The Child Manuela
Christa Winsloe
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 | 9780405073779 |
Genre | Movie/Media Tie-In; Award Winner; Fiction |
Publication Date | 1975 |
Publisher | Arno Press |
Format | Hardcover |
No. of Pages | 310 |
Language | English |
Rating | NotRated |
Subject | Lesbians – Fiction |
BookID | 2009 |