Henry Handel Richardson 
The Getting of Wisdom (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) [EPUB ebook] 

Published in 1910, this coming-of-age novel was based on the author’s teenage experiences as a boarder at the Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Melbourne from 1883-87.  Her heroine, Laura Tweedle Rambotham, comes from a once well-off family now fallen on hard times.  Smart and strong willed, Laura is hard pressed to retain her self-possession amid the countless small, tawdry humiliations of boarding-school life.

About the author

Henry Handel Richardson (1870-1946), born Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, was an Australian novelist and women’s rights activist.  Her literary reputation rests on The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, an acclaimed trilogy comprising the novels Australia Felix (1917), The Way Home (1925), and Ultima Thule (1929).