It is revealed that she had been the most celebrated chef in Paris, and mixed with the highest of society but loaded guns for the communards and she alone of her companions had escaped with her life.īut now, having poured herself into cooking the feast, she is gratified to know that not only was her talent recognised then as now, but that she has fulfilled her artistic destiny and done her very best. She is recognised by one of the visiting guests, a General who still holds a candle for the sister he had been in love with as a young man.
14 grey years go by and then she wins the lottery that a friend has bought tickets for her over the years and repays the sisters with a feast that takes all her money.
There she is taken in by two sisters who in their youths had resisted the temptation of lovers and glittering careers for devotion to their preacher father and this poverty of existence he was sure would lead to rewards in Heaven.īabette becomes their unpaid housekeeper as they have no money, but she has room and board and a good if spartan life. Babette who has been active in the French Revolution escapes to Denmark, to a small Christian community, a cult of the most extreme puritanism. This is the entire plot, so if you are going to read the book or watch the film (the film is better) then don't read these spoilers. Own black servant that what he had partaken of was a small fat grandchild of the chief’s,Ĭooked in honor of the great Christian medicine man. Only long afterwards the missionary learned from his He had saved the life of an old chief’s favorite wife, and to show his gratitude theĬhief had treated him to a rich meal. Martine remembered a tale told by a friend of her father’s who had been a missionary inĪfrica. There is one really rather awful but humorous tale of another feast in the book, gruesome too. But then, a windfall comes into all their lives and the charity is repaid by an artist who must create, who must given the chance, do her utmost to make the greatest creation of her life, and again, will pay the price for that for the rest of her life. What happens is sacrifice, is Christian charity, is a colourless life.
It is also the story of giving up free will, of letting one's life's course be decided by another and consequently accepting a dour life ordained by the pastor who leads a Christian cult that strips all joy from this life in preparation for the Golden Jerusalem in the life hereafter.Īnd what happens when they both meet. Babette's Feast is the story of self-determination, of the French Revolution, of living large, a grand life, one full of success and excess, but knowing that what is more important is following one's conscience and standing up for what is right even if it means paying the price for that for the rest of her life.
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