Saturday 10 January 2015

Out of Africa by Karen Blixen

This book is an autobiographical account of the years  Karen Blixen from Denmark   spent in Kenya.Karen Dinesan was married to Bror Blixen in 1913 , and the couple moved to Kenya , which was at that time a part of British East Africa.In 1914,they used family money to establish a coffee plantation there.The Blixens separated in 1921 and were divorced in 1925.The coffee plantation failed in 1931 , as a result of world wide economic depression in 1931.Karen Blixen was forced to sell the farm to a residential developer and returned to Denmark .She wrote her first book in 1934 .Out of Africa was her second book , published in 1937 and is her best known book .It established her reputation as a writer of acclaim.
                          Out of Africa describes  events of 17 years which Karen  spent on her coffee plantation  in Kenya.The book of 330 pages is divided into five sections as below:
1 .Kamante and Lulu.
2.A shooting Accident on the farm .
3.Visitors to the farm .
4.From an immigrant's notebook.
5.Farewell to the farm.
The style of the book is meditative and melancholy.It  captures the life of a white African colonist.She describes a world which is lost now,the world of huge  farms which were home to  herds of elephants,zebra , giraffes ,lions , hippos and leopards.Kenya at that time was a hunter's dreamland.Hunting safaris  depleted the wildlife of Kenya substantially.
                   It is a book which makes you have a  feel  for the life lived in partnership with nature.You  may like to read this book , if you want to know a different world, full of wild life, which existed not long ago.

 









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