Olive Schreiner

The Story of an African Farm

Dreams

Ein bewegendes Meisterwerk über weibliche Emanzipation und Selbstbestimmung in der kolonialen Männerwelt «The Story of an African Farm» gilt als das südafrikanische «Wuthering Heights». Der autobiografisch inspirierte Roman der deutsch- und englischstämmigen Autorin, erschienen 1883, schildert das Schicksal einer eigenwilligen Heldin namens Lyndall. Schon als junges Mädchen lernt sie die Bigotterie und Ignoranz der Menschen kennen und erfährt, wie beschränkt die Lebensperspektiven für ihresgleichen sind. Doch dank einer großen inneren Stärke verteidigt sie in der Farmerswelt der südafrikanischen Karoo ihre Unabhängigkeit und verliert dabei das Ziel nie aus den Augen: weibliche Selbstbestimmung bis zuletzt. Schreiners Erzählkunst fasziniert nicht nur durch ihren einfühlsamen Ton und ihre große künstlerische Sensibilität, sondern widmet sich auch emanzipatorischen Themen wie Sexualität, voreheliche Schwangerschaft sowie die unrühmliche Rolle des Christentums bei der Bevormundung des «schwachen Geschlechts». Das Buch, seinerzeit ein Welterfolg, erscheint anlässlich des 100. Todestags der Feministin und Menschenrechtlerin am 11.12.2020 nun in einer Neuübersetzung.

Die Geschichte einer afrikanischen Farm

Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland

The magnum opus and most famous work of brilliant writer and story-teller Olive Schreiner. The book comprises of eleven short stories based on her own dreams. Each story represents her thoughts and views on life. Captivating!...

Articles, most revised and republished from various periodicals ; most concern Boer-English relations.

Thoughts on South Africa

A Little African Story

Dream Life and Real Life

Paul Hogarth

the story of an african farm From Olive Schreiner

Original Edition

A. K. A. Ralph Iron

The Story of an African Farm (first published in 1883 under the pseudonym Ralph Iron) was South African author Olive Schreiner's first novel. It was an immediate success and has become recognized as one of the first feminist novels.

This early work by Olive Schreiner was originally published in 1893 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Dream Life and Real Life; a Little African Story' is a short story that illuminates issues of ethnicity and gender through a tragic tale of a little girl that becomes enslaved by a family. Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner was born on 24th March 1855 at the Wesleyan Missionary Society station at Wittebergen in the Eastern Cape, near Herschel in South Africa. In 1880, Olive set sail for the United Kingdom with the goal of taking a position as a trainee nurse at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh in Scotland. Unfortunately ill-health prevented her from studying and she was forced to concede that writing would and could be her only work in life. In 1883, she produced her first published work The Story of an African Farm which she penned under the pseudonym Ralph Iron. This novel details the lives of three characters, first as children and then as adults, and caused significant controversy over its frank portrayal of freethought, feminism, premarital sex, and transvestitism. She became increasingly involved with the politics of the South Africa, leading her to make influential acquaintances such as Cecil John Rhodes, with whom she eventually became disillusioned and wrote a scathing allegory in his honour.

Dream Life and Real Life; A Little African Story

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

The Story of an African Farm - A Novel is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1892. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

A Novel

Reproduction of the original. The Antigonos publishing house specialises in the publication of reprints of historical books. We make sure that these works are made available to the public in good condition in order to preserve their cultural heritage.

in large print

By Olive Schreiner ; with an Introduction by Elaine Showalter

The Story of an African Farm is Olive Schreiner's landmark novel, set in the rural Karoo towards the end of the last century. The story was originally published in 1883 under the pseudonym Ralph Iron. When it was later revealed that the author was a woman, the news was received by many Victorian readers, who were shocked by the forthright feminism and negative comment on the social structures that formed the basis of their colonial society. Olive Schreiner proved to be a woman of vision and an author of skill. She evokes the bleakness and beauty of the farm in the Karoo, which she uses as the backdrop of the stories of Lyndall and Walso - unlikely soul mates whose lives reflect their frustrated quest for a better reality and their dreams of self-fulfilment. Schreiner's radical views on marriage, class distinction and religion remain relevant to this day and 'The Story of an African Farm' maintains an important place in South Africa literature.

Olive Schreiner

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