"exquisite" and "extraordinary" 

A chance discovery in the back of a drawer tugs Violet back to her thirteenth year, to tell a coming of age story that is irresistibly romantic, inevitably comic, and unavoidably tragic. 
Even before her pen-pal Albert arrived outside the gates of The Abbess Etheldreda School for Girls, she had decided they must fall in love, but how is she to she make Albert understand, and be sure her new friend has understood her? When Albert returns home, she is sure of their love, but she begins to have concerns over the doubt Albert reveals in the letters they exchange over months apart, so that by the time her class makes the journey to Paris, she is unsure of how she will be received. Reluctantly, she tells the story of the revelation at Albert's home in Les Fontaines sur Seine that tests her love to breaking point. 

Warning: may contain traces of French