Product Description
This volume was published in 1896.
From the book's Introductory Note:
The following short stories, now for the first time collected
in one volume for publication in England, have all, with the
exceptiion of the last,("The Soul of the Newly Born")
appeared in various magazines and journals, such as Temple
Bar, Belgravia, The Woman at Home, The Lady's Pictorial and
others. Their merits are slight, their defects numerous; my
friends, however, will be generous and quick enough to dis-
cover the former, and my enemies will find ample food to
delight them in the latter, so that it is possible both sides may
be satisfied. Concerning the opening sketch entitled "God's
Light on the Mountains", which is not so much a story as a
very roughly drawn allegory, I may here relate a rather
curious incident. It was originally written in a friend's album
and was never intended for publication. But one fine day
this very friend suddenly and unexpectedly developed the
disposition of a practical joker, and caused the allegory to
be printed in the Pall Mall Budget under very peculiar circum-
stances, and without in the least consulting me on the matter.
The Pall Mall people were at that time busily 'booming' "The
Dreams of Madame Olive Schreiner". I was abroad, wintering
at Montreux in Switzerland; and my waggish friend, who, I am
bound to admit was also a devoted partisan, copied out my
hastily written "idyll", the compostion of which had originally
taken me about ten minutes, and sent it to the Pall Mall with an
ambiguously-worded epistle suggesting, or rather querying,
whether it might not possibly be the work of Olive Schreiner?
Without making any inquiries, the Pall Mall editors, losing sober
discretion and judgement in their desire to keep up the 'boom'
they had begun, pounced on the story, decided that it was
by Madame Schreiner and published it proudly and prominently
under the heading "Another 'Dream' by Olive Schreiner",
appending to it that lady's portrait and autograph. together
with a flattering eulogy of both the story and its writer! My
astonishment when I received the number of the Budget
containing my half-forgotten 'scrap' thus singularly appropriated
may be better imagined than described. However, I lost no
time in clearing up the mistake. I wrote to the editor of the
Pall Mall claiming the story as my own, and thanking him for
the praise bestowed upon so slight an effort. My letter was
printed in due course, but the discovery that I was the author
of the story, and not Madame Schreiner, of course, put a stop
to the Pall Mall's approval and enthusiasm! I am so often wrong-
fully accused of misjudging the Press, that I am glad to be able
to acquaint my friends and readers with this pleasing type of
journalistic 'fair play', which distinctly shows, at any rate, that
so long as the Pall Mall authorities thought the story was by a
woman whom they had elected to 'boom', it was worth prom-
inent notice; but that, on the contrary, as soon as they had
learned it was by another woman, whom they were stren-
uously endeavouring to 'quash', it became quite a different
matter! Yet the story itself remained the same, neither better
nor worse for praise or censure, and so trifling do I myself
consider it that it would not have been included at all in the
present collection were it not for this little 'Press-anecdote',
connected with it, which I think well worth telling, and which
I warmly commend to the shrews consideration and compre-
hension of the public.
Marie Corelli
From the book's Introductory Note:
The following short stories, now for the first time collected
in one volume for publication in England, have all, with the
exceptiion of the last,("The Soul of the Newly Born")
appeared in various magazines and journals, such as Temple
Bar, Belgravia, The Woman at Home, The Lady's Pictorial and
others. Their merits are slight, their defects numerous; my
friends, however, will be generous and quick enough to dis-
cover the former, and my enemies will find ample food to
delight them in the latter, so that it is possible both sides may
be satisfied. Concerning the opening sketch entitled "God's
Light on the Mountains", which is not so much a story as a
very roughly drawn allegory, I may here relate a rather
curious incident. It was originally written in a friend's album
and was never intended for publication. But one fine day
this very friend suddenly and unexpectedly developed the
disposition of a practical joker, and caused the allegory to
be printed in the Pall Mall Budget under very peculiar circum-
stances, and without in the least consulting me on the matter.
The Pall Mall people were at that time busily 'booming' "The
Dreams of Madame Olive Schreiner". I was abroad, wintering
at Montreux in Switzerland; and my waggish friend, who, I am
bound to admit was also a devoted partisan, copied out my
hastily written "idyll", the compostion of which had originally
taken me about ten minutes, and sent it to the Pall Mall with an
ambiguously-worded epistle suggesting, or rather querying,
whether it might not possibly be the work of Olive Schreiner?
Without making any inquiries, the Pall Mall editors, losing sober
discretion and judgement in their desire to keep up the 'boom'
they had begun, pounced on the story, decided that it was
by Madame Schreiner and published it proudly and prominently
under the heading "Another 'Dream' by Olive Schreiner",
appending to it that lady's portrait and autograph. together
with a flattering eulogy of both the story and its writer! My
astonishment when I received the number of the Budget
containing my half-forgotten 'scrap' thus singularly appropriated
may be better imagined than described. However, I lost no
time in clearing up the mistake. I wrote to the editor of the
Pall Mall claiming the story as my own, and thanking him for
the praise bestowed upon so slight an effort. My letter was
printed in due course, but the discovery that I was the author
of the story, and not Madame Schreiner, of course, put a stop
to the Pall Mall's approval and enthusiasm! I am so often wrong-
fully accused of misjudging the Press, that I am glad to be able
to acquaint my friends and readers with this pleasing type of
journalistic 'fair play', which distinctly shows, at any rate, that
so long as the Pall Mall authorities thought the story was by a
woman whom they had elected to 'boom', it was worth prom-
inent notice; but that, on the contrary, as soon as they had
learned it was by another woman, whom they were stren-
uously endeavouring to 'quash', it became quite a different
matter! Yet the story itself remained the same, neither better
nor worse for praise or censure, and so trifling do I myself
consider it that it would not have been included at all in the
present collection were it not for this little 'Press-anecdote',
connected with it, which I think well worth telling, and which
I warmly commend to the shrews consideration and compre-
hension of the public.
Marie Corelli
