LITERATURE & HUMANITIES

A SECOND READING OF H. H. RICHARDSON'S

THE GETTING OF WISDOM

Dr Sali Dening. Member, on 16 January 2001

Henry Handel Richardson is the pen name of Ethel Richardson, who drew inspiration for this short novel from her life as a schoolgirl from 1883-1887 at the Presbyterian Ladies College, Melbourne, a public day and boarding school founded in 1875 to ensure that girls could receive just as sound a secondary education as that available to boys.

When I was a pupil there in 1945-46, the novel was not commended to us. The sensitive and lively central figure, Laura Ramsbotham, is a far from exemplary pupil and the school is not always portrayed in a favourable light. The book may not have been widely available at the time; the first Australian edition did not appear until 1946.

On a second reading one can concentrate more on the structure of the novel, on the author's profound psychological insight into the thoughts and deeds of the adolescent girl as she tries to conform with the social code of the school and attempts to respond to intellectual challenges.

The realistic descriptions of people and places are very striking. Although the novel is indeed fiction, with Laura never becoming the gifted scholar and musician that Ethel Richardson proved to be, the portraits of some members of staff in the story are obviously inspired by real persons.

The novel opens with Laura at home in a Victorian country town. She joyfully imagines that when she reaches the Ladies' College she will be in the middle of an admiring group of girls, but on arrival at the school after a long coach and rail journey, she receives an icy welcome. Confused and forlorn she cries herself to sleep. Then, and in many situations in the course of her school life, she feels herself to be an outsider.

Laura's behaviour is not always acceptable but it is often amusing and always understandable. On several occasions she manages to alienate staff and pupils alike by her impulsive frankness. When the Headmaster in the presence of all the girls, accuses one pupil of stealing and expels her on the spot, Laura, interested in the dramatic situation, feels no pity for the girl. Tongue-tied when with boys of her own age, but a romantic at heart and anxious to win attention and respect, she tells a group of girls that the curate at her church harbours a secret passion for her. When the sentimental fiction is uncovered by another girl, Laura is accused of being a liar and is ostracised. In her final school examination, she cheats, but is not discovered.

The final chapter describing Laura's departure from the school is particularly fine. The author comments that for such a square peg as Laura the right hole will eventually be found. The other girls leave by cab, Laura leaves on foot. Aware of her new-found freedom she enters the gardens opposite the school and runs down a long tree-lined path until she is lost to sight an effective open-ended conclusion.

Ethel Richardson herself had been a troubled child when she came to the school. Her parents' marriage had ended with the mental illness and death of her father. On leaving school she went on to study music in Leipzig, Germany. There she met J G Robertson, her future husband who was to become the first Professor of German at the University of London. With his encouragement she began to translate from Scandinavian literature and to write novels. Neglected when it first appeared, The Getting of Wisdom is now recognised as a remarkable achievement for its time.

M. A. Dening

Discussion

The plans for the school buildings, founded in 1855, were far more grandiose than the completed school, thought to be due to lack of funds. At the time, Australia was becoming wealthy through wool production and the gold rush, but the `struggle for
survival' still took precedence and the pupils at such a school were the privileged elite.

Some of the audience thought the book was autobiographical and that, as such, it undermined the reputation of the school.

Religion did not seem to feature much in the book, unlike Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, drafted at the same time, but there was much emphasis on the morality of lieing, as opposed to creative imaginative writing.

Some members recalled their own memories of school and Jane Coates said the development of school in New Zealand was similar. Mr Dening gave an evocative description of seeing the Hindenberg airship through the school window in Liverpool.

The general consensus was, as inferred in the book, that those who do well at school do not necessarily flourish in life, and vice-versa.

Peter Valentine