"Johannesburg, lust for gold, moral decay" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Letters/523 |
| Archive | |
| Epistolary Type | |
| Letter Date | 15 January 1914 |
| Address From | Grand Hotel, Alassio, Italy |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Havelock Ellis |
| Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 329 |
| 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.
2Grand Hotel, Alassio, 15th Jan.
3
4I haven't written because I've been six days in bed. Those terrible
5internal pains came on suddenly as never before. I sent for an Italian
6doctor here; he said it was stone in the kidneys. For two days nothing
7but blood, due to the edges of the stone, he said, tearing the walls.
8The lady visitors in this hotel were unspeakably kind to me. For six
9nights they took turns to sit up with me till the doctor said I was
10out of danger. He was afraid of the heart failing and so would not
11give me the large doses of opium the Cape Town doctors gave me. The
12kindness of everyone here has been astonishing when I think that a
13month ago I had never seen any of these people. ... I shall not be
14leaving for Florence till the end of this month now. I feel weak and I
15shrink from the thought of Florence, and partly afraid of trying the
16treatment there. I'm walking on very thin ice, and I can't afford to
17be made any worse. Goodbye, dear.
18
2Grand Hotel, Alassio, 15th Jan.
3
4I haven't written because I've been six days in bed. Those terrible
5internal pains came on suddenly as never before. I sent for an Italian
6doctor here; he said it was stone in the kidneys. For two days nothing
7but blood, due to the edges of the stone, he said, tearing the walls.
8The lady visitors in this hotel were unspeakably kind to me. For six
9nights they took turns to sit up with me till the doctor said I was
10out of danger. He was afraid of the heart failing and so would not
11give me the large doses of opium the Cape Town doctors gave me. The
12kindness of everyone here has been astonishing when I think that a
13month ago I had never seen any of these people. ... I shall not be
14leaving for Florence till the end of this month now. I feel weak and I
15shrink from the thought of Florence, and partly afraid of trying the
16treatment there. I'm walking on very thin ice, and I can't afford to
17be made any worse. Goodbye, dear.
18