Karen Blixen s works are explored in the light of a passionate insistence on living out a double nature of the divine and the demonic. The aristocratic is examined as her depiction of a conduct of life that is faithful to destiny: the aristocratic viewpoint is in tune with eternity, and places no obstructive morality between self and life. Vitality has its source in direct access to the ocean of inexhaustible opportunities with which life presents us. The world of Africa, for example, plays a key role as the consummate illustration of an aristocratic culture. The aesthetic guidelines for...