Abstract

They Do as They Like
van Doren, Mark | April 18, 1934 issue

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The article discusses the book "Seven Gothic Tales," by Isak Dinesen. If, as Dorothy Canfield lets fall in an introduction to the book, the pseudonymous author of these tales is a continental European "writing in English although that is not native to his pen," this is a linguistic triumph for which there is probably no precedent. Barring a few slips from idiom which are so attractive as to seem premeditated, the English of the book is such as never seen written by a foreigner to the language, and none too often by those in the grammar born. And if, as rumor has it, the author is a Danish woman who never wrote a book before, there is a phenomenon so astonishing as to be incredible.

See Also:

SEVEN Gothic Tales (Book); DINESEN, Isak, 1885-1962; CANFIELD, Dorothy; CREATIVITY (Linguistics); ENGLISH language; ENGLISH literature
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