Anecdotes of Destiny and Ehrengard - Isak Dinesen

In the classic Babette's Feast, a mysterious Frenchwoman prepares sumptuous feast for a gathering of religious ascetics and, in doing so, introduces them to the true essence of grace. In The Immortal Story, a miserly old tea-trader living in Canton wishes for power and finds redemption as he turns an oft-told sailors' tale into reality for a young man and woman. And in the magnificent novella Ehrengard , Dinesen tells of the powerful yet restrained rapport between a noble Wagnerian beauty and rakish artist. Hauntingly evoked and sensuously realized, the five stories read and novella collected here and have the hold of fairy stories read in childhood . . . of dreams . . . and of our life as dreams. ( The New York Times )