Chapter 1 Summary

Love Story by Erich Segal is a timeless story of tragic love. Oliver is a child of privilege, the son of a family of importance dating back many generations. Jennifer is the only child of a widowed baker, as opposite from Oliver as one person can be. However, their union is one of strength and volatility that sweeps them both up in an uncontrolled wave, their love surviving every obstacle except one, mortality. Love Story is the Romeo and Juliet of the twentieth century.

Oliver begins his story by describing a girl who died at twenty-five, before he takes the reader to the first place he met this girl. Oliver goes to the Radcliffe library, because it is often easier to get required materials there than at the Harvard library. Less than a day before a history exam, Oliver is at Radcliffe to...