"Going with me to England, think it all over carefully" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Letters/270 |
| Archive | |
| Epistolary Type | |
| Letter Date | 18 February 1888 |
| Address From | Alassio, Italy |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Isaline Philpot |
| Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 132; Rive 1987: 136 |
| 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.
|
1To Mrs. J. H. P.Hilpot.
2Alassio, 18th Feb.
3
4I get to my work which is sometimes writing, more often walking up and
5down my room and thinking things out. ... I never see anything of them.
6 After lunch I sometimes go out for a walk to my favourite ruined
7chapel, Santa Croce, but lately I haven't been out. I read or write or
8walk up and down, “thinking out” all the afternoon. At 6 we have
9dinner. Then I come up to my room again, generally leaving before
10dinner is quite done, and I walk out on the terrace a bit and then
11read or write till bed-time. I do exactly the same every day. One day
12is as all days. It's a very delightful life. I've never been so happy
13since I left my dear old farm in Africa. … I'm writing an introduction
14to Mary Wollstonecraft's Rights of Women; it will hold the substance
15of all my thoughts on the man and woman question.
16
2Alassio, 18th Feb.
3
4I get to my work which is sometimes writing, more often walking up and
5down my room and thinking things out. ... I never see anything of them.
6 After lunch I sometimes go out for a walk to my favourite ruined
7chapel, Santa Croce, but lately I haven't been out. I read or write or
8walk up and down, “thinking out” all the afternoon. At 6 we have
9dinner. Then I come up to my room again, generally leaving before
10dinner is quite done, and I walk out on the terrace a bit and then
11read or write till bed-time. I do exactly the same every day. One day
12is as all days. It's a very delightful life. I've never been so happy
13since I left my dear old farm in Africa. … I'm writing an introduction
14to Mary Wollstonecraft's Rights of Women; it will hold the substance
15of all my thoughts on the man and woman question.
16
Notation
The book referred to is: Mary Wollstoncraft (1792) A Vindication of the Rights of Woman London: J. Johnson. Schreiner agreed to write an ‘Introduction’ to a new edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, but it was never completed. A very early draft fragment of it appears in Carolyn Burdett (1994) History Workshop Journal 37: 189-93.
The book referred to is: Mary Wollstoncraft (1792) A Vindication of the Rights of Woman London: J. Johnson. Schreiner agreed to write an ‘Introduction’ to a new edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, but it was never completed. A very early draft fragment of it appears in Carolyn Burdett (1994) History Workshop Journal 37: 189-93.