The getting of wisdom (A Virago modern classic) - Softcover

Richardson, Henry Handel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385271891 ISBN 13: 9780385271899

Publisher: Doubleday, 1981

Synopsis

The Getting of Wisdom is a 1977 Australian film directed by Bruce Beresford and based on the 1910 novel of the same name by Henry Handel Richardson.The film is set in 1890s Victoria, when Laura (Susannah Fowle) enters an exclusive Melbourne ladies' college based on Presbyterian Ladies' College. The film follows her struggle for acceptance, conformity, romance, friendship and achievement over the next four years. Excerpt from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Getting_of_Wisdom_(film) Hint: You can preview this book by clicking on "Preview" which is located under the cover of this book.

About this title

Review:

Laura Tweedle Rambotham was raised in a tiny coastal village in Australia at the beginning of the twentieth century. The natural beauty and spaciousness of her rural first home softened many of the harsh realities caused by the meagerness of Laura's widowed mother's income as a seamstress. Laura - called "disobedient and self-willed" by her mother and "Wondrous Fair" by her younger sister and brothers in honor of the many happy hours they've spent acting out Laura's favorite stories - is sent off to Melbourne to attend boarding school at age twelve. Wearing a dress she is sure is too short and a hat her mother lined with embarrassingly vivid red velvet, and carrying only one small suitcase of clothing, Laura's self-confidence diminishes with each mile of her train ride. Within a week of her arrival at school, Laura knows "You might regulate your outward habit to the last button of what you were expected to wear; you might conceal the tiny flaws and shuffle over the big improprieties in your home life... yet of what use were all your pains, if you could not marshal your thoughts and feelings - the very realest part of you - in rank and file as well?" The Getting of Wisdom is a poignantly hilarious account of a young woman's desperate attempts to control her feelings and survive her education. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0385271891
• ISBN 13: 9780385271899
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 233