"First real letter to Ellis, Spencer's First Principles" Read the full letter
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Letter ReferenceLetters/235
Archive
Epistolary Type
Letter Date26 May 1887
Address From134 Rue d’Assas, 6th Arrondissement, Paris, France
Address To
Who ToHavelock Ellis
Other VersionsCronwright-Schreiner 1924: 119
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.
2134, Rue D’assas, 26th May.
3
4Have got a little room here in a bad sort of house for ten francs a
5week, no cooking, spend most of my time in going out to get
6pennyworths of bread or milk; no restaurants here, except filthy
7workmen’s places. Paris suits my asthma, just as London does. But
8living is dearer, and not being able to speak one word of French makes
9living almost impossible. I like to think you were in Paris once and
10were happy here. It’s so impossible to realise there is anything but
11agony in the world. When I see all the people in the streets it
12doesn’t seem to me they are real. Everything seems to me just like a
13nightmare.…
14