In the early 1900s, the spirited and talented Laura Tweedle Ramsbotham arrives at an exclusive Melbourne ladies' college, only to be greeted with jeers and treated as a country bumpkin. Although she is defiant towards her peers, the pressure almost defeats her. She soon learns, however, to be as ruthless as the other girls. Caught out after inventing an illicit liaison with the handsome new minister, she becomes a pariah until she is taken under the wing of an older girl, the elegant and kindly Evelyn Suitor. Laura subsequently falls in love with Evelyn, causing the latter to leave the school in order to escape Laura's attentions. Laura eventually completes her schooling, winning a two-year music scholarship to study piano.
Source: Australian Screen.
Going to school is one of the few life experiences almost everyone shares. From the time children began to be educated in small groups in Britain, there were school stories in popular culture, beginning with what many consider the first novel for children, Sarah Fielding’s The Governess; or, The Little Female Academy (1749). (Introduction)
Words and Images : Australian Novels into Films
Richmond
:
Heinemann
,
1983
Z286903
1983
single work
criticism
Words and Images is the first Australian book to examine the relationship between literature and film. Taking nine films that had been released in the ten years previous to its publication, Brian McFarlane looks at some of the issues involved in transposing a narrative from one medium to another.
