In 1933, she sent her manuscript of “Olivia” to her friend, the renowned queer French author Andrè Gide.

Strachey wrote “Olivia” 15 years before it was published. “Over the years, “the author’s true identity has stopped being the poorly guarded secret it once was,” Aciman writes. When the volume was first published, Strachey used a pseudonym. The history of “Olivia” is as engaging as the novella itself. Stories of open, unpunished LGBTQ love were frequently banned and their authors often used pseudonyms. But until recently (the late 1990s-early 2000s), most tales of LGBTQ passion ended with the illness, death or imprisonment of their queer protagonists. Today, queer romances are Amazon bestsellers. The film with its Parisian scenes and repressed, but not totally hidden, queer desire, is well-worth watching with your favorite libation in hand. What makes it even more remarkable - even groundbreaking - is that it was originally published in 1949.Ī film of “Olivia” with the same name, directed by the French filmmaker Jacqueline Audry, released in France in 1951 and in New York in 1954, is streaming now on the Criterion Channel. Strachey’s tale would be a striking coming-of-age story no matter when it was published. Andrè Aciman, author of “Call Me by Your Name,” has written a fascinating introduction to the volume.

The story is narrated by Olivia, decades later, as she recalls the first time she was possessed by love. Olivia, an English girl who’s been sent by her family to Les Avons, has a crush on Mlle Julie, a founder of the school and one of its headmistresses. Set in the 19th century in Les Avons, a finishing school outside Paris, it takes us into the solar plexus of Olivia, 16, in the midst of her first infatuation. “Olivia,” by Dorothy Strachey, rereleased on June 9, is an elegant, evocative, absorbing love story. Especially if you’re young, queer and in the throes of your first love. But nothing leaves you so blissed out, yet so sucker-punched as your first crush.

There’s breakfast in bed on your birthday, the text break-up, the great Valentine’s Day date and the night when your romantic partner prefers binge-watching Netflix to having sex. Classic queer novel ‘Olivia’ gets deserved reissue

Olivia by dorothy strachey