"On women, marriage, prostitution" Read the full letter
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Letter ReferenceLetters/414
Archive
Epistolary Type
Letter Date4 September 1890
Address FromMatjesfontein, Western Cape
Address To
Who ToHavelock Ellis
Other VersionsCronwright-Schreiner 1924: 196-7
PermissionsPlease 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 Havelock Ellis.
2Matjesfontein, 4th Sept.
3
4I do not ever think I have misunderstood people, but I feel small
5things done in the dark against me, as much as some people would a
6plan to murder them. When the people at that hotel in Italy sat
7laughing at me and calling me a thief (you remember that man who knew
8old - .) I was nearly driven mad with a sense of injustice and wrong
9in the world. I suppose few people have suffered as much in the course
10of their whole life as I did in those two days, and thousands of human
11beings go through life without ever dreaming the possibility of such
12joy as I feel when I go out in the morning here.
13