Nothing ever seemed spontaneously my own.”Ī woman recollects the final year of her education, a year when she discovered life at its fullest, found passion and in a sense, herself. Shakespeare or Donne or Heine had the exact phrase for it. “Was this stab in my heart, this rapture, really mine or had I merely read about it? For every feeling, every vicissitude of my passion, there would spring into my mind a quotation from the poets. Dorothy Strachey’s writing is beautiful, and there is a lot that is very quotable from this slim volume. What a shame it is that Dorothy Strachey only ever published this. I’m not sure why – but I wasn’t altogether certain that I would enjoy Olivia – perhaps I read a review of it somewhere which put me off – however, I enjoyed it enormously. The Afterword reveals that the French school featured in this novella is loosely based on Marie Souvestre’s Allenswood Academy, attended by both the author and Eleanor Roosevelt, which in itself is rather fascinating. It is more of a novella really at just 114 pages in this edition, and I’ll be honest – I picked it mainly for its length as I near the end of my A Century of Books. Published under the pseudonym ‘Olivia’ it is a subtle classic of lesbian literature. … ( more)ĭedicated to the memory of Virginia Woolf, Olivia was Dorothy Strachey’s only novel. In 1999, Olivia was included on the Publishing Triangle's widely publicized list of the 100 Best Gay and Lesbian Novels of the 20th Century.
Colette wrote the screenplay for the 1951 film adaptation of the novel. Olivia was dedicated to the memory of Strachey's friend Virginia Woolf and published to acclaim in 1949. Marie Souvestre, whose influence lived on through former students like Natalie Barney and Eleanor Roosevelt. Although not strictly autobiographical, Olivia draws on the author's experiences at finishing schools run by the charismatic Mlle. Julie and the other head of the school, Mlle. Julie, and through this screen of love observes the tense romance between Mlle. The innocent but watchful Olivia develops an infatuation for her headmistress, Mlle.
Dorothy Strachey's classic Olivia captures the awakening passions of an English adolescent sent away for a year to a small finishing school outside Paris. Considered one of the most subtle and beautifully written lesbian novels of the century, this 1949 classic returns to print in a Cleis Press edition.
0 kommentar(er)
