Olivia

"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

"Perfectly captures the breathless excitement of adolescent passion." --Sarah Waters, bestselling author of Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet

The classic novel about a teenage girl's infatuation with her headmistress at a boarding school in nineteenth-century Paris

A Penguin Classic

A 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. 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. 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. But Mademoiselle Julie's life is not as straightforward as Olivia imagines. As they grow closer, their relationship is threatened by jealousy and rivalry, and the school year seems destined to end in tragedy.

Dorothy Strachey (1865-1960), also known as Dorothy Bussy, was a member of the Bloomsbury Group and the sister of the writer Lytton Strachey. She also became a great friend of André Gide, and translated his works into English. In 1903, she married the painter Simon Bussy, and they had one daughter. Olivia, which she published under a pseudonym in 1949 and which is largely based on her own experiences at boarding school in France, is her only novel. Her obituary in The Times (London) described her as a "charming, witty, amusing and amused person."

André Aciman (introducer) is the New York Times bestselling author of Call Me by Your Name, Out of Egypt, and Enigma Variations, among many other works. He is distinguished professor of comparative literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he is also the founder and director of the Writers' Institute.