The Getting of Wisdom (1910) is a novel by Henry Handel Richardson. Based on her experiences at Melbourne's 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, Richardson's 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 mother's 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 friends-and 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 Australia's 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.

About the Author
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 father's death. At thirteen, she left Maldon-where her mother worked as the local postmistress-to 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 family's history, the trilogy earned praise from such figures as Sinclair Lewis for its startling depictions of a man's decline due to mental illness and the lengths to which his wife must go to care for their young family.


Book Information
ISBN 9781513133935
Author Henry Handel Richardson
Format Hardback
Page Count 184
Imprint West Margin Press
Publisher West Margin Press