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The Getting of Wisdom

Henry Handel Richardson

Book Overview: 

The Getting of Wisdom tells the story of Laura Rambotham, a 12-year-old girl who is just starting at her boarding school. This is based on Henry Handel Richardson’s experiences of her own school, the Prebysterian Ladies College in central Melbourne. The story goes through her friends and enemies and all the life of a boarding school in early 20th century Australia, and all the subjects and learning too. Laura learns a lot but her education does not satisfy her, and her social life is thrown upon her as very different from her peers.

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Book Excerpt: 
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"Let us sing in the hundred and fifty-seventh hymn," said the gentleman, who had a Grecian profile and a drooping, sandy moustache; and when Miss Chapman had played through the tune, the fifty-five, the governesses, the lady and gentleman rose to their feet and sang, with halting emphasis, of the Redeemer and His mercy, to Miss Chapman's accompaniment, which was as indecisive as her manner, the left hand dragging lamely along after the right.

"Let us read in the third chapter of the Second Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians."

Everyone laid her hymn-book on the table and sat down to listen to Paul's words, which the sandy gentleman read to a continual nervous movement of the left leg.

"Let us pray."

Obeying the word, the fifty-five rose, faced about, and knelt to their chairs. It was an extempore prayer, and a long one, and Laura did not hear much of it; for the two big girls on her right kept up througho. . . Read More

Community Reviews

I very much enjoyed this book. I enjoyed it so much I read it in one sitting.

A charming coming-of-age story from fin-de-siècle Australia. At her boarding school, teenager Laura Rambotham’s path is dotted with all the usual banana skins, and she slips on every one: the gaucheries, crushes, snobberies, snubs, fibs, passing phases of jealousy, despair and religious fervour, exa

"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding"

Although overall I found that this story went on rather longer than it needed, I was pleasantly surprised by the wit and prose of Henry Handel Richardson.
The story predominantly rests on Laura, a headstr

4★
I was not in the mood for this period piece, but it is such a good depiction of the times that it’s hard not to appreciate it. Laura is a feisty little girl, eldest daughter of a widowed mother who sews and embroiders to keep the family together and to send Laura to boarding school in Melbourne in

As I was reading the enchanting misadventures of the loveable (and irritating) scapegrace Laura I kept being struck with the impossibility of a male author having not only chosen this topic, but written such a sensitive account of a girl's attempts to relate to other girls in a female dominated sett

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