Reviews for Samuel Roberts

The average rating for Samuel Roberts based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-02-15 00:00:00 Robert Peter Jacobson Understanding Isak Dinesen is a wonderfully wide-ranging overview of existing Blixen scholarship. Each of Blixen's books gets its own chapter (although The Angelic Avengers, Shadows on the Grass, and Carnival are left out), and within those chapters, each individual story gets its own section, usually with references to at least a few other critics. The book obviously covers a lot of critical ground, and this structure also makes it extremely useful as a starting point for your own research, whether you're interested in a specific story, a specific book, or just Blixen overall. Of course, with something this comprehensive, there's bound to be some fluctuation in the quality or relevance of the criticism included, and that's definitely the case here as well (specifically, Blixen seems to have attracted the attention of some of the worst kind of feminist and psychoanalyst critics). Overall, though, I think Brantly does a good enough job at keeping the book focused considering how broad it is. There is a consistent through line of Blixen's aristocratic attitude to life, and a decent attempt to bring the various bits of criticism closer to scholarship via various snippets of information gleaned from Blixen's correspondence. If I had to criticise Brantly for anything, it would be for refraining too much from adding her own readings into the mix, and for the at times condescending tone of her writing (considering that the book seems to be aimed at undergraduates at the very least). Overall, this is both a wonderful introduction to Blixen scholarship, and a good way to branch out into more directions for those already somewhat familiar with it. Just the bibliography alone is worth it -- I think I'm all set in terms of my Blixen secondary reading list for a long time.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-09-25 00:00:00 Houston Moore Excellent insights into Dinesen's work. Brantly gives great attention to bringing out the meaning of the many biblical and literary allusions in Dinesen's work. There is also discussion about the differences between the English and Danish versions of the work. (Dinesen wrote most of her tales in English first, and then wrote them over in Danish, often adding or embellishing details. They were not strict translations).