“Pretty girls I had seen, lovely girls, no doubt, but I had never paid much conscious attention to their looks, never been particularly interested in them. Julie, and experiences an awakening of sorts. Narrated by its titular character, Olivia perfectly evokes adolescent love. Set in a French finishing school Dorothy Strachey’s Olivia tells the story of a schoolgirl’s infatuation with her headmistress. Like what I do here? Check out my Ko-fi page and consider supporting the blog! Everyone who supports me can choose a book from my current TBR to be read and reviewed.“And so that was what love led to. It’s an excellent little book that focuses on the intensity of young love and infatuation. I was really transported into Olivia’s world and, due to the intensity, I found it easy to be consumed by her feelings. There are some very concerning moments that put me on edge but that’s the result of an excellent unreliable narrator. Strachey really captured that first rush of adolescent desire, full of envy and yearning, and Olivia’s desire is forbidden in multiple ways. It’s very short but packed full of emotion, almost to the point where it feels like you’re experiencing too much. Considering that it was published in 1949, looking back at the 1880s, the subject matter is very striking and I can see why it has been labelled a classic lesbian book. The novella is written from a first person perspective, with Olivia as the narrator and focal point, and this ensures that a reader is experiencing what Olivia is experiencing. Julie like an idol but infatuation of another kind sets in and she becomes almost obsessive. Olivia, aged sixteen, is sent to a Parisian finishing school and very quickly she finds herself falling for her headmistress. In the book, Souvestre is represented by Julie and Dussaut is represented by Clara, with Oliva serving as Strachey’s fictional counterpart. This emotionally and sexually charged book about self-discovery is drawn from Strachey’s own experiences in the schools of Marie Souvestre, who founded schools for young girls with her partner Caroline Dussaut. But Madamoiselle Julie’s life is not as straightforward as Olivia imagines and the school year is destined to end abruptly in tragedy.ĭorothy Strachey anonymously published Olivia in 1949 and, to put it simply, it’s a book about a young girl who has a crush on her headmistress, Mlle. Soon after her arrival, she finds herself falling under the spell of her beautiful and charismatic teacher. Summary: When Olivia turns sixteen she is sent to a Parisian finishing school to broaden her education.

Olivia by Dorothy Strachey