"Wicked mad diplomacy, lying & darkness" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | Letters/231 |
Archive | |
Epistolary Type | |
Letter Date | 11 May 1887 |
Address From | Gersau, Switzerland |
Address To | |
Who To | Havelock Ellis |
Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 117-8 |
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.
2Gersau, 11th May.
3
4I am going to work now. I have had terrible asthma all night; even
5chloral didn't give me any ease; and I'm afraid work I do in this
6state won't be good but I can but try.
7
8Remember me to your dear mother, and how is my Louie? Whenever, - in
9about a year's time perhaps! - whenever I've finished my book I'm
10going to hire two tiny little rooms in the East End in a quiet back
11street and furnish them myself. I shall never be able to live in
12England except for a month or two in the year, but I want to have a
13home somewhere, and you and Louie can always come and stay in them
14when you come into town. I've been so happy planning this when I was
15too ill to think of anything else, but the book isn’t written yet, and
16I can't touch it except when I'm strong, and now I'm as weak as a baby
17with a could - cloud (I've been puzzling ever so long to find how that
18word was spelt wrong; now, happy thought, I see where the “l” ought to
19come) over its brain. I hope the Fortnightly will like the allegory
20written in this state. Good-bye till this evening.
21
22Evening. Asthma, and can't lie down. I never told you about that
23terrible Lady W - who keeps writing and wants me to go to Bel Alp with
24her (I've never seen the woman!) and I've written the shortest letters
25I can to her, saying I must be left alone. I haven't got any work done
26to-day.
27
2Gersau, 11th May.
3
4I am going to work now. I have had terrible asthma all night; even
5chloral didn't give me any ease; and I'm afraid work I do in this
6state won't be good but I can but try.
7
8Remember me to your dear mother, and how is my Louie? Whenever, - in
9about a year's time perhaps! - whenever I've finished my book I'm
10going to hire two tiny little rooms in the East End in a quiet back
11street and furnish them myself. I shall never be able to live in
12England except for a month or two in the year, but I want to have a
13home somewhere, and you and Louie can always come and stay in them
14when you come into town. I've been so happy planning this when I was
15too ill to think of anything else, but the book isn’t written yet, and
16I can't touch it except when I'm strong, and now I'm as weak as a baby
17with a could - cloud (I've been puzzling ever so long to find how that
18word was spelt wrong; now, happy thought, I see where the “l” ought to
19come) over its brain. I hope the Fortnightly will like the allegory
20written in this state. Good-bye till this evening.
21
22Evening. Asthma, and can't lie down. I never told you about that
23terrible Lady W - who keeps writing and wants me to go to Bel Alp with
24her (I've never seen the woman!) and I've written the shortest letters
25I can to her, saying I must be left alone. I haven't got any work done
26to-day.
27