Winter's Tales by Isak Dinesen (1942 Wartime Edition Hardcover, no DJ)

Winter's Tales by Isak Dinesen (1942 Wartime Edition Hardcover, no Dust Jacket)

Eleven stories:
The young man with the carnation;
Sorrow-acre;
The heroine;
The sailor-boy's tale;
The pearls;
The invincible slave-owners;
The dreaming child;
Alkmene;
The fish;
Peter and Rosa; and,
A consolatory tale.

First published in 1942, the stories were widely read by Allied troops and featured themes of resilience, freedom and pride. In Isak Dinesen's universe, the magical enchantment of the fairy tale and the moral resonance of myth coexist with an unflinching grasp of the most obscure human strengths and weaknesses.

'Perhaps these stories can best be described as the kind Scheherazade would have told the Caliph if, instead of being a citizen of medieval Baghdad, she had been born a Danish aristocrat with a subtle, worldly, cynical, and speculative mind.' vi + 313pp

Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke of Rungstedlund (1885-1962)