Seven Gothic Tales
| Author | Karen Blixen |
|---|---|
| Country | Denmark |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Random House |
|
Publication date
|
1934 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 420pp (1972) |
Seven Gothic Tales (translated by the author into Danish as: Syv Fantastiske Fortællinger) is a collection of short stories by the Danish author Karen Blixen (under the pen name Isak Dinesen), first published in 1934, three years before her memoir Out of Africa. The collection, consisting of stories set mostly in the nineteenth century, contains her tales "The Deluge at Norderney" and "The Supper at Elsinore".
In 1933, Blixen had completed a manuscript of Seven Gothic Tales, which was rejected by several publishers in Great Britain. With the help of her brother Thomas, Blixen brought Seven Gothic Tales to the attention of Book of the Month Club selection committee member Dorothy Canfield, who convinced Random House to publish the book.
In the summer of 1835, a massive storm floods the North Sea island of Norderney, which is home to a bath popular among Northern European nobility. The elderly Cardinal Hamilcar von Schestedt, who is living on the island with his valet Kasparson while working on a book about the Holy Ghost, is rescued from his cottage by a group of fishermen (Kasparson is killed in the building's collapse). The Cardinal works to rescue the island's peasants, and offers to sail out to the bath to rescue patrons trapped there. Upon arriving, he finds four people: the elderly and somewhat delusional Miss Malin Nat-og-Dag and her maid; Nat-ot-Dag's companion, the teenage Countess Calypso von Platen; and the melancholic Jonathan Maersk.
The group boards the ship and begins to sail back, but encounter a group of peasants trapped in a granary on their way back. Because the boat is too small to carry them all, all but Nat-og-Dag's maid agree to trade places with the peasants and wait for help to arrive. While stuck in the granary, the group exchanges stories. Maersk describes how he came to be at Norderney: as a teenager, he traveled from the small town of Assens to Copenhagen, where he befriended the wealthy Baron von Gersdorff over their mutual love of botany. He becomes a successful court singer, but eventually learns that he is the Baron's son. Maersk is disillusioned, and repeatedly rejects the Baron's offers to legitimize him so that he can inherit the Baron's enormous estate. Suicidal, Maersk is visited by his mother's husband, who convinces him to travel to Norderney for his health.
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