Overview

Passionate, headstrong and imaginative, Sybylla Melvyn is one of the most endearing heroines of Australian literature. 'I am given to something which a man never pardons in a woman. You will draw away as though I were a snake when you hear.' With this warning, Sybylla confesses to her rich and handsome suitor that she is given to writing stories and bound, therefore on a brilliant career. In this ironically titled and riotous first novel by Miles Franklin, originally published in 1901, Sybylla tells the story of growing up passionate and rebellious in rural NSW, where the most that girls could hope for was to marry or to teach. Sybylla will do neither, but that doesn't stop her from falling in love, and it doesn't make the choices any easier. Included in this edition is the sequel, My Career Goes Bung, which sees Sybylla amongst the literati in Sydney.

Full Product Details

9780732296919

Table of Contents

Reviews

Stephanie writes: The copy of My Brilliant Career that I found on my parents' bookshelf was dog-eared and the binding was disintegrating. I read ravenously; the book was a revelation for me. I had assumed that Australian fiction was boring and would not be relevant to my life. Instead, this book was biting, funny, and full of vitality. Writing in 1901 under the pseudonym 'Miles Franklin,' Stella Miles Franklin is high-spirited and defiant: "I make no apologies for being egotistical. In this particular I attempt an improvement on other autobiographies...This is not a romance - I have too often faced the music of life to the tune of hardship to waste time in snivelling and gushing over fancies and dreams; neither is it a novel, but simply a yarn - a real yarn. Oh! As real, as really real - provided life itself is anything but a heartless little chimera - it is as real in its weariness and bitter heartache as the tall gum-trees, among which I first saw the light, are real in their stateliness and substantiality." My Brilliant Career follows the rags to riches story of Sybylla Melvin - hardship, romance, and constant striving for something better. Sybylla is no pushover and is a passionate heroine; it's a great coming of age book that I wish I had read when I was about 13. By the time I finished reading it, pages were missing and the cover had fallen off. At the time, the book was out of print and there was little hope of finding a new copy. Happily, both Text Publishing and Angus and Robertson have recently recognised the worth of this book: My Brilliant Career has featured in both their series of Australian classics (in 2012 and 2013 respectively). Now you can buy brand new copies and read voraciously, without pages coming off in your hands! The Angus and Robertson edition also comes with the sequel: My Career Goes Bung.

Author Information

Stella Miles Franklin (1879-1954) was born in the Australian bush. At the age of 21, she became an international publishing sensation with My Brilliant Career, which more than a century later is still regarded as an Australian classic. Novelist, journalist, nationalist, feminist, larrikin - Miles Franklin was all these and more.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available