Book Description:
The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner is a groundbreaking and introspective novel set in the remote South African Karoo during the late 19th century. It follows the intertwined lives of three children — Lyndall, Waldo, and Em — as they come of age on a rural farm and grapple with love, loss, identity, and the rigid social norms of colonial society.
Radically ahead of its time, the novel centers especially on Lyndall, an intelligent and fiercely independent young woman who challenges Victorian expectations of femininity, marriage, and religion. Through philosophical reflection and poetic prose, Schreiner explores themes of gender, existential searching, spiritual doubt, and the constraints of empire.
Originally published in 1883 under a male pseudonym, The Story of an African Farm is now recognized as a foundational feminist and postcolonial work — a bold, thoughtful novel that marked the arrival of a powerful literary voice from southern Africa.
About Olive Schreiner:
Olive Schreiner (1855–1920) was a South African writer, feminist, and political thinker whose work challenged the cultural and ideological frameworks of her time. Raised in a missionary family, she worked as a governess and wrote in solitude, producing The Story of an African Farm, a seminal feminist novel that won her international recognition. Schreiner was also an outspoken critic of imperialism, racism, and gender inequality, and her essays and letters continue to be influential in both literary and political circles.