The Angelic Avengers [Paperback]

Isak Dinesen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1978

Lucan has been orphaned and Zosine has been deserted, and London is a hostile place for two young girls without a home. Bound together by poverty, grief and their shared years at school, they set out to make a future for themselves in new surroundings. They are adopted by the austere, puritanical Reverend Pennhallow and his wife, and in their large, gloomy house they become immersed in study. But, after a chain of disturbing events, it does not take long before they realize that the cleric and his wife are not all they seem to be ...

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Danish (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

ISAK DINESEN was the pen-name of Karen Blixen, who was born in Rungsted, Denmark in 1885. After studying art at Copenhagen, Paris and Rome, she married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, in 1914. Together they went to Kenya to manage a coffee plantation. After their divorce in 1921, she continued to run the plantation until a collapse in the coffee market forced her back to Denmark in 1931. Although she had written occasional contributions to Danish periodicals since 1905 (under the nom de plume of Osceola), her real debut took place in 1934 with the publication of Seven Gothic Tales, written in English under her pen-name. Out of Africa (1937) is an autobiographical account of the years she spent in Kenya. Most of her subsequent books were published in English and Danish simultaneously, including Winter's Tales (1942) and The Angelic Avengers (1946), under the name of Pierre Andrezol. Among her other collections of stories are Last Tales (1957), Anecdotes of Destiny (1958), Shadows on the Grass (1960) and Ehrengard (1963). All of these books are published by Penguin. Baroness Blixen died in Rungsted in 1962. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 311 pages
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press; New edition edition (March 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226152928
• ISBN-13: 978-0226152929
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,015,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Victorian tale of adventure with a feminist edge, May 18, 2003

By 

F. Orion Pozo "Orion Pozo" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Angelic Avengers (Hardcover)

With a title that sounds like a modern day adventure comic, The Angelic Avengers is a Victorian tale of adventure with a feminist edge. Written in World War II Denmark by Karen Blixen (the Isak Dinesen of Out Of Africa), it is the story of two young ladies who have lost their possessions and families. One is the forward-thinking daughter of a scientist, and the other a pampered child of the aristocracy. They bond together to protect themselves against the evils of a society corrupted by men. Yet they find themselves in the clutches of the most evil man they can imagine. I feel that Blixen wrote this book as an amusement to carry her through the horror of world war. Yet the book has a substance greater than its title and plot suggest.

According to one web site:
"During WW II, when Denmark was occupied by the Nazis, Karen Blixen started to write her only full-length novel, the introspective GENGÆLDELSENS VEJE (The Angelic Avengers), which was published in 1944 under the pseudonym Pierre Andrézel. The horrors experienced by the young heroines in the novel were interpreted as an allegory of falling Nazism."

The novel is divided into three parts. In "Rose-Strewn Roads And Thorny Paths," we see the golden cage of the well-bred life and the perils faced by women without means. Part Two is called "The Canary Birds." Here the young women find themselves in a position where they are like birds in a cage, fed and cared for, but helpless to control their fate. The last section of the novel is called "The Buried Treasure." In the end, the young women confront their avenging natures and find their true treasure is their angelic ability to oppose evil with goodness and compassion.

The happy ending reveals the book as a parable with a clear message as to how humanity should act when faced with evil: feelings of vengeance must be overcome and replaced with compassionate love. Righteous anger will destroy not only evil in the other, but the goodness within. Another theme is how the aristocracy and the middle class differ in facing adversity. The two young women's strengths compliment each other through the book suggesting that the two classes must work together to build a just society.

It is a well-written and tightly scripted adventure that will keep you involved and enthralled. I highly recommend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Angelic Avengers, March 18, 2011

By 

pamble "pamblepip" (cupertino, ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angelic Avengers (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

Even though this book has a flowery writing style - I found it very entertaining! Certainly way ahead of its time! To be surprised along the way when you read a passage is rare in any book. Maybe some of the charm comes because you don't suspect it to be shocking or unusual given the staid writing approach so prim and proper. I found this book in a decorator's staged library! I have to say it was quite a find.