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The Story of an African Farm (Penguin Classics) 17November2023 On 11 November 2023, I started reading The Story of an African Farm as published by Penguin Classics which is by Olive Shreiner. It was first published in 1883. It is just about 260 pages or so. It took me 7 days to finish. I averaged 36 pages per day reading it with the most pages in one day being 75 pages. I could have finished it in 6 days however, it was late and I wanted to be awake for the last chapter of 9 pages. A colleague of mine has exclaimed shock and wonder at how I could do that as he would not be able to sleep but would stay up reading. hahaha. . would you stay up late or prefer to put it off until the next day so you are awake like I did? I did the same thing with the end of Les Miserables by the way. Anyway, the story takes place in South Africa in about the 1860s. Just as the name says it takes place on a Farm. The farm is owned by an old Boer Woman, Sannie, who speaks only a little bit of Dutch. On the farm is also an old German man, two cousins: Em (a delightfully full-figured lady) and her cousin Lyndall (who is the more beautiful of the two). There is also a German boy they grew up with named Waldo who is the shepherd on the farm. The first part of the book involves a conniving, scamming, fraud, vagrant who walks up to the farm. Sannie not liking people who walk (i.e., not ride horses) thought he was bad news but the naive and generous German wanted to welcome him. That dislikable character was Bonaparte Blenkins. There is a comical scene involving him when he is trying to steal things. He was the most dislikable character in the book (like the dislikable tavern owner in Les Miserables). In the second part an Englishman, Gregory Rose, came to the farm to manage the farm. It is through him that the question of love is explored. Em’s view of marriage was being of service to whoever her husband was. Lyndall however, was a beautiful free spirit with beautiful little feet who did not want to be tied down to anyone. The cast of characters is good, including the dog named Doss. There is a good amount of conflict in there. The story involves a lot about pursuing a relationship(s) and how things turn out. It is also a story about about that desire people have for something bigger and better or different from the situation they are living in only to find out it can be just fine where you are. What is the secret to happiness? is an overarching question / theme. There are good quotes and passages in there about men vs women in marriage and generally. There is a lot of philosophy of life in there. There are ideas of dreams. There may even be a ghost involved. It was a very enjoyable read. Question(s) inspired from reading it: There are a lot of quotes I noted in there, but will leave you with this one about art because I like art and art museums:
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