From the Bookshelf of Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)…

Out of Africa

Isak Dinesen

Start date: April 1, 2012

Finish date: May 1, 2012

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

Why we're reading this: Contemporary Classic Group Read, April 2012
[close] Contemporary Classic Group Read, April 2012

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 394 topics — 15,550 comments total

New School Classics- 1915-2005

The Stepford Wives - Spoilers
By Lynn , New School Classics · 16 posts · 45 views

last updated 22 hours, 26 min ago

The Stepford Wives - No Spoiler Thread
By Lynn , New School Classics · 18 posts · 60 views

last updated Sep 15, 2025 11:39AM

showing 10 of 72 topics view all »

What Members Thought

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

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

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 Kik 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

136 likes · Like · see review

Jul 17, 2018 Laurene added it

Out of Africa has been one of those novels sitting on my bookshelves for years. The way Isak Dinesen describes Africa is absolutely breathtaking. I can now check this one off my bucket list of books.

4 likes · Like · see review

Jun 03, 2016 Ellie 9218 rated it liked it

I loved the film Out of Africa – the story of Karen Blixen leaving her native Denmark and going to Kenya to manage a coffee plantation in 1914.

While the writing is beautiful, this is one of the few times that I enjoyed the movie more than the book. While we get to know much of her relationship with Africa and its people, there is very little about her personal life (this is a memoir). Relationships were much more to the forefront in the film. In the book her husband and her cousin Bror Blixen-F ...more

Like · see review