My Brilliant Career

by Miles Franklin

Overview

Miles Franklin’s debut novel follows the vivacious and rebellious sixteen-year-old Sybylla Melvyn – closely modelled on Franklin herself – as she fights to break free of restrictive bush life. Growing up on her parents’ outback farm, Sybylla is desperate to read, write, sing and achieve great things. Yet her aspirations for a ‘brilliant career’ are persistently thwarted, first by the arduous demands of rural family life, and later by the shackles of a proposed conventional marriage to the wealthy Harold Beecham. With only her brilliant, conflicted mind to guide her, Sybylla is forced to define a life on her own terms.

My Brilliant Career is acclaimed for capturing the spirit of Australia at the turn of the twentieth century. The struggles of its fiery, precocious protagonist shine a light on both the emergent women’s rights and suffrage movement during this period, and, more broadly, the intensity of the yearnings of youth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781802065961
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	01/30/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336

About the Author

Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (1879-1954) was born in Old Talbingo, Australia. Despite a difficult and isolated childhood – she grew up in the impoverished bush regions of New South Wales, with limited education – she completed her first book at the age of just nineteen. The ironically titled My Brilliant Career (1901) was published under a male pseudonym, to immediate success and acclaim. Its story of an impassioned, ambitious heroine frustrated by rural bush life resonated with young Australian women and established Franklin as a bold new feminist voice in literature.

Following the publication of her debut novel, Franklin moved to Sydney, then on to America and Britain. She wrote and published a total of nineteen books across her lifetime, as well as working as an editor and women’s advocate in organisations such as the National Women’s Trade Union League. Her endowment of a major literary award – the Miles Franklin Award – has consolidated her legacy in Australian literary life.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	v
1.	I Remember, I Remember	3
2.	An Introduction to Possum Gully	7
3.	A Lifeless Life	10
4.	A Career Which Soon Careered to an End	15
5.	Disjointed Sketches and Grumbles	20
6.	Revolt	28
7.	War E'er a Rose Without Its Thorn?	35
8.	Possum Gully Left Behind. Hurrah! Hurrah!	45
9.	Aunt Helen's Recipe	55
10.	Everard Grey	62
11.	Yah!	71
12.	One Grand Passion	79
13.	He	85
14.	Principally Letters	94
15.	When the Heart is Young	101
16.	When Fortune Smiles	106
17.	Idylls of Youth	114
18.	As Short as I Wish Had Been the Majority of Sermons to Which I Have Been Forced to Give Ear	125
19.	The 9th of November 1896	128
20.	Same Yarn--continued	136
21.	My Unladylike Behaviour Again	145
22.	Sweet Seventeen	150
23.	Ah, For One Hour of Burning Love, 'Tis Worth an Age of Cold Respect!	159
24.	Thou Knowest Not What a Day May Bring Forth	167
25.	Because?	172
26.	Boast Not Thyself of Tomorrow	177
27.	My Journey	185
28.	To Life	188
29.	To Life--continued	196
30.	Where Ignorance is Bliss, 'Tis Folly to Be Wise	209
31.	Mr M'Swat and I Have a Bust-up	214
32.	Ta-ta to Barney's Gap	222
33.	Back at Possum Gully	225
34.	But Absent Friends are Soon Forgot	230
35.	The 3rd of December 1898	237
36.	Once Upon a Time, When the Days Were Long and Hot	242
37.	He That Despiseth Little Things, Shall Fall Little by Little	252
38.	A Tale That is Told and a Day That is Done	256
	Endnotes	259

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A splendidly vivid display . . . carrying the reader by force of its narrative and its sharply detailed, entirely convincing voice."  —Times

Editorial Reviews

Bruce K. Martin’s deep understanding of Australian history and literature informs both his textual analyses and his editorial choices. He strikes a praiseworthy balance in his introduction—writing with the precision that will appeal to scholars and the clarity that will keep it accessible to students. I particularly appreciate the book’s added features, such as the chronology, appendices, and bibliography. The appendices are judiciously selected, and provide readers with a clear sense of the climate of the book’s production and reception. With Martin’s expert guidance, the reader deftly navigates the work’s many complexities.” — Linda Watts, University of Washington Bothell

From the Publisher

"As with all the Real Reads books for children this one promotes a terrific discussion about the role of women in modern times and in other places/other times. In this little books are the pathos of women, whose plight was much dimmer in the Western World in times past, with little choice but to get married and keep house for a husband who provided the livelihood. Although Western women are much more in charge of their destiny and daily life now, there are still many choices which must be made. In this book the woman chooses her writing career over a life with a man who loves her, but she discovers she still has to do the chores she thought she could avoid by choosing a single life. Very thought provoking and well written."

Real Travel Adventures - Bonnie Neely

"Bruce K. Martin's deep understanding of Australian history and literature informs both his textual analyses and his editorial choices. He strikes a praiseworthy balance in his introduction—writing with the precision that will appeal to scholars and the clarity that will keep it accessible to students. I particularly appreciate the book's added features, such as the chronology, appendices, and bibliography. The appendices are judiciously selected, and provide readers with a clear sense of the climate of the book's production and reception. With Martin's expert guidance, the reader deftly navigates the work's many complexities."

Linda Watts University of Washington Bothell

MY BRILLIANT CAREER, Miles Franklin's thinly veiled autobiographical novel, is often considered to be the Australian counterpoint to JANE EYRE. The feminist novel stands on its own, however, and is the powerful story of Sybylla, a young girl thirsting for life, love, and happiness in the Australian outback. Originally published in 1901, MY BRILLIANT CAREER engendered so much controversy that Franklin, who died in 1954, insisted that it not be published again until ten years after her death. Building upon Franklin's highly charged material, narrator Megan Rees reads with passion and purpose, heightening the intensity of Sybylla's emotions. Rees's delivery is flawless, and the book so captivating and enjoyable that it’s hard to believe it was written more than a century ago. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2009 - AudioFile