The Getting of Wisdom

by Henry Handel Richardson

Overview

Laura, a spirited and unconventional heroine, attempts to adapt herself to the discipline of school and the unrelenting judgments of her classmates. The freedom of her country childhood seems far behind, as she struggles for dignity and true friendship. Henry Handel Richardson's first novel is a coming-of-age novel story, set in turn-of-the-century Melbourne. When clever and imaginative Laura Rambotham leaves her home to attend a prestigious ladies' college, she finds herself compromising her ideals in an effort to fit in. The Getting of Wisdom is a portrait of an artistic and unwieldy soul chafing against stuffy ordinariness, told with great empathy and passion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781742699288
Publisher:	House of Books
Publication date:	06/01/2012
Sold by:	INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	615 KB

About the Author

Henry Handel Richardson was born in 1870 in Melbourne as Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson. She took the pen name from her uncle. After her father's untimely death, Ethel and her sister were supported by their mother. She met her husband J. George Robertson in Germany, where both were students, and where Ethel began her career as a translator and sustained an interest in European culture. Her novels include Maurice Guest, The Era of Childhood and Other Stories, and The Young Cosima. Her autobiography, Myself When Young, remained unfinished at her death in 1946.

Editorial Reviews

The Getting of Wisdom races ahead of the reader, succeeding by force of narrative and sheer charm…spontaneity and skill; the values of a whole society are seen here in microcosm through the lives of pupils and teachers.”

New Statesman