The Angelic Avengers

by Pierre Andrézel (Pseudonym), Karen Blixen, Isak Dinesen

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 ...

Genres: Fiction, Gothic, Historical Fiction, Classics, Danish, 20th Century, Literary Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 1944

About the author

Pierre Andrézel was the pseudonym of Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, born Karen Christentze Dinesen, who also published under Isak Dinesen, Karen Blixen and Tanja Blixen. Only The Evangelic Avengers was published under this pseudonym.

Reviews

[Jacob S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pierre Andrézel/Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen … the style doesn´t differ much no matter which pseudonym the grumpy old baroness uses.
This time she tries out with a rare combination of a typical Victorian novel and the gothic.
I haven´t really decided what I think of that mix of styles, but Victorian novels with the sometimes weak and sometimes strong heroines who must suffer soooo much to finally win the prince in shining armor and live happily ever after as a desperate housewife, bores the hell out of me.
Literary duty considered done.

[Annalisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se non avrò presto un po’ di divertimento, morirò...
Oltre a quanto spiegato nella presentazione, io credo che ci siano chiare allusioni ai Discordiani ed al loro Mr greyface.

A tale scopo, spingiamo alcune donne nell'abisso e teniamo le altre nell'ignoranza di ciò. E così deve essere, perché senza uno sfondo tenebroso, il giglio non sarebbe così bianco. E noi li dobbiamo avere, i nostri gigli, i più bianchi che questo mondo possa offrire.

Come sempre la finissima Blixen sa imbastire una storia che gioca su vari piani della narrazione e della metafora.
Non mi stanca mai!

«Voi persone serie non dovete essere troppo severe verso gli esseri umani su come scelgono di divertirsi quando sono rinchiusi in una prigione e nemmeno è loro concesso di dire che sono prigionieri. Se non avrò presto un po’ di divertimento, morirò».

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dineson’s spot on parody of a 19th century English adventure story (her only full length novel) with secret identities and disguises, ridiculous coincidences, last minute rescues, fortunes lost and inheritances reclaimed, overly romantic heroines, and satanic villains. There are fun allusions along the way to Jane Eyre, Little Red Riding Hood, and Titus Andronicus, and this book which I have heard read as an allegory of the Nazi occupation (and compared to Mann's "Mario and The Magician" and its sinister mesmerist) of Denmark is entertaining but probably not for Dineson neophytes (go to Seven Gothic Tales or Winter’s Tales). Its 19th century inspirations were probably not as explicit about cannibalism, incest, and human trafficking.

[Maricruz · Rating 2 out of 5]

En algún momento parece que la trama va a ponerse interesante de verdad y luego... pues no. Después de El festín de Babette y tras este nuevo intento, no creo que vuelva a leer nada de Karen Blixen, protokaren de todas las karens.

[Nick Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is strange. Weird. If it was written 20 years later by an author 30 years younger I would call it postmodernist, a pastiche of the early Victorian romantic (Romantic and romantic) novel. Maybe it is a parody: it is slightly ridiculous. Two English girls (or young women: they are about 18) in the 1840s, one orphaned, the other left by her father, are penniless, but are taken in by the Reverend Penhallow and his wife and are taken to their home in France. But all is not as it first seems with the Reverend... The plot hinges on coincidences, characters reappearing with dubious explanations and it is never explained how Zosine, one of the girls, finds out the truth about Penhallow. The book asks us to take this all with a pinch of salt: things happen that way in books and we can enjoy it because it is all slightly ludicrous. Karen Blixen writes in a heightened, adjective lush style...but she tends to write like that. But the question is what is being parodied? The obvious answer is ‘early Victorian romantic fiction’, but then we can think ‘so what?’ It’s amusing enough, a parody of a historical literary form, but there doesn’t seem much point to it. But part of the fascination (and frustration?) of Blixen’s stories is that they seem to point to some symbolic meanings and purpose, but I can never quite figure out what they are. And so it is here: I was constantly thinking the book was doing something, but I couldn’t grasp what it was: as I said, fascinating but frustrating. Maybe we can find a symbolic system at the centre of the novel: a conflict between moral corruption and moral innocence (and that is what the back cover of my Penguin edition suggests, so it must be true), but the innocence of the young women follows the conventions of the Victorian novel: they are respectable and follow the moral propriety of the Nineteenth Century middle class. The Angelic Avengers doesn’t suffer from the knowing anachronisms of that historical fiction which gives their heroes modern attitudes and therefore an edge over the fuddy-duddies of the past: the characters seem to be formed by the attitudes and aspirations of the early Nineteenth Century (or the attitudes reflected in the middle class novel). But the novel just seems to accept those attitudes, which makes it all very conservative. Maybe there is a sense of parody that goes beyond the parodying of literary conventions, but if so I miss it. I find the novel less successful than Blixen’s short stories and I wonder if I came to it without having read her shorter work whether I would have responded in a positive way, but I did find it fun, enjoyed its playfulness and there are interesting things in it, e.g., the way the relationship between the girls changes, Lucan, the practical one first taking charge, but later, when they are in peril, Zosine, the impetuous one, who had previously been a bit useless, becomes much more active, showing new sides to her character.

[Frk. Borch (Pernille Borch Vinther) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeg var Blixen-skeptiker. Jeg har det generelt lidt svært med hendes fortællinger, der for mig bliver for kunstlede. Men med 'Gengældelsens veje' fik jeg hul på min Blixen-glæde. Romanen er en blanding af alt muligt; der er gotik, romantik, god gammeldags puslespilskrimi a la Sherlock Holmes og mystik. De to engelske veninder Lucan og Zosine er romanens hovedkarakterer, og de to ender lidt ad omveje på et gotisk slot i Frankrig i pleje hos præsteparret Pennhallow. Plejeparret har imidlertid langt fra rent mel i posen!
Romanen taber pusten lidt i sidst tredjedel, men indtil da er den en fest at læse! Jeg har fået meget mere blod på tanden ift. Blixen!

[julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went back and forth on this one. It's hard to judge it from a 21st century perspective, as it displays some objectionable attitudes towards the women who are its central characters. On the other hand, it also manages to capture the heated, intense way that women are IN their own heads and feelings. And I do also think that Karen Blixen was offering ironic commentary on some of the attitudes towards women, both from her own time and of the earlier time in which its set.

Of course, it has a happy ending in which both of the young women who are the main characters are happily married for love.

Other aspects that are weird from today's perspective is this marrying of cousins - yuck. Thank goodness we've moved away from that.

It was an interesting read, outside of what I normally read, but it probably wasn't Karen Blixen's best work - hence her releasing it under a pseudonym and not claiming it for many years.

[Inés · Rating 3 out of 5]

curiosón y esperanzador pero todo lo que pasa es demasiado específico y planificado, entonces acaba pareciéndose más a una fantasía o sueño en el que todo sale bien que a una historia de lucha de dos chiquitas.

[Siri Jacobsen]

Ikke Karen Blixens kedeligste bog. [Indsæt emoji-der-trækker-på-skuldrene.]

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gengældelsens Veje, som baronessen skrev i slutningen af 2. verdenskrig under synonymet “Pierre Andrézel” (så vidt jeg ved den eneste under dette) - måske for at distancere sig lidt fra værket, der ER anderledes end hendes andre bøger - er noget så sjældent fra Blixens side (i min læsning i det mindste) som en spændende bog med et klart drama! Historien er anakronistisk gammel i sit sprog og foregår i første halvdel af 1800-tallet. Gotikken driver ned af de gulnede, let skimlede sider i mit marskandisereksemplar fra 1944. De gudesmukke og åhh så skrøbelige piger, de grumme og altid balancerende på kanten af vanviddet mænd, de ridderlige aristokrater og de gamle landadelige rammer; Henry James havde ikke levet forgæves...

Den smukke, unge, forældreløse, men dog dannede Lucan tvinges af sin egen principfasthed til at løbe af gårde fra sin ellers gode plads i huset og opsøger sin tilsyneladende velstillede skoleveninde Zosine, hvis far har tjent sin formue på vestindisk tobakshandel (slave-ordet bliver ikke nævnt, men det ligger i luften, selvom baronessen jo er hævet over omend ikke ligeglad med den slags fjerntliggende detaljer), men som desværre også - viser det sig morgenen efter Zosines store fødselsdagsbal - har formøblet det hele væk og stikker af fra politiet i nattens mulm og mørke. Således uden midler ender de to piger i huset på en landejendom i Sydfrankrig hos et ældre engelsk præsteægtepar, der tilbyder pigerne en asketisk og åndrig tilværelse. Men så tager fanden ellers ved baronessen, der midt i den georgianske idyl lader det halvvisne præsteægtepar være involveret i - af alle ting - trafficking! Talking ‘bout a WTF moment!! De skulle ifølge anklagerne fra politiet have været primus motorer bag udskibningen af adskillige piger til tvivlsomme skæbner i Østerland. Stillet over for satan og søster i forklædning af det gamle ægtepar reagerer den borgerlige og reflekterede Lucan med frygt, mens den aristokratiske og temperamentsfulde Zosine flammer af indignation over det store og grufulde bedrag. Her udfolder temaet bag bogens titel sig så: Er gengældelse i form af hævn stærkere end i form af tilgivelse, og hvad gør gengældelsen ved os som mennesker?

Det er mesterligt af baronessen at skrive om netop det tema i 1944, hvor alle kunne se, hvilken vej det bar for Tyskland. En entitet, et folk og ikke mindst dets kollaboratører - hvilket Blixen var under anklage for at være efter nogle for hendes økonomi stærkt nødvendige salg af historier til tyske magasiner samt nogle i retrospekt mindre heldige udtalelser under et besøg i Berlin i starten af krigen, men inden Danmarks besættelse, om det i hendes naive øjne klasseudslettende Tredie Rige - var i een pærevælling gående imod en gengældelse, der i den grad fordrede dyb og klog refleksion over handling og konsekvens. Den refleksion gør baronessen meget håndgribelig ved at lade de uskyldsrene piger se ned i helvede i den gamle mands øjne, og mens den tilgivende Lucan reelt tildeler den gamle det udslettende stød, trues den hævngerrige Zosine med at blive hevet med ned i dybet. Hun reddes selvfølgelig af sin adelige skæbne, og baronessen viser, at hun har en velfortjent og evig plads blandt vores allerstørste litterater, samt at hun er alt for moden og har set alt for meget af godt og skidt til ikke at unde sin læser en lykkelig slutning på en forrygende fortælling!

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a peculiar gothic melodrama. ‘The Angelic Avengers’ was first published in 1946 but reads like something a hundred years older. And yet there is an ambivalence and strangeness to it that doesn’t feel Victorian at all. The story concerns two eighteen year old girls, Lucan and Zosine, who are old friends from school. When disaster strikes, they are thrown upon their own resources. Both are distinctly independent minded and wish to find some way to support themselves together. Eventually an employment agency sends them to live in rural France with an English vicar and his wife. After an initial period of contentment, they realise that their guardians are up to something sinister. I found the responses of our two heroines to their discoveries somewhat inconsistent, as they both seesaw between helpless gothic heroine and determined woman of action. Nonetheless, there is something subversive about the young women’s resistance, with the help of an older black woman who used to be Zosine’s nanny. The prose is rather overwrought in the Romantic style, but very atmospheric. At times I wondered if events were veering into the supernatural, as there are some distinctly odd conversations about the devil. In fact, it’s the unsettling conversations that form the most memorable aspect of the book. After toying with tragedy, the ending is disappointingly conservative.

[Kallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Girls and women who were not under the protection of men were so vulnerable before modern times, since we have gained some legal status as humans rather than appendages. This novel makes very clear the absolute danger of being orphaned in a totally patriarchal era, faced by the two young women protagonists. Their strengths are their friendship and intelligence, which they use to negotiate a situation that turns treacherous. Dinesen details the plight and bravery of these two distinct, complementary characters in her usual deft, dynamic style. Unanswered: how people can be so blandly evil as the villains in this story turn out to be? But then, we don't need an answer to that. There simply are such people, or maybe we should coin a species name for them other than 'human.'

[Spigana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ļoti labs romāns, ar kura palīdzību ielūkoties 19. gadsimta jaunavu domāšanā.
Grāmata sarakstīta (un lieliski iztulkota) ārkārtīgi glītā, vecmodīgā valodā un perfekti rada tā laika noskaņu. Vienīgi galvenajām varonēm man bija mazliet grūti just līdzi, jo ir ārkārtīgi sarežģīti iedomāties sevi situācijā, kad esi audzināta maksimāli nošķirta no pasaules realitātes un neko nejēdz no dzīves, bet visu laiku esi atkarīga no vīrieša un pati sevi aizstāvēt vispār nespēj. Ak, un tā mūžīgā ģibšana...
Grāmata man visnotaļ patika, vienīgi par šausmīgu gan to mūsdienās grūti nosaukt- esam krietni pārsātinājušies grāmatas un filmas, kur šausmas ir ļoti grafiski un detalizēti atainotas.

[LUNA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lo mejor, que esta muy bien escrito.
Lo peor, el resto.
Mi enlace al vídeo de resumen de lecturas por si queréis echarle un ojo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adrln...

Tiene la protagonista mas ameba que me he leído en mi visa ella solo esta para que conocer las vidas del los de al rededor. Protagonista ameba aquel que ni pincha ni corta en la trama que no tiene evolución y que no hace absolutamente nada mas que mirar su alrededor. Y la trama va a trompicones y llena de casualidades que ayudan a la continuidad de la historia.

[Judy · Rating 1 out of 5]

No surprise that Karen Blixen wrote this under a pseudonym. It is clumsy, the characters are muddy, the situations peculiar, subplots lead nowhere, and it all turns out ok in the end. Oh, yawn!

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not good enough to excite me. Not bad enough to annoy me. It left me indifferent.

[Oliver Holm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Elegant and stylish - prolix and tedious.

[Andrius · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Angelic Avengers is a strange book. Published under the pseudonym of Pierre Andrézel, it is Karen Blixen's only novel. Apparently there has been a lot of debate on what genre it actually falls into. As far as its subject matter is concerned, Danish reviews at the time described the book as a 'crime novel in crinoline' -- an odd combination of a Victorian governess novel, a crime thriller, and gothic horror.

And then there's the question of how exactly this subject matter is approached -- again I have seen several interpretations floating around. Is it a pastiche? Or a satire? Or is it a joke, a prank played on the reader using some well-worn English tropes? Personally, I didn't really get any of those from the book. It's not faithful and respectful enough to be a pastiche, it's too elaborate and sincere for a joke, and if it is a satire, it has remarkably little to say about the things it mocks. Instead I got the feeling of a kind of literary game -- that Blixen is genuinely telling a story but also not really taking it too seriously. She plays with familiar genres and tropes, not so much to mock or criticise, but for fun, perhaps to see what else could come out of it.

This would be in line with the way Blixen herself described The Angelic Avengers as her 'illegitimate child', written largely for amusement and not fit to stand beside her 'serious' fiction. To some extent I think that is true. Reading this book, I often got the sense that she was just kind of letting things happen (this was part of that sense of lighthearted play) -- there seemed to be little effort put into the plot, the characters, or the writing itself. The story is engaging, don't get me wrong, but also very simple and one that moves according to what's convenient for the writer rather than any kind of strict internal logic.

On the other hand, the book does have its startling moments here and there, and there are also some interesting implications if you have a look at its historical context. The book has been described as a very specifically wartime book (it was written during WW2), and Danish audiences at the time read in it an allegory of the Nazi occupation of Denmark that snuck some criticism of the regime past the censors but also provided an escapist fantasy for troubled times, which was very well received.

But then again -- although that does sound pretty nice, it's all in the realm of historical interest and Blixen scholarship. Whatever role it may have played at the time, I think its historical hyper-specificity means that it doesn't hold up quite as well today now that some of its larger concerns aren't as relevant. Without them, what's left is a pretty fun but flawed story with somewhat flat and static characters and writing that is as elegant as Blixen's always is but has few exceptional moments. I liked it -- it's not a terrible book -- but I do think it's the worst of Blixen's fiction that I have read so far.

[David Grosskopf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was in the mood for a gothic story. This one had beautiful women living at the whim of a cruel world, exiled from wealth and a father's protection. What we learn is that the house under whose care they come is run by white slavers, sex traffickers, in the modern understanding, who have taken in one innocent 18 year old girl after another and sold her and killed her when it hasn't worked out; we only know at first that the Pennhallow's are severe Adventists, and Mr. Penhallow is deeply learned and long respected; they admire and grow under his tutelage, but small clues point to something not right.

There are a couple layers here worth exploring in 2020. One is that the book deals very directly with the ways women are both strong in heart and mind but thin in options. Everywhere they go, a man will exert and maintain control. The book shows them blooming and reaching and put down, as when Lucan becomes a governess and finds talent and connection and a possible independent way forward until the widower seeks her love and the door therefore slams shut. Zosine is able to live without her father's wealth and adorations, but she finds herself trapped by law and reputation in remote France. They must be angels, and yet, when they find out about the Penhallows, they don't simply flee when they could, but stay in the mouth of danger in order that justice will be served--and thus, angelic avengers. That is a huge layer.

The other piece is the colonial one. This is the author of Out of Africa, and her we have a cast of Black servants who get a sympathetic view, conscientiously so, and yet, it's not a post-colonial positioning that shifts are perspective from anything but pity or laughter. The book, too, was written while Denmark was under Nazi occupation, so the layers resonates with that history, too. It was a very readable adventure story with women for whom I was happy to be happy. Even in the double wedding in the end, and the order thus restored.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a strange and haunted book. I do find Dinesen/Blixen/Andrezel to be a great and interesting writer, especially this and the Winter and Gothic tales. But this is a strange and obsolete monster of a thing. Very readable, though. Quick punchy chapters, often ending with a revelation or cliffhanger.

If you try to read it straight, it won't quite work and might even offend you. But it seems to be living at least a double-life as a text. Possibly triple. It seems to be accepted that Blixen wrote it as a dense fable of the Danish resistance to the Nazis. Okay, perhaps I can see that. It's quite oblique, but I can see that. But it seems to me also to be having a lot of fun playing with and parodying a certain "Perils of Pauline"-style of popular fiction writing that few of us have really experienced at this late date (2024). That means that there's at least a little bit of tongue-firmly-in-cheek for some of the more flighty and overheated and mildly offensive bits. Are they what we might ungenerously assume? Or is it rather a gentle mocking of the assumptions and tropes of the underlying sort of texts that are here being parodied? Possibly a bit of both? Dinesen wasn't some avatar of racial and class enlightenment after all.

But if you think you might be able to enjoy an old book that's playing with the styles of older books, teasing at them, possibly critiquing some of their more cringey aspects, while also sneaking through a critique of the Nazi occupation while the Nazis were still in charge? Give this one a try. Hard to imagine there's anything else much like it.

[George L Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a little disappointed at the reviews I've read about this book. I guess I read it with different expectations in mind. To me it was a writer's holiday. A story to intrigue, told with grace and what I'd called gentle irony. There's no effort to make the story believable. It's written to relax and entertain the reader by a superb writer who has no need to prove anything. Published in 1946, I can only imagine the author found relaxation and comfort from the stress and anxiety of World War II in her tale of two teenage girls in danger. I enjoyed this vacation from my anything but relaxed "real" world. But then that kind of relaxing is my preference for recreation reading. I return to Dickens, Trollope, Austen and Eliot knowing I'll be given a good read. Karen Blixen gave it a try and I was glad to keep company with her. That said, I'll now return to her short stories and her memoirs of Africa for the kind of writing she does best. There are few that can match her.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was given to me as gift by one of my dear ham radio friends who has since become a "silent key." (RIP Paul)

The story was written in the gothic Victorian style of the mid-1800s. The background is very descriptive and flowing. At times it became a little difficult to follow and I had to back up to reread a section to better comprehend it.

An entertaining read!!

Rounded up to 3 1/2 stars.

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

No sé muy bien cómo describir este libro. Tiene un momento que es bastante interesante, pero para llegar a él tienes que leer 200 páginas. Es decir, la mitad del libro. Encuentro que es demasiado largo y que el final sobra bastante. Me hubiese gustado que la trama de los padres adoptivos se desarrollase más. No es un libro que recomendaría ni uno de esos que me deja con ganas de más. Aunque si te gustan las historias de damas, un poco de época y mini-aventuras, quizás este es tu libro.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thrilling romance, if a little stilted in its use of sudden declarations and revelations, arrivals and departures. Karen Blixen builds some great tension here regarding grace and forgiveness; love and lust; hope and despair. There’s wonderful passages and turns of phrases and characters telling each other stories—-plenty to make the 306 pages here feel like a breeze.

[Anne P. D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very strange book.
Themes of "safety" and "danger" . The hidden qualities of adults, their contradictory behavior.
What "evil" looks like. More about what "evil" doesn't look like.
The 2 main characters are well written and both very strong.

Also there is much about society and class. Being protected, safe in a "good" family, versus dangers looming in this book.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this one expecting a joke, and didn't get an outright joke as much as a tongue-in-cheek pastiche of Victorian novels. It never falls off the rails, but you can't ever shake the feeling that Blixen is smiling behind the scenes when she writes a convenient encounter that would fit into a Charles Dickens story.

The story itself starts off as something of a comedy of errors with all kinds of troubles befalling the pure, innocent protagonist and her friend, and then slows down to the bulk of the story with a priest and wife in Languedoc, France. The mystery itself is paper-thin but Blixen is good enough that tension is maintained through how bizarre the antagonists are and the degree of mind games and manipulation that occurs once the jig is up. While there's nothing incredibly striking about any of the characters, I still found them interesting and they played out their arcs convincingly (maybe except for the main character, who succeeds through inaction after the first quarter of the book and is more symbolism than person).

The writing itself is obviously solid, but I'm disappointed by the hinting by the priest at a greater, far more interesting plot which is then ignored or was purely my interpretation.

[Charlotte Sørensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

En bizar fortælling, som tager sin begyndelse i en romantisk ungpigeverden. Men det hele vender en omgang og man bliver inddraget i en gotisk fortælling, hvor djævelskab og woodoo går hånd i hånd. Blixens fortællestil ligger som rød, poetisk tråd gennem hele romanen.

[Helle Pedersen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Her blev jeg godt nok skuffet. Jeg har læst “Den afrikanske farm” med stor fornøjelse og havde glædet mig til at læse denne. Desværre var den altret jeg ikke bryder mig om. Naiv, for tilfældig, sukkersød og kvalm.

[Donna Krebs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised by The Angelic Avengers. Even though it was melodramatic , it was fast-paced and hard to put down! Unfortunately, its portrayal of Olympia ( an important person in the story) is so cliched ! That really upset me!

[Larilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zosine was chaotic and annoying and other words that are not nice to say, and what happened to Lucan’s brothers? Overall, the book had alot of potential, but it fell short. I assume it was great when it was released though