Edith Olivier: 12 books

'This "landscape of the uplands" has been described as "an ocean of rolling grass"; and, with its distinct and yet unaccented separateness, it looks like the green eye of England.' Originally compiled by the near-blind Olivier in 1945-1946 and posthumously published three...

"Nowadays, one meets fewer 'Characters' than of old, and life seems to be far more uniform. Everyone knew some oddities in their childhood, curious people who looked and behaved quite unlike others, but such pronounced individuality is rare to-day." In the mesmerising autobiography,...

'. . . let the townsman say what he will, country life has more variety . . .' A contemporary of Cecil Beaton, Siegfried Sassoon and Rex Whistler, Edith Olivier is best known for her first book, the novella, The Love Child but was the author of a variety of both fiction and non-fiction, as...

A contemporary of Cecil Beaton, Siegfried Sassoon and Rex Whistler, Edith Olivier is best known for her first book, the novella, The Love Child but was the author of a variety of both fiction and non-fiction, as well as becoming the mayor of Wilton, Wiltshire, in 1939. In Dwarf's Blood, Olivier...

"When the War drove her to fill the house with strange guests, it also drove her to fill her diary with strange thoughts... This broadened hospitality, and these unaccustomed contacts, completely changed for the time the character of English country life." In Night Thoughts of a Country...

'All his life, he had so much enjoyed getting into scrapes, that he could never think of a better way out of one than to jump forthwith into another.' Alphonse Biskin is the lowly footman for the highly respected Captain Lemaur and his invalid, autocratic wife in Florence. Quick to dismiss...

"I sometimes think she is rather a vampire. . . . O no, not an evil one in any way, of course," Cynthia hastened to add, seeing Jane's shocked face. "But people of very strong character are demoralising to live with. One leaves everything to them, even the keeping of one's conscience." As...

'What was she? Not a child, for she was seventeen, and taller than Kitty: not a girl, for she floated like a feather, and flew into trees like a bird; not a spirit - she was human to touch. But to-night she was all made of mischief and magic, remote form him, and yet calling him to here . . .' At...

The Seraphim Room, by Edith Olivier, is the story of Lilian and Emily, two half-sisters who live together under the watch of their domineering father. Together they whittle their days away under the claustrophobic roof of the dusty and decaying Chilvester House. Shut away from the wider world,...

La question identitaire est devenue, au fil de ces derniers mois, l’épicentre du débat public. L’essai d’Alain Finkielkraut, l’Identité malheureuse (Stock), a trouvé un très large écho en 2013, suscitant ici et là, des polémiques passionnées. La Revue des Deux Mondes a voulu poursuivre...

Placé sous le double signe de la réforme et de la révolution, le numéro d’octobre-novembre entend analyser de près ces deux notions capitales de l’histoire politique française. À la différence de l’Allemagne, la France serait, dit-on, inapte à l’esprit de compromis. Qu’en est-il...

Vladimir Poutine annexe la Crimée à la Russie sous les yeux interloqués de la communauté internationale. Il lorgne dorénavant l’Ukraine. Depuis Maïdan, les tensions entre Moscou et l’Occident ne cessent de se tendre, donnant à vivre une crise politique majeure entre l’Ouest et l’Est....