"War, shadow, little book" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Letters/388 |
| Archive | |
| Epistolary Type | |
| Letter Date | 6 February 1890 |
| Address From | Cape Town, Western Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Havelock Ellis |
| Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 176-7 |
| 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.
2Cape Town, 6th Feb.
3
4It will be lovely when you are in Paris. I shall never live in London
5again, but in Paris or Germany or Italy. ... I had to-day a long
6letter from the German translator of An African Farm. She wants to
7call it Leben und Lieben, etc. It sounds sentimental to me. ... I am
8perhaps going up to a desolate place called Matjesfontein in the
9Karroo. I will work better there. ... I suppose love always makes
10people jealous. Women are divided into two parts with regard to me;
11the women who worship me (quite falsely!) and the women who are
12jealous of me (quite falsely!). ... I don't think nowadays. I note
13unconsciously everything, the lights on the mountains, the shapes of
14the trees, but I don't think. I have thought, thought, thought, night
15and day, for so many years, I can rest a little now and see the
16external world again after this nine years introspective trance of
17thought.
18
2Cape Town, 6th Feb.
3
4It will be lovely when you are in Paris. I shall never live in London
5again, but in Paris or Germany or Italy. ... I had to-day a long
6letter from the German translator of An African Farm. She wants to
7call it Leben und Lieben, etc. It sounds sentimental to me. ... I am
8perhaps going up to a desolate place called Matjesfontein in the
9Karroo. I will work better there. ... I suppose love always makes
10people jealous. Women are divided into two parts with regard to me;
11the women who worship me (quite falsely!) and the women who are
12jealous of me (quite falsely!). ... I don't think nowadays. I note
13unconsciously everything, the lights on the mountains, the shapes of
14the trees, but I don't think. I have thought, thought, thought, night
15and day, for so many years, I can rest a little now and see the
16external world again after this nine years introspective trance of
17thought.
18