Dreams is a wonderful parablistic book full of fascinating looks on the world. The stories are fascinating and beautifully written in that early 20th century feel of near backwards English that writers used to have. The first story is called The Lost Joy, and it personifies Life as a lonely woman and Love as a caring man, and from their first meeting was made Joy, a child. The metaphors like these said here are incredibly alluring and true, and they continue as the main characters throughout the book.

Schreiner was born in Cape Town in 1890. He was the son of William Philip Schreiner, a well-known advocate, civil servant and Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, and his wife, Frances, a sister of President F. W. Reitz. The author Olive Schreiner was his aunt.He went to Rondebosch Boys' High School and then the South African College School (SACS). An excellent student, he "could have had the Rhodes Scholarship for the asking", but understood, in the light of Rhodes's involvement in the Jameson Raid and subsequent fallout with William Schreiner, that "no Schreiner took such a gift from such a man".Instead, Schreiner went up to Cambridge University to read law at Trinity College. A string of academic prizes was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. Schreiner enlisted in the British Armed Forces, was wounded in the right arm at the Battle of the Somme, and received the Military Cross.