My Brilliant Career
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3.9 • 126 Ratings
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Publisher Description
An Apple Books Classic edition.
This Australian classic explores what happens when a young woman’s professional ambitions-to build a “brilliant career” as a writer-collide with cultural expectations regarding women’s roles in work and marriage. Author Miles Franklin was just 16 when she first started writing this novel, which was published in 1901.
The book's heroine, Sybylla Melvyn, comes of age in the 1890s in the Australian bush and helps support her family by working for a coarse and miserly neighbour. Franklin was bitterly disappointed by the popular belief that ;My Brilliant Career was autobiographical-and by the outraged reactions to the characters she depicts. She requested that the novel not be reprinted until 10 years after her death. An acclaimed 1979 movie adaptation helped revive interest in Franklin’s book, connecting it with a new and more receptive audience.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Narrated in folksy cadences by 16-year-old heroine Sybylla, My Brilliant Career was written partly as an Australian answer to Jane Eyre—when the author was still a teenager herself. Sybylla yearns to escape the confines of impoverished bush life and an unravelling father, but even the entrance of a romantic suitor doesn’t magically solve her problems. Originally published in 1901, this enduring classic of Aussie literature remains a potent portrait of country life that doesn’t gloss over indecision or hardship. In fact, it gives us an independent yet sometimes anxious heroine whose flaws ring all too true, even today.
Customer Reviews
Long time no read
3.5 stars
Author
Australian. Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, aka Miles Franklin (1879–1954). Writer and proto-feminist. Her will established the country's most prestigious literary annual prize for "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases," which was first awarded in 1957, three years after her demise. Since 2013, her memory has also been honoured in the form of the annual Stella Prize for best work of literature by an Australian woman. Franklin was a child of the 'squattocracy' in the Brindabella region of NSW, and is best known for 'My Brilliant Career,' written in the 1890s when she was just 16. The book was published in 1901 with help from Henry Lawson, but subsequently withdrawn from sale by the author until after her death because everyone kept telling her it was autobiographical. It's fair to say virtually all juvenilia of established writers, and non-established ones for that matter, at least partly autobiographical, but Miles F reckoned MBC wasn't, so there. The 1979 film version by Gillian Armstrong starred Judy Davis and Sam Neill.
Plot
Sybylla Melvyn is a headstrong teenager growing up in the 1890s a fictional rural Australia that bears a remarkable resemblance to Brindabella. She rides horses and cracks stock whips but aspires to be a writer. (Of course, it's not autobiographical). Drought ad poor business decisions by her old man result in a marked deterioration in her family circumstances. Syb's packed off to live with Grandma and Grandpa, whose circumstances are still pretty good. Wealthy young neighbour Harold Beecham is besotted and keeps asking her to marry him. Granny thinks it's a good idea because Syb's no oil painting, but she spurns Harry after a long distance engagement of three years, because she wants to be in charge of her own destiny and never marry, yada, yada. Bad move as it turns out because her old Dad farms her out as governess/housekeeper to some illiterate neighbours to settle a debt.
Characters
Sybylla, who is a tad erratic and none too loveable sometimes (a teenager in other words, although I don't think that was a thing in the 1890s), is the only one who is well fleshed out. Comparisons to Jane Eyre and Becky Sharp are inevitable and probably justified at times. Prince Harry is a nice guy but a bit of a wimp. Parents, grandparents and other hangers on are largely caricature.
Narrative
First person
Prose
Somewhat melodramatic plot. Accomplished writing, but immature compared to later efforts. Vivid descriptions of the Australian bush, which owe something to contemporaries like Lawson.
Bottom line
It's been nearly 50 years since I last read this book. It stood up well considering, and felt familiar, probably because it has been reworked in part so many times since. As for Syb, I'd add Anne of Green Gables to the list of comparators. If you want to read Ms Franklin at her best, try All That Swagger (1936).
My Brilliant Career
Excellent novel she’s the Australian version of the Bronte sisters. The descriptions of life in the late 1800’s Australia mirror somewhat the Australia in 2020 but please don’t criticise these times as racist it’s our history & we need to accept that & move forward positively & progressively . Myles Franklin lives on with thanks
My Brilliant Career
An entertaining and revealing portrayal of 19Century life in country Australia. Revealing so many of the challenges that governed life decisions and yet maintaining a dry humour so delightful and so Austalian.