Babette's feast

Babette's Feast

I am a great admirer of the Danish writer Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen, 1885 -- 1962) even though I hadn't read her work in many years. A review of Dinesen's "Babette's Feast" by a friend and fellow reviewer prompted me to revisit this work at last. "Babette's Feast", a story of only 22 pages, was included in Dinesen's 1958 colection of stories, "Anecdotes of Destiny" and was made into a celebrated film in 1987 which received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The story is set in a small Norwegian village called Berlevaag in the mountains in the late 19th century. The setting has an archaic, distant feel captured by the beautiful Baroque character of Dinesen's English. The story involves two elderly sisters who have been raised in a strict Protestant religious sect which taught the shunning of the things of this world. Each of the sisters, Martine and Phillipa, had an experience with a man in early womanhood which verged on becoming sensual and romantic but failed. Many years later, the failed suitor of Phillipa sends a mysterious, shabbily dressed poor woman, Babette, to the sisters' house. She becomes their cook and maid and works without pay. When Babette wins a French lottery, she uses, without telling the sisters, the entire proceeds to stage an elaborate feast for the sisters and the dwindling members of the religious sect. The failed suitor of Martine many years earlier attends the feast. He has become a famous and powerful figure, General Loewenhielm. Dinesen's story builds carefully up to Babette's feast, describes its climactic moment, and then explores the aftermath. During the feast, General Loewenhielm, gives a speech which, like much else in the story and in Dinesen is both obscure and profound. Loewenhielm describes the "frail and foolish" character of humanity, but he finds that for a brief moment "mercy and truth have met together and righteousness and bliss have kissed one another."

In its few short pages, "Babetter's Feast" is a powerfully enigmatic tale which suggests competing ways of understanding life. There is a strongly religious component of grace and God's love for sinful humanity. There is also the sense of a too-narrow spirituality in the lives of the sisters and their shunning of sexuality and the joys of the world. Then there is Babette whose life suggests the nature and importance of artistic creativity. The threads of the story come together in a dazzling way.

"Babette's Feast" is a moving, enigmatic tale of religion, sensuality, and art. The story has a depth underlying its Baroque, elaborate veneer. I was glad to reread this story and to remember after many years my fascination with the work of Isak Dinesen.

Robin Friedman