Photo de l'auteur

Dorothy Bussy (1865–1960)

Auteur de Olivia

5+ oeuvres 415 utilisateurs 7 critiques

A propos de l'auteur

Notice de désambiguation :

(eng) Do not combine with the LT entry for Olivia. She was not known under that name.

Œuvres de Dorothy Bussy

Oeuvres associées

L'immoraliste (1902) — Traducteur, quelques éditions; Traducteur, quelques éditions3,335 exemplaires
Les faux-monnayeurs (1925) — Traducteur, quelques éditions1,394 exemplaires
Les caves du Vatican (1914) — Traducteur, quelques éditions1,375 exemplaires
La porte étroite (1924) — Traducteur, quelques éditions1,370 exemplaires
Si le grain ne meurt (1920) — Traducteur, quelques éditions514 exemplaires
The Penguin Book of Lesbian Short Stories (1993) — Contributeur — 298 exemplaires
Voyage au Congo. Carnets de route (1927) — Traducteur, quelques éditions154 exemplaires
L'école des femmes (1929) — Traducteur, quelques éditions73 exemplaires
Essai sur Montaigne (1929) — Traducteur, quelques éditions48 exemplaires
Strait is the Gate / The Vatican Cellars (1909) — Traducteur, quelques éditions48 exemplaires
A Crime Without A Motive — Traducteur, quelques éditions1 exemplaire

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Autres noms
Strachey Bussy, Dorothy (Nom d'alliance)
Strachey, Dorothy (Nom de naissance)
Date de naissance
1865-07-24
Date de décès
1960-05-01
Sexe
female
Nationalité
Royaume-Uni
Lieu du décès
Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France
Lieux de résidence
Londres, Angleterre, Royaume-Uni
Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France
Études
Académie d'Allenswood, de Marie Souvestre, Londres, Angleterre, Royaume-Uni
Ecole 'Les Ruches', de Marie Souvestre, Fontainebleau, France
Professions
novelist
translator
letter writer
teacher
Relations
Bussy, Simon (Epoux, 1903
Bussy, Jane Simone (Fille)
Strachey, Richard (Père)
Strachey, Jane (Mère)
Roosevelt, Eleanor (Elève)
Strachey, Lytton (Frère) (tout afficher 14)
Strachey, James (Frère)
Strachey, Marjorie (Soeur)
Strachey, Joan Pernel (Soeur)
Strachey, Ray (Belle-soeur)
Strachey, Barbara (Nièce)
Strachey, Christopher (Neveu)
Gide, André (Ami)
Mauron, Charles (Ami)
Courte biographie
Dorothy Strachey Bussy was one of 10 children of Lt.-Gen. Sir Richard Strachey, an officer in the British colonial armies and his wife Jane Grant, a leader in the women's suffrage movement. She was educated at Marie Souvestre's school for girls in Fontainebleau, France, and later in Allenswood Academy, near London. She became a teacher at Allenswood, where one of her students was the young Eleanor Roosevelt, on whom she had a strong influence. In 1903, Dorothy married Simon Bussy, a French painter five years her junior. Dorothy Bussy anonymously published one novel, Olivia (1949), printed by the Hogarth Press, the publishing house founded by Leonard and Virginia Woolf.
Notice de désambigüisation
Do not combine with the LT entry for Olivia. She was not known under that name.

Membres

Critiques

Dedicated to the memory of Virginia Woolf, Olivia was Dorothy Strachey’s only novel. Published under the pseudonym ‘Olivia’ it is a subtle classic of lesbian literature. 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. 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. 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. What a shame it is that Dorothy Strachey only ever published this. Dorothy Strachey’s writing is beautiful, and there is a lot that is very quotable from this slim volume.

“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. Shakespeare or Donne or Heine had the exact phrase for it. Comforting, perhaps, but enraging too. Nothing ever seemed spontaneously my own.”

A woman recollects the final year of her education, a year when she discovered life at its fullest, found passion and in a sense, herself.

Olivia is sixteen when she is sent to Les Avons a finishing school near Paris, run by two mademoiselles. This is a school of an entirely different kind. It is a school where there are few rules, where laughter and passionate discussion are actively encouraged. Olivia revels in this atmosphere so unlike anything she has experienced before.

However, the freedom and fun of Les Avons is superficial, beneath the surface are raw emotions, jealousies and destructive allegiances.

“How hard it is to kill hope! Time after time, one thinks one has trodden it down, stamped it to death. Time after time, like a noxious insect, it begins to stir again, it shivers back again into a faint tremulous life. Once more it worms its way into one’s heart, to instil its poison, to gnaw away the solid hard foundations of life and leave in their place the hollow phantom of illusion.”

The school is run by Mademoiselles Julie and Cara, once so close, the two are each acting against the other. Each of the headmistresses have their circle of acolytes – powerful emotions have been unleashed beneath the roofs of this French school. Olivia doesn’t really understand the nuances of everything that is going on at Les Avons, the tension between Julie and Cara, is a puzzle to her but she has no understanding for what their relationship might have been. Olivia; fresh from England is too caught up in a complete infatuation for Mademoiselle Julie.

“Love has always been the chief business of my life, the only thing I have thought—no, felt—supremely worth while, and I don’t pretend that this experience was not succeeded by others. But at that time, I was innocent, with the innocence of ignorance, I didn’t know what was happening to me.”

The girls regularly gather around Mademoiselle Julie for impassioned debate, to present their essays and to hang upon her every word. Olivia waits for the headmistress’s visits to her room, for the slightest look, the touch of her hand.

While Olivia is wrestling with these new and unexpected feelings for her headmistress and making an unexpected friendship with another of Mademoiselle Julie’s favourites, Mademoiselle Cara is plotting one final act of betrayal.

I am surprised that this delicate little novella isn’t better known. I know vintage books brought out a new edition of this one a few years ago, which has hopefully raised its profile a little.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
Heaven-Ali | 6 autres critiques | Feb 16, 2019 |
"...And first of all that face. There was that to look at. A long way off, at the end of a table...Why should the mere sight of it make my heart stand still?"-from Olivia

Olivia: A Novel is not necessarily something you'll ever want to experience again. It's a book truly painful to read at times, no matter where you're coming from personally, but particularly so if you ever had an intense crush that pretty much broke your heart.

I didn't expect the writing to be so deep and raw, so pretty and easy to connect with...a crush may not be on the full scale of mutually reciprocated mature love, but it's no less real or painful for being what it is.

Anyone who has ever felt completely gaga over someone else will get what Olivia is going through, no matter how over the top her emotions may seem at the time. ("If it depended on altering the feelings in my heart, I was no more capable of doing that than of plucking the heart out of my breast." So many wonderful quotes that just really speak to you.)

Dorothy Strachey Bussy first published this anonymously under the name Olivia and based it loosely on things that happened to her when she was a teenager away at school and fell in love with one of her teachers. This is something that has been written been many times before, but somehow here it seems fresh and just a little too much to bear at times.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
booksandcats4ever | 6 autres critiques | Jul 30, 2018 |
"This stab in my heart, this rapture"
By sally tarbox on 21 November 2016
Format: Kindle Edition
A short (107p) read, following young Olivia and her year at a finishing school in Victorian Paris. Here she falls under the spell of lovely Mlle Julie, co-principal. But despite Julie's apparent affection for her, there are other players in the story: her jealous assistant, Mlle Cara - and two other teachers, waiting in the wings for power or love.
The author does a convincing job of portraying that sudden adolescent awareness of life:

"I awoke to a new world - a world of excitement - a world in which everything was fierce and piercing, everything charged with strange emotions, clothed with extraordinary mysteries, and in which I myself seemed to exist only as an inner core of palpitating fire."
Not a massively memorable work, but kept me reading it in one sitting.
… (plus d'informations)
1 voter
Signalé
starbox | 6 autres critiques | Nov 20, 2016 |
Complex with a lot of ambiguities and unanswered questions between teacher/student. A decent read. 3 stars.
 
Signalé
Feleciak | 6 autres critiques | Aug 4, 2015 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
5
Aussi par
11
Membres
415
Popularité
#58,725
Évaluation
½ 3.6
Critiques
7
ISBN
26
Langues
5

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