Thoughts On South Africa - Schreiner, Olive

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Résumé :
A clarion voice from the Cape. Her verdict remains painfully direct. Thoughts on South Africa gathers Olive Schreiner's incisive political essays into a single, compelling volume. Written in the later nineteenth century, these south african essays form a political commentary collection within the register of nineteenth century nonfiction, addressing colonialism and society with uncommon frankness. Schreiner confronts the human costs of imperial rule and the entrenched hierarchies of Cape life, probing race relations south africa and arguing for practical, humane remedies...

Biographie:
Olive Schreiner (Ralph Iron Olive) was born in Wittebergen, Cape Colony, South Africa, on March 25, 1855.She was a writer who published the first great South African novel, The Story of an African Farm (1883). She had strong insight, aggressive feminist and liberal perspectives on politics and society, and an extraordinary spirit that was damaged by asthma and depression. Schreiner had no proper education, even though she used to read widely and was taught by her mother. From 1874 until 1881, when she went to England, expecting to study medicine, she wrote two semiautobiographical books, Undine (published in 1928) and The Story of an African Farm (1883), and started From Man to Man (1926), for which she worked alternately for 40 years but never finished.

Sommaire:
these social justice essays combine moral urgency with clear-eyed observation. The pieces balance literary energy with moral argument: clear, engaged prose that reads easily for general readers yet supplies sharp material for focused discussion. As an early contribution to british empire studies and to accounts of victorian era africa, the essays have historical as well as literary significance. They figure in cape colony history not as dry reportage but as sustained ethical critique, and they sit naturally alongside other olive schreiner works concerned with labour, gender and social reform. Taken together, the essays read like a field manual for moral imagination: precise observation leads to broad questions about law, economy and daily life under empire. For teachers and students the volume functions as an academic study resource, suitable for seminar reading and for inclusion on a university reading list, while casual readers encounter vivid portraits, urgent political commentary and the sympathy that marks Schreiner's style. Accessible to casual readers and prized by classic-literature collectors, the book suits armchair reading, classroom debate and careful collecting. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today - a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike. A thoughtful edition for personal libraries and course shelves. Readers return to Schreiner's essays for their intellectual rigour and humane feeling. Collectors of classic literature and instructors assembling a university reading list find this edition both dependable and inviting....