TITLE: Love Story AUTHOR: Erich Segal TYPE OF BOOK: A classical, tragic love story ORIGINAL PUBLISHED: 1970 PUBLISHED BY: Harper and Row, New York and Hodder and Stoughton, London PUBLISHED IN HOLLAND: 1986 PUBLISHED BY: Walva-Boek, Apeldoorn POPULARITY Over 21 million copies have been sold in 33 languages and it became one of the biggest best sellers of the 1970s. Also because it was made into a very successful film starring Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal. SETTING The story takes place in the 1960s in America. Oliver studies at Harvard and Jenny at Radcliffe, which are both part of Harvard University in Cambridge, a town near Boston, Massachusetts. Later on, when they married they moved to New York City.  CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER The story is written in chronological order and has no flashbacks. The story tells about Ollie’s and Jenny’s life together, which lasts about three to five years. It starts at the beginning, when they meet and ends when they are separated because Jenny dies. POINT OF VIEW The story is written in the I-form and in this case Oliver is the I-person. You ‘see’ things happening through Oliver’s eyes and all his thoughts are written down. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Erich Segal is an American professor of Greek and Latin literature and used to be a marathon runner. He acted in movies and was a television commentator for the Olympic Games. Besides Love Story he has written amongst others, Fairy Tale, Yellow Submarine and Oliver’s Story. This last one is a sequel to Love Story, but was far less successful. ABOUT THE CHARACTERS Oliver Barrett IV, also called Ollie is a law student at Harvard University and is a good ice- hockey player. He has very rich parents who have lots of influence at Harvard. Mainly because they’re well-known and of course because of their large amount of money. All the ‘Barrett generations’ went to Harvard. Jennifer Cavilleri Also called Jenny is a music student at Radcliffe University and is from Italian descent. She lived with her Italian father Phil, because her mother died in a car accident when Jenny was young. Oliver Barrett III Also called sonovabitch and Old Stoneyface by Oliver because he says that  his father is wearing a mask of absolute stone. He has achieved lots of athletic credentials and had rowed single sculls at the Olympic Games in 1928. Alison Forbes Barrett Also called Tipsy, is Oliver’s mother. Phil Cavilleri Jenny’s father. A baker. He’s a kind of man who cares very much about his  daughter and is very careful with here, because she is his only daughter and she has gone through a difficult time when here mother died. Ray Stratton Oliver's roommate and friend. A TYPICAL WAY OF WRITING The language used is sort of a of students’ language, which means that there’s a typical way of speaking. Some profanity is used and they are arguing often. Segal also used some ‘popular’ words like: - wouldja (would you) - gonna (going to) - how’d (how did) - yer (you are) There are also some words which are repeated every time. They are spoken by all the characters and are used throughout the whole book. These are the most repeated words: - and so forth - goddamn - christ’s sake  What I’ve also