'An era-defining romance' - Daily Mail He is Oliver Barrett IV, a rich jock from a stuffy WASP family on his way to a Harvard degree and a career in law. She is Jenny Cavilleri, a wisecracking working-class beauty studying music at Radcliffe. Opposites in nearly every way. But they fell in love. This is their story. The record-breaking novel of the blockbusting movie, which became the number one box office hit of 1970, was nominated for 7 Academy Awards and was named one of the 100 most romantic films of all time by the American Film Institute.