Shelves: autobiography-memoir, 1001-books, africa, kenya

After seeing the movie "Out of Africa" for the second time recently, I wondered if I would enjoy the book as well. Not to worry, the book is even better since the author was a keen observer and an accomplished storyteller.

Isak Dinesen is the pen name for the Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke who came from Denmark to British East Africa (Kenya) with her husband in 1914. Although they soon separated, Dinesen stayed to run a large coffee plantation near Nairobi. She tells stories about the customs ...more

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Jul 23, 2015 Helle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, danish, biography-memoir, books-i-own, 1001-books

I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills.

I visited Karen Blixens house in Rungsted last week and was immediately drawn into her magical realm of cross-cultural storytelling and awe-inspiring life. I bought this book there, the cover of which was painted by Blixen herself, and immersed myself in the incredible story of her life in Africa. (I visited the house with my mother years ago but didnt embark upon Blixens oeuvre until recently. As with all of literature, timing and readiness ...more

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Apr 27, 2020 W rated it it was ok

Shelves: biography, seen-as-movies

A Danish woman's memoir of her years in Kenya.It captures the rythms of Africa well,the writing is at times beautiful.However,at the same time,the pace of the book is pretty slow.That does make it a bit hard to read and I had to skim through it.

Karen Blixen (the author's real name) settled down on a huge farm in Africa after getting married.Her marriage did not turn out to be successful.

But even after leaving her husband,she stayed on in Africa.She fell in love with another European,Hatton ...more

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Feb 18, 2014 Violet wells rated it really liked it

"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?

Beautiful. ...more

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Nov 07, 2020 Luís rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: travel, biography, mil-folhas, classics, danish-literature

Ten years since it was on my shelves ...
My eyes fell on it, as they often do, but I didn't let my gaze slide elsewhere this time.
Great good took me.
Something is shocking about Karen Blixen living on her African farm with "her" people as if she was talking about "her" plates. But it's the time that wants that and the time of the colonies when a black was a negro, where a lion was a trophy or a magnificent skin to put on the ground in his living room.
But she has a special look at those she calls ...more

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Jun 08, 2014 Thomasin Propson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novel, bio-and-autobiography-and-memoir, non-fiction, favorites, classic-must-reads

Amazing. AMAZING!! I've heard of this book all my life, of course, but its premise never caught my interest. Oh, how glad I am to have run across a copy at a garage sale this summer. It's amazing. Baroness Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen) has the most lovely narrative voice. She can tell a tale, set a scene, make you part of the story. It's truly amazing. I've started telling myself I'm not allowed to mark-up my books anylonger, but I found myself turning down numerous pages of this book so I could Amazing. AMAZING!! I've heard of this book all my life, of course, but its premise never caught my interest. Oh, how glad I am to have run across a copy at a garage sale this summer. It's amazing. Baroness Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen) has the most lovely narrative voice. She can tell a tale, set a scene, make you part of the story. It's truly amazing. I've started telling myself I'm not allowed to mark-up my books anylonger, but I found myself turning down numerous pages of this book so I could return and savour again my favorite passages.

Not to say the story setting is itself perfect in the modern sense. The early 1900s in Kenya on a colonial coffee plantation is a less than ideal time/situation to me. The Baroness shoots a lot of lions and is dismissive or overlooks the nasty business of colonialism. But taking into consideration when it was written and acknowledging the priviledge which Blixen enjoyed, it's still an amazing story which shares a beautiful description of a woman's love for a land and her desire to understand those who lived there with her (the other European farmers/colonists and the African native people under colonial rule).

"How beautiful were the evenings of the Masai Reserve when after sunset we arrived at the river or the water-hole wehre we were to outspan, travelling in a long file. The plains with the thorntrees on them were already quite dark, but the air was filled with a clarity,--and over our heads, to the West, a single star which was to grow big and radiant in the course of the night was now just visable, like a silver point in the sky of citrine topaz. The air was cold to the lungs, the long grass dripping wet, and the herbs on it gave out their spiced astringent scent. In a little while on all sides the Cicada would begin to sing. The grass was me, and the air, the distant invisible mountains wer me, the tired oxen were me. I breathed with the slight night-wind in the thorntrees."

"Here he was now flung on to the farm by his own burning mind, like a stone out of a volcano. He was going mad, he said, in a country which expected a man to keep alive on talk of oxen and sisal, his soul was starving and he could stand it no longer. He began the moment he came into the room and went on till after midnight, holding forth on love, communism, prostitution, Hamsun, the Bible, and poisoning himself in very bad tobacco all the time..."

"All my life I have held that you can calss people according to how they may be imagine behaving to King Lear."

"The true aristocracy and the true proletariat of hte world are both in understanding with tragedy. To them it is the fundamental principle of God, and the key--the minor key,--to extistence. They differ in this way from the bourgeoisie of all classes, who deny tragedy, who will not tolerate it, and to whom the word of tragedy means in itself unpleasantness."

There are just so many lovely passages, amazing images. READ THIS BOOK. I'll be heading over to read other works by the Baroness very soon! ...more

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Apr 05, 2016 Camie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Out of Africa is a modern classic memoir of Isak Dinesen's ( Karen Blixen) years in Kenya.(1914-1931) Arriving from Denmark with her husband to run a 4,000 acre Coffee Plantation, after their separation she stays on to manage the farm alone. There is some beautiful writing here about the scenery, wildlife, and the natives. Her native servants and farm workers appear fond of her and most all of the stories are about the Kikuyu and Masai Tribes who live around her. I already knew many of the facts ...more

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Jul 31, 2008 Lenoir rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs, 1001, classics, 2009, africa

Ok, I'll admit it. I really didn't love this book. I didn't even finish it. I am adding it as read because I read more than half of it and I should get something out of it since I won't be getting my time wasted back. I'm sure you are supposed to read this for the lovely descriptions of Africa (and it does sound quite lovely) but if I had to read another comparison of a native to an animal I thought I was going to scream. There was zero story line. It was just not something that I could ...more

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Apr 23, 2016 Kavita rated it really liked it

Shelves: africa, colonialist-bullshit, autobiography-memoir, history, real-women, jazz-age, kenya

Karen Blixen wrote this book under the male pseudonym of Isak Dinesen. Despite having travelled to another continent and managed a farm all on her own, she was obviously not to be trusted to write about her own experiences under the name of a woman!

I enjoyed this book, though the focus of it is rather narrow. It accurately describes Karen's own life and her experiences in Kenya, though she seems quite oblivious of the larger political scenario around her. The writing is lovely, and takes you ...more

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Jan 12, 2010 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing

This book was odd, fascinating, strange, depressing, tedious, poignant, old-fashioned and profound.

I've heard so many different things from people as I read this book. A few fellow readers called it racist. Others went on and on about the beauty of the writing.

I enjoyed it, but now that I've set the book aside, I feel unsettled. This book encapsulates the receding tide of African culture. Dinesen writes, "It was not I who was going away, I did not have it in my power to leave Africa, but it was ...more

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Feb 09, 2011 Laysee rated it it was amazing

Shelves: oldies-but-goodies, five-star-books, lifetime-favorites

One of the best things about Goodreads is being led quite naturally to the next book to read. I felt drawn to re-visit Out of Africa when a couple of Goodreads friends recently reviewed it with such fervor and beauty.

So I found myself rapturously back at the foot of the Ngong hills, 16 km southwest of Nairobi. Published in 1937, Out of Africa is a memoir by Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (who wrote under the pen name, Isak Dinesen) that recounted 17 years of the life she shared One of the best things about Goodreads is being led quite naturally to the next book to read. I felt drawn to re-visit “Out of Africa” when a couple of Goodreads friends recently reviewed it with such fervor and beauty.

So I found myself rapturously back at the foot of the Ngong hills, 16 km southwest of Nairobi. Published in 1937, “Out of Africa” is a memoir by Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (who wrote under the pen name, Isak Dinesen) that recounted 17 years of the life she shared with the native folks in British East Africa that is modern day Kenya. The Baroness had a farm and a coffee plantation that employed the Squatters, the local Kikuyu tribesmen who worked the land in exchange for lodgings and wages. It has been many years since I read this memoir but the pleasure I derived from having spent time once again among the Natives of Africa was fresh and familiar at the same time.

Blixen wrote aesthetically about the African landscape. I caught sight of the lush green coffee plantation adorning the highlands and of the radiance of the flowering trees "like a cloud of chalk" when the rains came. "Everything that you saw made for greatness and freedom, and unequalled nobility." It must have been liberating to be situated in the highlands because "Up in this high air you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart."

Beyond the lush rendering of the mysterious native forests was Blixen’s vivid description of the people and animals who lived on or visited her farm. The memorable characterization included but was not restricted to Kamante (her Kikuyu servant), Lulu (the princess-like gazelle), Farah (her Somali servant) and Denys Finch-Hatton (her close friend). I felt as if I knew each one of them and something of Blixen’s affection and respect for them became my own. They were rightfully a large part of the African gift that made those days in Kenya the happiest for Blixen.

I could not resist keeping notes of a few of these characters who made an impression on me. (view spoiler)

The one part I did not like was the safaris and the episode wherein Blixen and Denys shot the lion and lioness. I thought it appalling when just a page before the lines had depicted the lion with his gorgeous mane sitting by the carcass of a giraffe with the retiring sun setting the skies aflame. It seemed a sacrilege to kill a lion in his natural home with the skies enveloping him in what would have been perfect peace. But then I had not lived in Kenya and did not have to risk my cows or calves falling prey to the lions.

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong hills." This memorable opening line came back like a haunting refrain when the time came for Blixen to sell the farm. It was an unthinkable thought to Blixen and by this time in the novel, it was equally unthinkable to me. It was touching to read about the Natives' unflinching loyalty. "...they came and sat round my house from the early morning till night, not so much in order to talk with me as just to follow all my movements." How wondrous, I thought, that despite their vast cultural and social divide, Blixen and her squatters forged lasting ties: "We felt, I believe, up to the very last, a strange comfort and relief in each other's company. The understanding between us lay deeper than all reason."

The verse below from Denys Finch-Hatton to Blixen struck me as a fitting conclusion to this review:
"You must turn your mournful ditty
To a merry measure,
I will never come for pity,
I will come for pleasure."

“Out of Africa” is a recount of a personal loss. And yet, one is left not with a sense of pity but one of pleasure. What a memorable memoir. ...more

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Jan 19, 2010 Ken-ichi rated it liked it

Recommended to Ken-ichi by: Elizabeth

Shelves: snoot, nature, africa, autobiography, memoirs

This is a book that I enjoyed without loving, but it nevertheless provided some novel experiences and food for thought, and what more can we ask of our books? I mean, besides spaceships and explosions. Dinesen's writing (and Dinesen herself) seems alternately lyrical and pragmatic, equally direct in describing grisly accidents with firearms or the otherwordly sensation of flying, but the whole was too fragmented and impressionistic to ever really dig its claws into me.

That said, it did get me ...more

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Nov 19, 2008 Denis rated it it was amazing

There's a reason why people keep reading this book decade after decade. It's a masterpiece, a memoir about life on a farm in Africa that is filled with such humanity, generosity, love, and nostalgia that it is impossible to resist. Dinesen does wonders at telling a rather simple story in ways that keep the reader captive. It's enchanting like a real, bittersweet, exotic, mysterious fairy-tale: with the author's words, her life on the African continent becomes an extraordinary adventure of almost ...more

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Dec 30, 2015 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-2016-challenges, non-fiction

This book is a series of stories about the author's life while living in Kenya. I was interested by her observations of the local wildlife and the local Natives, with each having aspects of their personalities that were influenced by their tribe. For the most part, though, I actually felt bored. It took me an entire week to finish this 330 page book.

I was not really surprised to see the typical European Colonial Arrogance (it was a very serious medical condition) but that didn't make it any ...more

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Mar 20, 2008 Ebookwormy1 rated it liked it

Shelves: carp-500, world-africa

This book captures the charm, the majesty, the beauty of Africa and her native people. A beautiful read full of stories about the tensions arising from the colonization of Kenya, and it's benefits (things like better medical care).

However, as far as biography, I found the book rather shadowy. There is reference to a husband, but no discussion of him. Reference to sickness but no clarity as to what caused it. References to male friends, but no insight into their relationship with the author. To ...more

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May 05, 2013 Caro the Helmet Lady rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: the-challenge-2016, film-too, 2016-reads, bio, classics

I'm not sure why I had rather high expectations towards this book, but I did. At the same time I was putting this book away many times expecting it to be somewhat of slow paced and at that moment I usually wanted to read something more "entertaining".

And it was somewhat slow paced in fact, yet it was also entertaining enough to keep me turning pages till I finished it. Although maybe "entertainment" is not exactly the word describing this story well. The process of reading it reminded me of ...more

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Jun 21, 2007 Astrid rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

I first chose this book because the english section in the french bookshop was very limited. However only after a few pages "Out of Africa" really made me stay in my chair, very unwilling to put it down. It is beautifully written and gives such an insight into the colonial life in Kenya in the early 20th century.

Karen Blixen writes about her life on the farm, the daily running of it, her on-farm workers and her place in it all. As her husband was very rarely there, it was K. Blixen that took ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Reading 1001: Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen/(Karen Blixen)	14	22	May 23, 2020 08:21PM
Bright Young Things: Out of Africa by Karen Blixen (2013 Reading Challenge)	38	107	Jan 21, 2018 04:18AM
Reading List Comp...: Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen	21	14	Nov 02, 2017 10:15AM
Goodreads Librari...: Change cover	2	14	Jun 25, 2017 01:05PM
The Reading List : Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen	1	1	Apr 11, 2017 08:21AM
Books of Literatu...: Out of Africa; background and Reading Schedule	3	8	Oct 21, 2016 06:08PM

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About Isak Dinesen

Isak Dinesen

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Pseudonym used by the Danish author Karen Blixen.

Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (Danish: [kʰɑːɑn ˈbleɡsn]; 17 April 1885 7 September 1962), born Karen Christentze Dinesen, was a Danish author, also known by the pen name Isak Dinesen, who wrote works in Danish, French and English. She also at times used the pen names Tania Blixen, Osceola, and Pierre Andrézel.
Blixen is best known for Out of ...more