Dreams
()
About this ebook
Olive Schreiner
Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) was a South African political activist and writer. Born to a family of Wesleyan missionaries, Schreiner was educated by her mother. Forced to move frequently due to her father’s inability to maintain a job, Schreiner became familiar with the landscape of South Africa and the cultural and political tensions holding together its diverse population. In 1881, she travelled to England in order to pursue her dream of becoming a medical professional, but her chronic asthma and limited finances prevented her from completing her training. In 1883, she published her debut novel, The Story of an African Farm, under a pseudonym, launching a career as one of South Africa’s leading writers. Throughout her life, she advocated for political equality for South Africa’s marginalized groups, including Afrikaners, indigenous Africans, Jews, and Indians. Combining a deep understanding of Christian morality with an active interest in socialism and the women’s suffrage movement, Schreiner is recognized as a pioneering feminist and political activist who wrote unflinchingly on such subjects as the Boer War, British imperialism, and intersectionality.
Read more from Olive Schreiner
The Story of an African Farm, a novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Stories, Dreams and Allegories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUndine: With an Introduction by S. C. Cronwright-Schreiner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of an African Farm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWoman and Labor (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Woman and Labour Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDream Life and Real Life: A Little African Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of an African Farm (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story Of An African Farm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of an African Farm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCloser Union: A Letter on South African Union and the Principles of Government Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of an African Farm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of an African Farm, a novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThoughts on South Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDream Life and Real Life (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Political Situation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDreams Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Dreams
Related ebooks
Martin Eden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThunder Bay: A Rebecca Connolly Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/52016 Pakn Treger Translation Issue: An Anthology of Newly Translated Yiddish Works Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Top 10 Short Stories - The 1900's - The Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSix of the Best by Virginia Woolf Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wind in the Willows Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prophet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNew Poems and Variant Readings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSongs of Experience: With the Original Illustrations by William Blake Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAthénaïse and Other Selected Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeda Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Duel and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Collected Short Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wind in the Willows: The Most Popular Children's Book ever Written Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArtemis to Actaeon and Other Verse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Modern Lover & Other Stories: “A woman unsatisfied must have luxuries. But a woman who loves a man would sleep on a board” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEdith Nesbit, The Poetry Of: “There is no bond like having read and liked the same books.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dream Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMoods by Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Quest of the Silver Fleece: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIsabella; or The Pot of Basil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gipsies by Alexander Pushkin - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNight and Morning, Volume 4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSTORIES of ENCHANTMENT - 12 Illustrated Children's Stories from a Bygone Era: Children's stories from the Land o' Dreams Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCollected Supernatural Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems By The Way & Love Is Enough Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTHE FAIRY COMB - A Greek Children’s Fairy Tale: BABA INDABA’S CHILDREN'S STORIES - Issue 284 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Modern Lover Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems By the Way Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFebruary 2024: Miah's Monthly Poetry, #8 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Short Stories For You
The ABC Murders: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Explicit Content: Red Hot Stories of Hardcore Erotica Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sour Candy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hellbound Heart: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Short Stories of Langston Hughes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Shop of Hidden Treasures: a joyful and heart-warming novel you won't want to miss Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Her Body and Other Parties: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Five Tuesdays in Winter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower: And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Short Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ficciones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Skeleton Crew Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas: A Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Years of the Best American Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales of Mystery and Imagination Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lovecraft Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hot Blooded Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Past Midnight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Dreams
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Dreams - Olive Schreiner
DREAMS
By
OLIVE SCHREINER
First published in 1924
Copyright © 2020 Read & Co. Classics
This edition is published by Read & Co. Classics,
an imprint of Read & Co.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any
way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd.
For more information visit
www.readandcobooks.co.uk
Contents
Olive Schreiner
I THE LOST JOY
II THE HUNTER
III THE GARDENS OF PLEASURE
IV IN A FAR-OFF WORLD
V THREE DREAMS IN A DESERT
VI A DREAM OF WILD BEES
VII IN A RUINED CHAPEL
VIII LIFE’S GIFTS
IX THE ARTIST’S SECRET
X I THOUGHT I STOOD
XI THE SUNLIGHT LAY ACROSS MY BED
Olive Schreiner
Olive Schreiner was born on Wittebergen Reserve, Cape Colony (present-day Lesotho) in 1855. After finishing school, she found work as a governess and a schoolteacher, and during her free time began to work on a novel about her experiences in South Africa.
When Schreiner had saved enough money, she travelled to Britain, hoping to become a doctor. She lived in London where she began attending lectures at the Medical School, as well as attending socialist meetings. Schreiner met the publisher George Meredith, who in 1883 published her best-known novel, Story of an African Farm. A commercial and critical success, it is now seen as a defining work of early feminism – as is her later work, Women and Labour (1911).
Over the rest of her life, Schreiner made the acquaintance of a number of figures in London society, including future Prime Minister William Gladstone. In 1889, she returned to South Africa to be with her family. Her brother, William Schreiner, later became prime minister of Cape Colony. Over the next few years she published two collections of short stories, Dreams (1891) and Dream Life and Real Life (1893). She also became heavily involved in politics, and was a fierce opponent of racism and imperialism. Her 1897 work Trooper Peter Halkett of Mashonaland (1897) was a strong attack on British rule in South Africa.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Schreiner moved back to Britain. Over the next four years she was active in the peace movement and worked closely with organizations such as the Union of Democratic Control and the Non-Conscription Fellowship. She returned to South Africa in of August 1920, and dying following a heart attack later that year.
These Dreams are printed in the order in which they were written. In the case of two there was a lapse of some years between the writing of the first and last parts; these are placed according to the date of the first part.
Olive Schreiner,
Matjesfontein, Cape Colony, South Africa.
November, 1890
Dreams
I
THE LOST JOY
All day, where the sunlight played on the sea-shore, Life sat.
All day the soft wind played with her hair, and the young, young face looked out across the water. She was waiting—she was waiting; but she could not tell for what.
All day the waves ran up and up on the sand, and ran back again, and the pink shells rolled. Life sat waiting; all day, with the sunlight in her eyes, she sat there, till, grown weary, she laid her head upon her knee and fell asleep, waiting still.
Then a keel grated on the sand, and then a step was on the shore—Life awoke and heard it. A hand was laid upon her, and a great shudder passed through her. She looked up, and saw over her the strange, wide eyes of Love—and Life now knew for whom she had sat there waiting.
And Love drew Life up to him.
And of that meeting was born a thing rare and beautiful—Joy, First-Joy was it called. The sunlight when it shines upon the merry water is not so glad; the rosebuds, when they turn back their lips for the sun’s first kiss, are not so ruddy. Its tiny pulses beat quick. It was so warm, so soft! It never spoke, but it laughed and played in the sunshine: and Love and Life rejoiced exceedingly. Neither whispered it to the other, but deep in its own heart each said, It shall be ours for ever.
Then there came a time—was it after weeks? was it after months? (Love and Life do not measure time)—when the thing was not as it had been.
Still it played; still it laughed; still it stained its mouth with purple berries; but sometimes the little hands hung weary, and the little eyes looked out heavily across the water.
And Life and Love dared not look into each other’s eyes, dared not say, What ails our darling?
Each heart whispered to itself, It is nothing, it is nothing, tomorrow it will laugh out clear.
But tomorrow and tomorrow came. They journeyed on, and the child played beside them, but heavily, more heavily.
One day Life and Love lay down to sleep; and when they awoke, it was gone: only, near them, on the grass, sat a little stranger, with wide-open eyes, very soft and sad. Neither noticed it; but they walked apart, weeping bitterly, Oh, our Joy! our lost Joy! shall we see you no more for ever?
The little soft and sad-eyed stranger slipped a hand into one hand of each, and drew them closer, and Life and Love walked on with it between them. And when Life looked down in anguish, she saw her tears reflected in its soft eyes. And when Love, mad with pain, cried out, I am weary, I am weary! I can journey no further. The light is all behind, the dark is all before,