Dreams

Olive SchreinerProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 102K words
Chapters: 11

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Dreams by Olive SchreinerAuthor: Schreiner, Olive, 1855-1920,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 1, 1998

Editor's review

Dreams is a work by the South African writer Olive Schreiner and belongs to prose writing in English literature. Schreiner's writing has a strong symbolic and lyrical quality, often using dreams and allegorical scenes to carry reflections on life, society, and the inner world; the pieces are short and the imagery concentrated. For readers, the highlight of this book is not the completeness of plot but the creation of atmosphere and the transmission of feeling: it is more like a set of dream fragments one can enter again and again, noticing different details with each reading. As a Project Gutenberg electronic text, it is easy to access at any time and suits practice in reading short English prose, as well as readers interested in allegorical writing in late nineteenth-century English literature. There is no need to hurry to find an explicit meaning while reading; first feel the language and imagery, then consider what they point to, and the reward will come more naturally.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy symbolic, allegorical short-form writing
Learners who want to practice reading English literature through short texts
Readers interested in the diverse landscape of late nineteenth-century English literature
Readers who prefer atmosphere and imagery over plot momentum

Not a good fit for

Readers who need clear plot lines and character arcs
Beginners with a weak English foundation who rely on sentence-by-sentence translation
Readers who hope to get clear conclusions on social issues from the book

Reading tips

First read through to feel the overall atmosphere; do not worry about the meaning of every sentence.
On a second reading, mark recurring images and consider how they relate to one another.
After reading, write a few sentences about your understanding, then discuss it with others or compare interpretations.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a collection of short pieces?

Based on the available information, this is a short work by Schreiner with qualities of prose and allegory, not a novel in the traditional sense. It is better approached as a set of concentrated short pieces than read with the expectation of a continuous plot.

What if I do not understand the symbolic meanings?

Symbolic writing does not require a single interpretation. You can first note the images and sentences that impress you without rushing to conclusions; rereading after some time often yields new understanding as your own experience changes. Talking with other readers can also open up your thinking.

How difficult is the English version?

The text is in English and relatively short, but it is highly literary, with dense sentences and imagery. Readers with intermediate English can read paragraph by paragraph with a dictionary; if it feels difficult, you can first read a Chinese summary to grasp the gist, then return to the original to experience the language, without comparing word by word.

Comments

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About the author

Olive Schreiner Author · South African · 1855–1920

Olive Schreiner (1855–1920) was a South African writer, feminist and anti-war activist, born in Basutoland (present-day Lesotho). Her best-known work, The Story of an African Farm, is often regarded as the first great South African novel, exploring themes of growth, faith and gender against the background of farm life in Africa, while Woman and Labour is a classic text in the history of the feminist movement. Her works also include Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland and Dreams and Dream Life and Real Life: A Little African Story, spanning fiction, allegory and social commentary. She devoted her life to advocating universal suffrage and social justice, and her writing and thought have had a lasting influence on South African literature and the development of feminism.