"Writing process, 'Prelude', 'Peter Halket', you can't alter the pictures as they come to you" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Letters/233 |
| Archive | |
| Epistolary Type | |
| Letter Date | 16 May 1887 |
| Address From | Clarens, Montreux, Switzerland |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Havelock Ellis |
| Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 118 |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
When Cronwright-Schreiner prepared The Letters of Olive Schreiner, with few exceptions he then destroyed her originals. However, some people gave him copies and kept the originals or demanded the return of these; and when actual Schreiner letters can be compared with his versions, his have omissions, distortions and bowdlerisations. Where Schreiner originals have survived, these will be found in the relevant collections across the OSLO website. There is however a residue of some 587 items in The Letters for which no originals are extant. They are included here for sake of completeness. However, their relationship to Schreiners actual letters cannot now be gauged, and so they should be read with caution for the reasons given.
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1To Havelock Ellis.
2Clarens, 16th May.
3
4Tell me the address of a cheap respectable hotel in Paris. I am not
5better. I think I shall get well in Paris. Please be sure not to come
6and see me here. I want only to be left alone.
7
8When I was getting out of the boat at Lucerne a man with such a sweet
9face, something like Carpenter, only handsome, who had been one of the
10passengers, came up to me, and said: "Fraulein, I am so sorry to see
11you so sorrowful," and then he said that brighter times must come, and
12something about his own life having been very dark and got bright
13again. And then he touched his hat very respectfully and said he hoped
14good would come to me and went away. Somehow it comforted me so.
15
2Clarens, 16th May.
3
4Tell me the address of a cheap respectable hotel in Paris. I am not
5better. I think I shall get well in Paris. Please be sure not to come
6and see me here. I want only to be left alone.
7
8When I was getting out of the boat at Lucerne a man with such a sweet
9face, something like Carpenter, only handsome, who had been one of the
10passengers, came up to me, and said: "Fraulein, I am so sorry to see
11you so sorrowful," and then he said that brighter times must come, and
12something about his own life having been very dark and got bright
13again. And then he touched his hat very respectfully and said he hoped
14good would come to me and went away. Somehow it comforted me so.
15