Reading Order
Out of AfricaDinesen Out of Africa Reading Order
Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa (1937) is one of the greatest memoirs of the twentieth century — Karen Blixen's account of the seventeen years she spent managing a coffee farm in Kenya, her relationships with the Kikuyu workers and Somali manager who made the farm function, her friendship with Denys Finch Hatton, and the landscape of the Ngong Hills. Blixen (who published under the pen name Isak Dinesen) wrote Out of Africa after losing both the farm and Finch Hatton — he died in a plane crash months before she left Africa — and the memoir has the quality of a work written in the full knowledge of what has been lost. It is one of the most beautifully written books in the English language and a profound meditation on belonging, place, and the nature of human dignity.
Where to start
Out of Africa
Complete Out of Africa Book List
- 1Buy
Out of Africa
Isak Dinesen·1937·Dinesen's memoir of her years in Kenya — the essential starting point and one of the most beautifully written books in the English language; best read knowing that she is writing about a world she has already lost - 2Buy
Seven Gothic Tales
Isak Dinesen·1934·Dinesen's first book — a collection of stories set in nineteenth-century Europe organized around the fantastic, the aristocratic, and the uncanny; published before Out of Africa and showing her as one of the great storytellers in the European tradition - 3Buy
Shadows on the Grass
Isak Dinesen·1960·Dinesen's sequel to Out of Africa — four shorter pieces about her years in Kenya, written when she was old and dying; shorter and more intimate than Out of Africa and valuable for the additional material it provides about the people and the landscape she described in the memoir - Buy
Winter's Tales
OptionalIsak Dinesen·1942·The companion story collection to Seven Gothic Tales — a further set of stories in the same aristocratic European tradition; for readers who love Dinesen's fiction and want more after Seven Gothic Tales
Out of Africa — Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Isak Dinesen?
Isak Dinesen was the pen name of Karen Blixen (1885–1962), a Danish writer who published her books in English and Danish simultaneously. Born into an aristocratic Danish family, she married her cousin Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke and ran a coffee farm in Kenya from 1914 to 1931. After losing the farm, she returned to Denmark and began writing the fiction and memoirs that made her famous.
What order should I read Isak Dinesen in?
Start with Out of Africa for the memoir, or Seven Gothic Tales for the fiction — both are excellent entry points. Out of Africa is the more widely read, but Seven Gothic Tales was her first book and some readers prefer to start there. Shadows on the Grass is best read after Out of Africa as a supplement.
What is Out of Africa about?
Out of Africa is Karen Blixen's memoir of her seventeen years managing a coffee farm in the Ngong Hills of Kenya, from 1914 to 1931. The memoir covers her relationships with the Kikuyu, Masai, and Somali people who worked the farm; her friendship with the English hunter Denys Finch Hatton; the failure of the farm and her return to Denmark. It is above all a meditation on the nature of belonging and what it means to love a place and its people.
Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.