Soon after her arrival, she finds herself falling under the spell of her beautiful and charismatic teacher, Mademoiselle Julie, who introduces her to art, literature, and fine cuisine. She was the sister of Lytton Strachey, one of the founding members of the Bloomsbury Group and the author of Eminent Victorians, and of James Strachey, who translated the works. Perfectly captures the breathless excitement of adolescent passion Sarah Waters When Olivia turns sixteen she is. It tells the story of Olivia, a sixteen-year-old girl who is sent from England to a Parisian finishing school to broaden her education. Dorothy Strachey was born in 1865 and died in 1960.

Her return to my life in these unprecedented times has motivated me to do some research into the life of the author and the novel itself, as well as its literary reception and its contribution to our understanding of the nature of first love as Sapphic desire. Years have passed since my first encounter with Olivia. It tells the story of Olivia, a sixteen-year-old girl who is sent from England to a Parisian finishing school to broaden her education. At that time (the 1970s), a friend had given me a rather worn copy that she'd found at the back of a bookstore on one of those clandestine magazine racks that overflowed with 'pulp fiction.' Desperate for any reading material that hinted at lesbian desire, I virtually devoured the book. I recalled reading the book in my twenties when I was attempting to figure out my sexuality. As they grow closer, their relationship is threatened by jealousy and rivalry, and the school year seems destined to end in tragedy.AMID THE CHAOS and uncertainty of the election and spiking Covid numbers, I received a copy of a new edition of Dorothy Strachey's classic Sapphic novel, Olivia, with an introduction by Andre Aciman (author of Call Me By Your Name). But Mademoiselle Julie's life is not as straightforward as Olivia imagines.

It tells the story of Olivia, a sixteen-year-old girl who is sent from England to a Parisian finishing school to broaden her education.

The classic novel about a teenage girl's infatuation with her headmistress at a boarding school in nineteenth-century ParisĪ groundbreaking, passionate, and subtle story of first love, Olivia-based loosely on the author's own life-was first published in 1949 under a pseudonym. 'Perfectly captures the breathless excitement of adolescent passion.' -Sarah Waters, bestselling author of Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet 'I read Olivia many, many times, bought it for many of my friends, and consider it the inspiration for Call Me by Your Name.' -André Aciman

Olivia by Dorothy Strachey