The Child Manuela

Christa Winsloe

Winsloe’s 1929 novel became the movie ‘Maedchen In Uniform.’ The story revolves around a young girl who is sent to a repressive Prussian boarding school where she develops an ‘unnatural’ attachment to her female teacher. Manuela’s idyllic life is disrupted when her mother dies, and her father sends her to boarding school where she meets Fräulein von Bernburg.

Manuela becomes infatuated with her teacher (portrayed in very subtle ways). Manuela has the chance to play a male role on stage at school, and is brazen enough to thusly declare her love for her teacher. Unfortunately for Manuela, there is no great love redemption at the boarding school. Her teacher sides with the headmistress who is appalled by the girl’s behaviour. Manuela commits suicide.

Winsloe wrote Das Mädchen Manuela (the original title) as short novel based on her experiences at Kaiserin-Augusta, a strict boarding school. As an out lesbian, she took some chances writing the book (and the play and co-writing the script of the first film). Winsloe fled Nazi Germany, moving to France and joining the French Resistance. On June 10, 1944, Winsloe and Smione Gentet were shot and killed by four Frenchmen in a forest near the town of Cluny. The men said that they had thought the women were Nazi spies, and were acquitted of the murders.

A true lesbian classic, written by a remarkable but forgotten lesbian writer. I think it’s time Christa Winsloe was placed back into lesbian culture where she belongs. ~ Sue Molyneaux for LesbianFunWorld.

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Details

ISBN	1853817457
Genre	Movie/Media Tie-In; Award Winner; Fiction
Copyright Date	1929
Publication Date	27-Mar-94
Publisher	Random House
Format	Paperback
No. of Pages	256
Award	Publishing Triangle’s 100 Best Lesbian and Gay Novels
Language	English
Rating	NotRated
Award	Publishing Triangle’s 100 Best Lesbian and Gay Novels
BookID	2008

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The Child Manuela by Christa Winsloe