Olive Schreiner was a nineteenth century giant. In her lifetime she was an author, bringing her native South Africa with all its wonders and flaws to the world. In addition she was a passionate campaigner against needless war, a radical freethinker and non-conformist.<br><br>Dreams is her second work, after her popular work The Story of an African Farm, and comprises a collection of shorter tales. These stories were inspired by her more abstract and emotional feelings, as opposed to a practical recounting of events. <br><br>The stories included in Dreams are wonderful parables which have been seized by readers and give us all an opportunity to think and feel in a new way, as well as a privileged window into the soul of the author. The stories centre around deeply personal and moving topics such as love, joy, loss and the passage of time and the personifications of these elements will bring tears to the eye. <br><br>Schreiner’s appeal has never been lost on the members of the women’s movement and as part of a distinguished company along with the Bronte Sisters and Mary Wollstonecraft, she made her contribution to the fight for equality. In picking up this book, you are taking the same action that women who dream have made many times before. Not only that, but the same action as suffragist prisoners and rebels, meditating on it through cold cell block nights.<br><br>For dreamers, rebels, women or those persons who are lucky enough to be all three, this work is indispensable.<br>