With the publication of The Story of an African Farm in 1883, Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner became the first major South African writer in the English language. Lyndall, the novel's female protagonist, was the most outspoken feminist to appear until then in British fiction. Schreiner's unique empathy in detailing the loss of faith suffered by her male protagonist, Waldo, elicited lavish praise from such distinguished Victorians as Herbert Spencer, Sir Charles Dilke, Cecil Rhodes. John Galsworthy, and William Gladstone. The directness, simplicity, and immediacy of Schreiner's prose also won it broad popularity, characterized by this response from a Lancashire working-class woman: "I read parts of it over and over....About yon poor lass [Lyndall] ... I think there is hundreds of women what feels like that but can't speak it, but she could speak what we feel."

Schreiner's writing spanned diverse genres. Her allegories and short stories further develop the...