Dreams

by Olive Schreiner

Overview

"Dreams" is a collection of short stories by Olive Schreiner. The stories explore the inner lives and struggles of women in Victorian-era South Africa, grappling with issues of identity, love, and societal expectations. The collection includes several poignant and thought-provoking stories, which follows a young woman who defies social conventions to pursue her passion for botany, and "In a Far-Off World," which explores the complex relationship between a white woman and her mixed-race daughter. Other stories delve into the realm of dreams and the subconscious, including "The Lost Joy," which follows a woman on a journey of self-discovery through her dreams, and "The Artist's Secret," which explores the hidden desires and fears of an aspiring artist. Throughout the collection, Schreiner employs a powerful and evocative prose style to capture the innermost thoughts and emotions of her characters, illuminating the struggles and triumphs of women in a patriarchal society. "Dreams" remains a landmark work of feminist literature and a testament to Schreiner's skill as a storyteller and social commentator.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789357484404
Publisher:	Double 9 Booksllp
Publication date:	01/03/2023
Pages:	62
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.13(d)

About the Author

Olive Schreiner (Ralph Iron Olive) was born in Wittebergen, Cape Colony, South Africa, on March 25, 1855.She was a writer who published the first great South African novel, The Story of an African Farm (1883). She had strong insight, aggressive feminist and liberal perspectives on politics and society, and an extraordinary spirit that was damaged by asthma and depression. Schreiner had no proper education, even though she used to read widely and was taught by her mother. From 1874 until 1881, when she went to England, expecting to study medicine, she wrote two semiautobiographical books, Undine (published in 1928) and The Story of an African Farm (1883), and started From Man to Man (1926), for which she worked alternately for 40 years but never finished.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 7

Introduction 13

Olive Schreiner: A Brief Chronology 49

A Note on the Text 53

Dreams 55

Appendix A South Africa 121

1 From Charter of the British South Africa Company (1889) 122

2 From Cecil Rhodes, "What We Were Fighting," Examiner (13 November 1900) 123

3 From Sol Plaatje, Native Life in South Africa (1916) 125

4 From Women's Enfranchisement League leaflet, with Schreiner's notes (1908) 127

5 Letters from Olive Schreiner 129

a To Julia Solly (May-December 1908) 129

b To Will Schreiner (12 June 1898) 130

c To Edward Carpenter (3 April 1911) 131

Appendix B London 133

1 From Edward Carpenter, My Days and Dreams (1916) 133

2 From Constance Lytton, Prisons and Prisoners (1914) 137

3 From W.T. Stead, "The Novel of the Modern Woman," Review of Reviews (March 1896) 139

4 Letters from Olive Schreiner 140

a To Havelock Ellis (24 April 1887) 140

b To Maria Sharpe (24 November 1887) 142

c To Karl Pearson (11 November 1890) 142

Appendix C Literary and Intellectual Influences 145

1 From John Bunyan, "The Author's Apology for his Book" and "In the Similitude of a Dream," Pilgrim's Progress (1678) 146

2 "The Parable of the Wedding Feast," Luke 14:7-24 148

3 From Herbert Spencer, First Principles (1860) 149

4 From Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lecture on the Times (1841) 151

5 From W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903) 153

6 Selected poems from contemporary Black South African poets 155

a I.W.W. Citashe, "Your Cattle are Gone" (written during the nineteenth century, published 1961) 155

b Sol Plaatje, "Sweet Mhudi and I" (1920) 155

c Mrs. A.C. Dube, "Africa: My Native Land" (1913) 156

d A.K. Soga, "Daughters of Africa" (1919) 156

7 From Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) 157

8 From Edward Carpenter, "The Curse of Property," Towards Democracy (1905) 157

9 Anna Kingsford, "The Armed Goddess," Dreams and Dream Stones (1883) 159

10 Letters from Olive Schreiner 160

a To Edward Carpenter (26 October 1905) 160

b To Margaret Harkness (January/February 1891) 161

Appendix D The Reception and Importance of Dreams 163

1 Letter to T. Fisher Unwin (26 September 1892) 164

2 Arthur Symons, Review of Dreams, Athenaeum (10 January 1891) 165

3 Amy Wellington, Introduction to Dreams (1915) 169

4 Advertisement for Dreams, in Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland (1897) 173

Appendix E Schreiner's Corpus 175

1 From The Story of an African Farm (1883) 176

2 From Woman and Labour (1911) 179

3 From From Man to Man (1926) 185

4 From "The Buddhist Priest's Wife," Stories, Dreams and Allegories (1891) 187

5 From "The Dawn of Civilisation," Nation and Athenaeum (1921) 187

6 From "Diamond Fields" (1872) 190

7 From "The Lingua Franca of the World," Review of Reviews (1896) 191

Works Cited and Select Bibliography 193

Editorial Reviews

The genre of the allegorical fable has long been out of fashion. In their new edition of Olive Schreiner’s Dreams, the editors have provided a wealth of judiciously chosen materials, critical and historical, to help us read these allegories with fresh eyes.” — J.M. Coetzee

“Dreams, Olive Schreiner’s book of feminist allegories, became an inspirational book for hunger-striking British suffragettes in Holloway Prison. Charlotte Perkins Gilman carried it with her when she left her marriage, and she called it the sunlight of her freedom. It is wonderful to have Schreiner’s influential book now available for students and scholars, with a splendid introduction co-written by the three editors, connecting her South African political roots, London intellectual experiences, controversial feminist ideas, and literary evolution. The editors have provided a rich selection of contextual documents illuminating Schreiner’s literary influences and her intersecting views of the relationships between feminism, race, sexuality, and labor. A welcome and timely edition for a new generation of readers.” — Elaine Showalter, Professor Emerita, Princeton University

“Congratulations to the editors on producing a wonderful new edition of Olive Schreiner’s Dreams, one of her key publications. The editors have also added to the allegories in providing well-chosen selections from across a wide range of Schreiner’s writings, together with thoughtful interpretational notes. The result will surely be an essential book in Schreiner scholarship, appealing both to those wanting an introduction and to those wanting to deepen their knowledge of Schreiner’s work. Brava!” — Liz Stanley, University of Edinburgh

“[The editors] remind us that it was this work, enormously popular and incredibly powerful in her own time, that came to define [Schreiner’s] later career. … [T]he editors strike a delicate balance, highlighting what made her politics radical and, more importantly for modern readers, the radical potential of her work.” — Justin Thompson, Women’s Writing

From the Publisher