
The book is a lyrical meditation on Blixen's life on her coffee plantation, as well as a tribute to some of the people who touched her life there. The book, first published in 1937, recounts events of the seventeen years when Blixen made her home in Kenya, then called British East Africa. One kind of African Daphne of the woods, which flowers with a small cream-coloured sticky blossom, had an overwhelming sweet perfume, like lilac, and wild lily of the valley. Out of Africa is a memoir by the Danish author Karen Blixen. The air in the forest was cool like water, and filled with the scent of plants, and in the beginning of the long rains when the creepers flowered, you rode through sphere after sphere of fragrance.

I used to ride here with Farah on Sundays, when there was nothing to do on the farm, up and down the slopes, and across the little winding forest-streams. ng drooping beards, on the trees, and the creepers hanging down everywhere, give a secretive, recondite air to the Native forest. You cannot see the sky at all in there, but the sunlight plays in many strange ways, falling through the foliage. You ride into the depths of an old tapestry, in places faded and in others darkened with age, but marvellously rich in green shades. To my mind it was a sad thing when the old forest was cut down, and Eucalyptus and Grevillea planted in its place it might have made a unique pleasure-ground and park for Nairobi.An African Native Forest is a mysterious region. To quickly assess the difficulty of the text, read a short excerpt: IN 1937, DANISH WRITER KAREN BLIXEN (WHO WROTE under the name Isak Dinesen) released her first of three memoirs/ novels, Out of Africa, followed by Shadows. Out of Africa is the story of a remarkable and unconventional woman and of a way of life that has vanished for ever.What reading level is Out of Africa: And Shadows On the Grass book?

Drawn to the intense colours and ravishing landscapes, Karen Blixen spent her happiest years on the farm and her experiences and friendships with the people around her are vividly recalled in these memoirs. In all they provide a moving final chapter to her African reminiscences.įrom the moment Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya in 1914 to manage a coffee plantation, her heart belonged to Africa. The first three were written in the 1950s and the last, 'Echoes from the Hills', was written especially for this volume in the summer of 1960 when the author was in her seventies. With warmth and humanity these four stories illuminate her love both for the African people, their dignity and traditions, and for the beauty and wildness of the landscape. for atmosphere and detail, Isak Dinesen tells of the years she spent from 1914 to 1931 managing a coffee plantation in. Isak Dinesen takes up the absorbing story of her life in Kenya begun in the unforgettable Out of Africa, which she published under the name of Karen Blixen.
