Sorrow-Acre (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Karen Christenze Dinesen
- First Published: 1942
- Type of Plot: Fable
- Time of Work: About 1775
- Setting: A Danish manor
- Principal Characters: Adam, His uncle, The lord's young wife, Goske Piil, Anne-Marie
- Genres: Fable, Short fiction
- Subjects: Religion, Oppression, Inheritance or succession, Generation gap, Feudalism, Peasantry or peasants
- Locales: Denmark
The Story
“Sorrow-Acre” opens with a leisurely description of the Danish landscape, and it is clear that the setting is to be as strong a character in this folktale as any of the humans populating its stage.
It is the end of the eighteenth century, and at the opening of the story, everything is still in its time-honored place, from manor house through the church to the peasant huts in the village. The winds of change are beginning to blow, however (the serfs will be freed here in 1887), and enlightened ideas from England and the Continent are just beginning to be...
[The entire page is 1640 words long]
