Olivia (Penguin Classics)

Dorothy Strachey's only novel, Olivia is the story of a sixteen-year-old girl at a French finishing school and the relationship she has with Madame Julie. This is one of those books which I have been planning to read almost every month since I bought it in June 2020. Finally, I did actually read it, and am annoyed that I did not make the effort sooner. This takes an incredibly introspective look at a sixteen-year-old girl discovering herself for the first time as she begins to find in the middle of her first infatuation. With overtly lesbian tones I found it very reminiscent of Carmilla, famed for its depiction of a vampire-human lesbian romance, both of which have a similar sense of claustrophobic psychological analysis. Strachey transports you back to that feeling of being in love for the first time, and not quite understanding what that means, and how that transcends meaning. The plot itself is minimal, particularly given that this book is only around 100 pages, but this is intentional in order to give proper dues to the psychological nature of the novel. It is not a romance novel, but a novel about love and how it is both our salvation and our damnation, and how we are lucky to be able to feel either the pleasure or the pain that it brings. Despite being a part of the Bloomsbury Group it is such a shame that this author is not more widely read and I would encourage you to pick up this book and change that. I purchased this new American edition because it is introduced by Andre Aciman, and if you are a fan of his essays or of Call Me By Your Name I highly recommend this particular edition. For such a short piece of literature, it has so much to say and I hope that with this new edition more people listen.

lyrically beautiful , adolescent passion wonderfully explored and captured

A bit too sweet at v beginning but its wit and eccentric characters soon make up for it. And of course, the crush!

Es una novela clásica de contenido lésbico, es bastante dulce y se desarrolla en un ambiente bastante cosmopolita e intelectual, el libro físico y envío fueron excelentes.

That world felt claustrophobic.