The Getting of Wisdom

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The Getting of Wisdom (1910) is a novel by Henry Handel Richardson. Based on her experiences at Melbournes Presbyterian Ladies College, The Getting of Wisdom is a coming-of-age novel aimed at a young audience. Engaged with such themes as grief, bullying, and peer-pressure, Richardsons novel is a powerful story of a young girl finding her way in the world. An instant bestseller, the novel has never gone out of print. Laura went into her own room and locked the door, a thing Mother did not allow. Then she threw herself on the bed and cried. Mother had not understood in the least Punished for cutting her own hair without permission, Laura Tweedle Rambotham defies her mother once more. Alone in her room, she begins to think about her mothers words, letting them sink in until the truth can no longer be denied. In the morning, she leaves for The Ladies College, a boarding school far from family and friendsand in Melbourne, no less, a city she has never been to. Scared, nervous, and tired, she drifts off to sleep in her childhood room for the last time. Heartfelt and deeply personal, The Getting of Wisdom is a powerful coming-of-age story from one of Australias best-loved writers. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Henry Handel Richardson The Getting of Wisdom is a classic of Australian literature reimagined for modern readers.

Author Bio

Henry Handel Richardson (1870-1946) was the pen name of Australian novelist Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson. Born in East Melbourne, she was raised in a series of towns across Victoria with her mother and siblings following her fathers death. At thirteen, she left Maldonwhere her mother worked as the local postmistressto attend Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne. Her time there would inspire her bestselling coming-of-age novel The Getting of Wisdom (1910). Upon graduating in 1888, Richardson moved with her family to Germany to study music at the Leipzig Conservatorium. In 1894, she married John George Robertson, whom she met in Leipzig while he was studying German literature. They moved to London in 1903, where Richardson would publish Maurice Guest (1908), her debut novel. In 1912, Richardson returned to Australia to begin researching for her critically acclaimed trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, which consists of the novels Australia Felix (1917), The Way Home (1925), and Ultima Thule (1929). Partly based on her own familys history, the trilogy earned praise from such figures as Sinclair Lewis for its startling depictions of a mans decline due to mental illness and the lengths to which his wife must go to care for their young family.