Babette’s Feast is only 45 pages long (does that make it a novella or a short story?), and while you can easily finish it in one sitting, it is the kind of story that makes one go back and re-read and ponder the message Dinesen is imparting. I remember when this story was made into an award-winning film back in the 1980s, many religious communities identified with its communal/eucharistic imagery. While that is undeniably there, what strikes me reading it today is its message about our need for reflection and re-evaluation in our own lives, about the importance of both physical and spiritual nourishment for our happiness and healing.
Babette’s Feast takes place in a beautiful, remote village in the Norwegian fjords. Berlevaag is a small community that is home to a religious sect known for its asceticism and good works. The founder was a man known as the Dean, and his beautiful daughters Martine and Philippa live their entire lives in Berlevaag. At the time of the feast, they will be in their 40s or 50-ish, and they are still devoted to their father’s teachings, living simply and doing good works for the less fortunate. The other sectarians, who are mostly older people now, have nothing but love and respect for them. But we learn that each woman had a brief encounter in their youth that will factor into what happens later. When Martine was 18, a dashing young officer named Lorens visited the area because his aunt lived there and Lorens had a gambling problem. His parents put him in a time out, hoping he would see the error of his ways and change. What he saw was lovely Martine, but after visiting her home, Lorens realized that he was not a good enough man for Martine, and that while he admired the Dean’s teachings, he could not live the life the sect would have required of him. Lorens left, became a better man, and quickly rose in the ranks of the military. At the time of the feast, he is a general who has been widely celebrated and welcomed at the French court, but he feels like something is missing from his life. Philippa has a beautiful singing voice and as a teen attracted the attention of a visiting French opera singer named Achille Papin. He offered her singing lessons and envisioned Philippa being recognized around the world for her talent, but when Achille behaved in a manner that Philippa found inappropriate, she ended her lessons and Achille left for France.
Dinesen than takes the story 15 years ahead in time (1871-72). A French refugee named Babette appears on the sisters’ doorstep with a letter from Achille, begging the ladies to take her in. Babette’s son and husband were put to death after the failed Communard uprising in Paris, and Babette, having also been a Communard, had to flee the country. The Communards were a movement on behalf of the working poor, and Achille’s sympathies were with them. He asks the sisters to help Babette, who has nothing to her name but who is, in Achille’s opinion, a good cook. The sisters are quite taken aback and worried because Babette is probably a “papist” (Catholic) and what they know about French cuisine is that it is full of weird, decadent surprises. Yet, they are women devoted to service and of course they help Babette. They also make a point of trying to teach Babette their ways of simplicity and no-frills dining. In a passage that has some pretty obvious biblical overtones, Dinesen describes Babette’s impact on the sisters’ life and work. Thanks to her housekeeping skills, “its cost was miraculously reduced” and the food baskets and soups that she prepared “acquired a mysterious power to stimulate and strengthen their poor and sick.” The sisters and sectarians recognize and value Babette’s talents and value having her in their community.
Twelve years pass and then something strange and unexpected happens. Babette, who had been participating in the French lottery yearly, has won and will soon receive 10,000 francs. In short, she is going to be a rich woman, and the sisters, while wanting to be happy for her can only think how hard it will be to lose her. In the meantime, the sectarians have been in some disarray, arguing amongst themselves and reviving old grudges. Martine and Philippa feel that they are failing their deceased father, whose 100th birthday would have been coming up in December. They were hoping to have a celebration to mark the occasion, and Babette approaches them with a special request. In 12 years she has never asked the sisters for anything but now she asks them to let her cook the feast for the occasion and to allow her to pay for it herself. Initially they balk at the idea; it’s far too generous! But Babette can be formidable and gets her way. Her preparations take weeks and involved travel and having food brought in from Paris, which makes the sisters very nervous.
What happens as a result is the heart of the story and so lovely to read. It would be easy and somewhat trite to say that bringing people together for a meal is healing, is holy, is a way to make us whole. Of course there is that. The Eucharistic overtones are pretty obvious. But this is also about personal transformation, putting aside prejudices, forgetting yourself and all the rules you have set for yourself, and just allowing yourself to be present in a moment with others. This is also a story about pursuing one’s own art or talent for the sake of the enjoyment of it, regardless of who encounters your work and their reaction to it. I found what I learned about Babette at the end of the story the most interesting thing of all. This would be a great choice for a book group because it is a quick read and could provide an opportunity to discuss religion, art and politics.