Apologies for being later than usual in posting the next CBG book, but it is a very short one so we should still have plenty of time to read it within the month.
I've chosen Babette's Feast
"Babette's Feast is a sublime celebration of eating and drinking and sensual pleasure. In [this] life-affirming story, two elderly sisters living in a remote, god-fearing Norwegian community take in a mysterious refugee from Paris one night - and are rewarded for their kindness with the most decadent, luxurious feast of a lifetime."
What drew me to it was reading the chapter on Karen Blixen and her house at Rungstedlung in Denmark in the lovely Writers' Houses book (post on it here), and specifically the passage on her love of flowers and her pleasure in entertaining:
"On days when she received guests, she rose at five in the morning to go out and gather flowers while they were still moist with dew. Composing bouquets became her passion, an activity from which she derived as much pleasure as painting. Karen loved to elaborate on her gift for entertaining, which required that parquets be polished to a glistening finish, that a fire be crackling in the hearth, that flowers perfume rooms that she had had repainted in different warm and subtle colours. The dinners were delicious: 'That woman is in the process of transforming a dinner at the Café Anglais into a sort of love affair,' says Colonel Galliffet in Babette's Feast."
I wouldn't anticipate any difficulty getting hold of a copy of the book, but if you want to buy it online, The Book Depository (who also offer free worldwide delivery) have it slightly cheaper than Amazon - when I checked prices just now - and you can get a further 10% off all books there if you enter the code 'May11' at the checkout*.
I hope this little book will appeal (apart from its literary merit I trust it will yield considerable material on which to base the Books and Cakes post!), and how about we put Saturday, 25th. June in the diary as discussion date?
*NB If you read this post yesterday you'll have seen that the 'further 10% off everything' offer was originally open until the end of May, well The Book Depository have now extended it until Sunday, 5th. June, but the coupon code is still 'May11'.
Also, BR Wombat has kindly pointed out that the book is available in a Kindle edition
And it's only £2.99 as a Kindle book. You'd think I work for Amazon the amount of plugging Kindles I do here!
Posted by: B R Wombat | 31 May 2011 at 11:58 AM
In 2004 I attended a performance of the operatic adaption of Babette's Feast, composer John Browne, librettist Jane Buckler. I'll do my best to get hold of the book.
Posted by: Dark Puss | 31 May 2011 at 12:10 PM
I loved the film.
Posted by: m | 31 May 2011 at 02:08 PM
Oh, dear, "not currentlyh available" at the Book Depository. As I've said in the past, CBG members must read your posts announcing books and hurry to order them from the BD. Oh, well, I'll get it on amazon. Maybe I'll order Out of Africa too (or whatever the BOOK was called).
Posted by: Julie Fredericksen | 31 May 2011 at 03:03 PM
Thankyou! I ought to have mentioned it was available in that format.
Posted by: Cornflower | 31 May 2011 at 03:27 PM
Did it impress? (or make you want to read the book?).
Posted by: Cornflower | 31 May 2011 at 03:28 PM
I haven't seen it but am keen to as I've read it's very good.
Posted by: Cornflower | 31 May 2011 at 03:30 PM
The UK Book Depository seems to have it still, Julie, and would ship to you free.
I have had Out of Africa for years and haven't read it!!
Posted by: Cornflower | 31 May 2011 at 03:32 PM
I was very taken with the opera, both the staging and the music/libretto. Clearly it didn't make me rush off to read the book as seven years later I haven't done so. On the otherhand I haven't seen any opera that made me want to read the "book" (if there is one) either, so you should not read anything at all significant into that. I have not seen the film either.
Posted by: Dark Puss | 31 May 2011 at 04:53 PM
Looking forward to reading Babette's Feast. Still haven't submitted my comments on Decline and Fall though.....somewhere on these pages you mentioned Mercy - just finished that - did anyone else read it in this group I wonder.....? Also got on to the Eggs on the Roof site - 'mentioned in dispatches' on Cornflower - and made their Apple Mint Cordial - sublime.....Cornflower, you are quickly becoming something of a 'lifestyle option'!
Posted by: Rose Harding | 01 June 2011 at 07:20 AM
I forgot to say I bought the recommended - Cornflower again - Love in a Dish, MFK Fisher, and gave it to my host as a 'thank you' when I was his guest at his College, Corpus Christi, Cambridge last week - Choral Evensong at King's followed by dinner at 'high table' with the Fellows - yum, yum. Also still waiting on putting up something on the 'highly recommended' post, it will come - lifestyle, schmystyle - too right.....
Posted by: Rose Harding | 01 June 2011 at 07:31 AM
I adored this film and can't wait to read the book. Dinesen is a huge favourite of mine....thanks Cornflower.
Posted by: adele geras | 01 June 2011 at 03:39 PM
How fantastic. I have seen the movie a million times (one of my all time favorites) and have always meant to read the book. I don't know how I missed that Karen Blixen wrote it.
Posted by: Thomas at My Porch | 02 June 2011 at 02:51 PM
Loved this movie (via Youtube). My copy of the story is contained in A Literary Feast, An Anthology edited by Lilly Golden (Atantic Monthly Press 1993). Might be easier to find if no luck with the book.
Posted by: Jayne | 04 June 2011 at 05:25 PM
Thankyou for that information, Jayne.
Posted by: Cornflower | 07 June 2011 at 11:23 AM
Love the idea of being a 'lifestyle option', and re. your comment below, what a super idea to give Love in a Dish as a thankyou present!
Posted by: Cornflower | 07 June 2011 at 01:56 PM