Name: The Story of an African Farm
Author: Olive Schreiner

How you explore The Story of an African Farm on Literah

The cast, the places, the objects, the plot, and the author’s own words — each one a card in a feed you scroll on your phone. One at a time, at your pace, in any order you like.

Built for your phone. Literah is designed for mobile, so your worlds travel with you. On a laptop it shows a QR code to carry the world to your phone.
A feed, not a wall of text. 14 characters, 9 places, 10 objects and 5 plot beats, each its own card with its own illustration.
The author’s own words. 25 passages of The Story of an African Farm sit in the feed verbatim, exactly as Olive Schreiner wrote them, each with a short reading of what it is doing. The map is ours; the prose is always the book’s.
The same scroll, a better world. The gesture you already give away to feeds, spent on Olive Schreiner instead.

9:41

The Cast

Lyndall

Main · Farm household

A brilliant orphan girl looks beyond the farm with unwavering determination to shape a life on her own terms.

Locations

The African Farm

farm

A red-sand farm under moonlight and drought, where nothing can be hidden and no one can leave.

Passage

Moonlight turns beauty unsettling, asking whether solitude here comforts or quietly threatens.

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The Author’s Pen

Moonlight on the Lonely Plain

The full African moon poured down its light from the blue sky into the wide, lonely plain. The dry, sandy earth, with its coating of stunted karoo bushes a few inches high, the low hills that skirted the plain, the milk-bushes with their long finger-like leaves, all were touched by a weird and an almost oppressive beauty as they lay in the white light.

Reading

The moonlight is doing the farm a kindness it cannot sustain. Everything here is meager and hard: dry sand, bushes only a few inches tall, hills that barely rise. Yet Schreiner opens her novel by letting the moon lend all of it a beauty that feels almost too much to bear, as if borrowed rather than owned. Come daylight this same plain will be plain again, and that gap between what the land is and how it looks now sets the tone for everyone who dreams on this farm.

World Index

The Plot

The Farm and the ChildrenBonaparte BlenkinsTimes and Seasons - the StrangerLyndall Returns and RefusesLyndall's Death and Waldo's End

The Cast

LyndallWaldoEmGregory RoseTant SannieBonaparte BlenkinsOttoWaldo's StrangerLyndall's StrangerDossTranaThe Hottentot MaidFarm Servants and Kaffer BoysBoer Wedding Guests

Locations

Em’s RoomThe African FarmThe FarmhouseThe GravesThe KopjeThe LoftThe Ostrich Camps and VeldThe Wagon-HouseWaldo and Otto’s Cabin

Objects of Note

BooksClothing as Self-FashioningEm’s Wedding Drawer and LinenLettersLyndall’s Diamond RingOtto’s WatchWaldo’s Carved BoxWaldo’s Carved PostWaldo’s MachineWaldo’s Sacrifice Altar and Mutton Chop

Core Concepts

Art as opening vs. possessionFaith vs. experienceInner life vs. outer confinementKnowledge vs. ignorant authorityLove vs. misrecognitionPerformance vs. truthTruth without consolationWomanhood vs. dependence

The Author's Pen

The Watch That Would Not StopThe Dinner Meat SacrificeI Hate GodThe Sleep of ReasonI Intend to Go to SchoolThe Kopje and the GiantHow Art Suggests MoreThe Marriage DrawerNo Woman As LovelyYou Are ChangedEm Misreads the RingMoney Is No ConsiderationReverence for Black ClothShe Will Never ReturnThe Little ImprovementEm Tells WaldoTrue Ones End SoWhat Makes BeautyThe Head at the DoorLyndall Is DeadCondemning What One Cannot ComprehendGregory Comes HomeWhat Never DiesSomething Worth Living For

Plot point 01

The Farm and the Children

A Karoo farm under moonlight, an Afrikaner woman and her ostrich feathers, and three children who are already asking questions the farm cannot answer.

Objects of Note

Otto’s Watch

A boy lies awake listening to a watch tick and hears eternity closing in on him.

The Cast

Waldo

Main · Farm household

A lonely shepherd boy listens to a ticking watch until it seems to speak of eternity itself.

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The Story of an African Farm

Olive Schreiner

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 128 classics in the Literah library

The Story of an African Farm feed, as it appears in your mobile

The plot of The Story of an African Farm

The story beat by beat, as Literah maps it.

The Farm and the Children
Bonaparte Blenkins
Times and Seasons - the Stranger
Lyndall Returns and Refuses
Lyndall's Death and Waldo's End

The author's pen in The Story of an African Farm

The passages themselves, Olive Schreiner's own words, as Literah maps it.

Moonlight on the Lonely Plainch. 1
The Watch That Would Not Stopch. 1
The Dinner Meat Sacrificech. 1
I Hate Godch. 1
The Sleep of Reasonch. 1
I Intend to Go to Schoolch. 2
The Kopje and the Giantch. 2
How Art Suggests Morech. 2
The Marriage Drawerch. 3
No Woman As Lovelych. 3
You Are Changedch. 4
Em Misreads the Ringch. 4
Money Is No Considerationch. 5
Reverence for Black Clothch. 5
She Will Never Returnch. 6
The Little Improvementch. 7
Em Tells Waldoch. 7
True Ones End Soch. 8
What Makes Beautych. 8
The Head at the Doorch. 9

The characters of The Story of an African Farm

Who is who, as Literah maps it.

Lyndallmajor
Waldomajor
Emmajor
Gregory Rosemajor
Tant Sanniesupporting
Bonaparte Blenkinssupporting
Ottosupporting
Waldo's Strangersupporting
Lyndall's Strangersupporting
Dosssupporting
Tranaminor
The Hottentot Maidminor
Farm Servants and Kaffer Boysminor
Boer Wedding Guestsminor

The locations in The Story of an African Farm

Where it happens, as Literah maps it.

The African Farmfarm
The Kopjehillock
The Farmhousehouse
Waldo and Otto’s Cabincabin
The Wagon-Houseoutbuilding
The Ostrich Camps and Veldveld
The Loftloft
The Gravesburial place
Em’s Roombedroom

The core concepts in The Story of an African Farm

What the book keeps returning to, as Literah maps it.

Inner life vs. outer confinement
Faith vs. experience
Womanhood vs. dependence
Knowledge vs. ignorant authority
Performance vs. truth
Love vs. misrecognition
Art as opening vs. possession
Truth without consolation

The objects of note in The Story of an African Farm

The things that carry meaning, as Literah maps it.

Otto’s Watch
Waldo’s Sacrifice Altar and Mutton Chop
Books
Waldo’s Machine
Waldo’s Carved Post
Waldo’s Carved Box
Lyndall’s Diamond Ring
Em’s Wedding Drawer and Linen
Letters
Clothing as Self-Fashioning

The offer

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How you explore The Story of an African Farm on Literah

The plot of The Story of an African Farm

The author's pen in The Story of an African Farm

The characters of The Story of an African Farm

The locations in The Story of an African Farm

The core concepts in The Story of an African Farm

The objects of note in The Story of an African Farm

Explore The Story of an African Farm. And 127 more.

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