Love Story

The classic novel that spawned the hit 1970 film tells the story of rich Harvard jock Oliver Barrett IV and working-class Radcliffe student Jenny Cavilleri how they are opposite in every way, how they share a love that defies everything, and how a love lingers in the heart now and forever. Now repackaged with an updated look for the 21st century.Lose your heart to the novel that defined a generation thenand now.Love Story"Love means never having to say you're sorry."He is Oliver Barrett IV, a rich jock from a stuffy WASP family on his way to a Harvard degree and a career in law.She is Jenny Cavilleri, a wisecracking, working-class beauty studying music at Radcliffe.Opposites in nearly every way, Oliver and Jenny immediately attract, sharing a love that defies everything  yet will end too soon. A love that will linger in your heart now and forever.

About the Author

Erich Wolf Segal (June 16, 1937 – January 17, 2010) was an American author, screenwriter, and educator. He was best-known for writing the novel Love Story (1970), a best-seller, and writing the motion picture of the same name, which was a major hit. The son of a rabbi, Segal attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn and traveled to Switzerland to take summer courses. He attended Harvard College, graduating as both the class poet and Latin salutatorian in 1958, after which he obtained his master's degree (in 1959) and a doctorate (in 1965) in comparative literature, from Harvard University.

Book Plot

The novel tells of Oliver Barrett IV, who comes from a family of wealthy and well-respected Harvard University graduates. At Radcliffe library, the Harvard student meets and falls in love with Jennifer Cavalleri, a working-class, quick-witted Radcliffe College student. Upon graduation from college, the two decide to marry against the wishes of Oliver's father, who thereupon severs ties with his son.Without his father's financial support, the couple struggles to pay Oliver's way through Harvard Law School with Jenny working as a private school teacher. They rent the top floor of a house near the Law School at 119 Oxford Street, in the Agassiz neighborhood of Cambridge, adjacent to a local laundromat. Graduating third in his class at Harvard Law, Oliver takes a position at a respectable New York law firm.With Oliver's new income, the pair of 24-year-olds decide to have a child. After failing, they consult a medical specialist, who after repeated tests, informs Oliver that Jenny is ill and will soon die. While this is not stated explicitly, she appears to have leukemia.