The Way Home by Henry Handel Richardson

The Way Home is a novel by Australian author Henry Handel Richardson, first published in 1925. It is the third and final novel in the trilogy known as The Fortunes of Richard Mahony. The novel follows the life of Richard Mahony, a doctor who has emigrated from England to Australia in the mid-19th century. After a successful career in Australia, Mahony returns to England with his wife and children. However, he finds himself unable to adjust to the new environment and is increasingly frustrated by the lack of opportunities for advancement. The novel follows Mahony's struggles to find his place in the new society, as well as his attempts to reconcile his past and present lives. Along the way, he must confront his own mortality and the consequences of his decisions. Ultimately, Mahony must decide whether to stay in England or return to Australia, and whether to accept his fate or fight for a better future.

By Henry Handel Richardson · First published 1925 · Genre: Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance · 28 chapters · 109,556 words

First lines

When, having braved the bergs and cyclones of the desolate South Pacific, and rounded the Horn; having lain becalmed in the Doldrums, bartered Cross for Plough, and snatched a glimpse of the Western Isles: when the homeward-bound vessel is come level with Finisterre and begins to skirt the Bay, those aboard her get the impression of passing at one stroke into home waters. Gone alike are polar blasts and perfumed or desert-dry breezes; gone opalescent dawns, orange-green sunsets, and nights when the very moon shines warm, the black mass of ocean sluggish as pitch. The region the homing wanderer now enters is quick with associations. These tumbling crested marbled seas, now slate-grey, now of a cold ultramarine, seem but the offings of those that wash his native shores; and they are peopled for him by the saltwater ghosts of his ancestors, the great navigators, who traced this road through the high seas on their voyages of adventure and discovery. The fair winds that belly the sails, or the head winds that thwart the vessel's progress, are the romping south-west gales adrip with moisture, or the bleak north-easters which scour his island home and make it one of the windy corners of the world. Not a breath of balmy softness remains. There is a rawness in the air, a keener, saltier tang; the sad-coloured sky broods low, or is swept by scud that flies before the wind; trailing mists blot out the horizon. And these and other indelible memories beginning to pull at his heartstrings, it is over with his long patience. After tranquilly enduring the passage of some fifteen thousand watery miles, he now falls to chafing, and to telling off the days that still divide him from port and home.

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The Way Home is listed on Textopian as a novel by Henry Handel Richardson, dated 1925 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Novel
• Author: Henry Handel Richardson
• Date: 1925 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, Drama
• Length: 109,556 words
• Structure: 28 chapters, 1,238 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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• Work identity for The Way Home by Henry Handel Richardson
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
• Readability and classroom-planning context
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• The Half Brothers by Elizabeth Gaskell

Genres

• Realistic Fiction — The Way Home is a realistic fiction novel that follows the life of a young woman, Christina, as she navigates the complexities of life in Australia in the late 19th century.
• Historical Fiction — The Way Home is set in Australia in the late 19th century and follows the life of a young woman, Christina, as she navigates the complexities of life in this era.
• Romance — The Way Home follows the romantic relationships of Christina, as she navigates the complexities of love and marriage in the late 19th century.
• Drama — The Way Home is a dramatic novel that follows the life of a young woman, Christina, as she navigates the complexities of life in Australia in the late 19th century.

Tags

Second book in the trilogy - The Fortunes of Richard Mahony · child · children · cuffy · day · days · eyes · hand · hands · head · heard · heart

Contents

• Chapter 1: Proem
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10

More by Henry Handel Richardson

• Two Hanged Women (1929)
• Ultima Thule (1929)
• Australia Felix (1917)
• The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1930)
• The Getting of Wisdom (1910)
• All works by Henry Handel Richardson