Blicher was a keen observer of Jutish life, writing stark, realistic tales in local dialect and gathering a seminal collection of Jutish folktales published as EBindstouw 'm 1842. Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) Out of Africa (Penguinodem Library): Letters from Africa (PicadorUniversity of Chicago Press); Seven Gothic Tales (PenguinRandom House). Out of Africa, the account of Blixen's attempts to run a coffee farm in Kenya after divorce from her husband, is a lyrical and moving tale. But it's in Seven Gothic Ta that Blixen's fiction was at its zenith; a flawlessly executed, weird, emotive work, full of twists in plot and strange, ambiguous characterisation. Tove Ditlevsen Early Spring (The Women's I'ressSeal Feminist Press). An autobiographical novel of growing up in the workingclass Vesterbro district of Copenhagen during the aLiJ V and early adulthood. Its totally captivating. House) An (QiJartetSalem was ie oГDpn'"r®'¦ Hansen thoughts I the inner Seren new 'hoolteacher living on a Judith Thurman Isak Dinesen: The Life of Karen Sfeen (PenguinSt Martins). The most penetrative biography of Blixen, with elucidating details of the farm period not found in the two "Africa" books. Dea Trier Merch Winter's CW(Serpent's Tail University of Nebraska Press). A wonderfully lucid sketch of modern Denmark as seen through the eyes of several women in the maternity ward of a Copenhagen hospital. See also Evening Star (Serpent's Tail), which deals with the effect of old age and death on a Danish family. NORWAY HISTORY AND SOCIOLOGY Oddvar K. Hoidal Quisling: A Study in Treason (OUP). A long and comprehensive biography of the world's most famous traitor, Vidkun Duisling, the man presented in all his unpleasant fullness. Gwyn Jones The Norse Atlantic Saga (OUP). An excellent companion account of the (mainly Norwegian) discovery and settlement of Iceland, Greenland and North America, interspersed with extracts from the Sagas. Francois Kersaudy Norway 1940 (Collins, UK). A short history of the Norwegian resistance in 1940 to the Nazi invasion of their country. A wellinformed account, including coverage of the role of the British forces who helped the Norwegians in their fight. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson (trans.) The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America (Penguin). This tells, in contemporary reportage, of the Viking Norwegians' "discovery" of North America in the tenth century. LITERATURE AND ART Knut Faldbakken The Sleeping Prince (Peter Owen, UK). Shades of The Lonely Passion of Miss Judith Hearne in this story of the fantasy created in the mind of a middleaged spinster as she awaits her sleeping prince an absorbing and spirited novel by one of Norway's finest writers. Other novels in print include Insect Summer and the less accessible Adam's Diary, both published by Peter Owen. Janet Gaiton & Henning Sehmsdorf New во о кзпъ Norwegian Plays (Norvik PressDufour).