Customer Reviews

My Brilliant Career (Australian Classics)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a bit like a grown-up Little House in the Prairie but set in 19th century outback Australia rather than the Wild West of the US.

This is a story of a young, spirited woman who rebels against convention and the desire of her relatives that she marry the wealthy, and (it has to be said) highly desirable, local squatter (swoon! swoon!). Unlike Laura Ingalls, Sybilla chooses the road less travelled and refuses to marry. She follows her dreams instead.

What makes this book so remarkable is that it was written 100 years ago yet the voice of the narrator is so fresh. The book is funny and inspiring. I first read it when I was a teenager and my love for it has never diminished. If you cannot read the novel, try to see the film with Judy Davis and Sam Neill which brings the book wonderfully to life. The movie is as much of an Australian classic as the book.

I'm not exactly sure, but I think that MF wrote this book when she was still fairly young (16 or 17), and it sends shivers down my spine to think of a young girl with such energy and pride so long ago. This is a story about a girl in Australia end of the 19th century, and what happens to her when she visits other families and places and the decisions she makes. Some of the decisions she makes seem to be fairly self-destructive, and it's interesting to think about why she made them - too young to know better, too scared, not able to compromise. The heroine is a very strong character, flawed but understandable. I really, really like this book (incidentally, my ex-boyfriend found it almost unreadable). I think of it as relating to feminism; but that's just my bias. It's actually just a good yarn.

Hmm. Australian women have their own history. Is this interesting to anyone other than myself?

No reviews yet, I can't believe it. Buy this book for it's great introduction to Autralian life in 1800s as seen by a young woman trying to achieve what she wants in life.

Young Sybilla finds herself stuck in the arid Australian Outback, talking to the pigs for intelligent conversation, in the absence of her father. From these lowly beginnings, her ambition for her 'Brilliant Career' takes her along a melodramatic path of humour and tragedy.

For all the young women of today who don't think feminism is relevant, read this and see how much you take for granted.

Also read 'My Brillian Career Goes Bung', for the real life story of the author, which is every bit as strange and fascinating as the fictional character in this book.

Career or marriage?

My Brilliant Career is a wonderful novel that arose amidst the swarm of hop-and-skippity poems of Henry Lawson and the doggerel style of Banjo Patterson (and written by a woman as well!!)

It follows the story of a girl growing up and challenging the iron clad conventions of the 19th century society, spanning from deep poverty out woop-woop (Aussie talk for nowhere) to the dizzying heights of Sydney with the 'squattocracy'.

Sibella grows up in a typically large Australian family amidst the outback and she is sent to 'be groomed', to live with her aunt and grandmother, the genteel ladies of society. We are immersed into Sibella's head, feeling her frustration, embarrassment and happiness shine through the chapters. The few illustrations dotted amongst the novel also doesn't hamper our imagination of the character, done in sweepingly soft brush strokes that give us Sibella's essence rather than confining us (as is usual) to the one face.

She must decide between the (very temptingly handsome) rich man who courts her, and who she too loves very much. Yet if she chooses him, it signals the end of a serious career as a writer. So what would you do? More importantly, what does Sibella do? Read it and you'll find out for yourself!

I love this book. There it is, right out in the open.

Sybylla is so headstrong, so determined that I read right through the book in a matter of days. It's fun to see a young woman in the 19th century yearn so much for independence and her own destiny. That the book was considered shocking is an understatement - Franklin stipulated that the book not be reprinted until a decade after her death.

Sybylla has no illusions about life and love - she's watched her father go from a strong man she adored to an alcoholic, seen her mother become cold and bitter. Sybylla, more than anything, is convinced that she will have a brilliant career. Some hope comes early when she goes to live with her grandmother, but that ends abruptly and Sybylla learns some more hard lessons.

The book isn't gloomy, despite the sad realities of Sybylla's life in the bush. It's one of the most enjoyable books about young women out of the era. Sybylla's is no Anne of Green Gables, but she's just as enjoyable and fun to read. Of note is the very well-made 1979 film adaptation that only disappoints as we are not privy to Sybylla's thoughts which is most of the joy of the book.

After reading this fine book, I am still mulling over the actions of the author. She was offered the world on a platter, and chose to reject love and make her own way in life. She would be a most interesting person to met and conversed with. After reading a biography about Mile Franklin, I believe she did the right thing.
A beautiful read.

The book still haunts me several days after reading. Assuming the story is more fact than fiction, I propose a motive for the author's actions.

The book may have been the 19 century coming out story, which went over peoples heads at the time, and even now. I believe the author was attracted to women. She mentioned several times how she detested the touch of a man, and turned down a marriage proposal that would be most woman's dream. She often lamented on how different she was from other girls. She never married.

I suspect the book was written a 100 years before its time, about a subject that was simply taboo.

Durgan.

poor contrast. difficult to read. print on demand should be better than this. I am unable to return for refund, so must eat the cost. The Kindle Edition is much more readable.

This is the classic Australian story of Sybylla Melvyn a young and passionate 16 year old girl living on her parent's farm, Possum Gully. She longs to escape the hard live and hates the physical burdens farm life imposes. She wants to read, write, and play music more than anything else in the world and she feels so very confined on the farm. When her mother decides to send her to stay with her grandmother at Caddagat, Sybylla finally gets to lead the life she has always dreamed about. When she meets and falls under the spell of the handsome bushman Harold Beecham she realizes she might have to choose between a conventional life for a woman and having a brilliant career.

Miles Franklin was sixteen years old when she wrote this novel which is pretty amazing considering that at times the writing of this book sounded much older, especially when she talks about things like Australian independence, women's rights and the struggles of the poor. The only times in the book that I felt like I could really tell this book had been written by a sixteen year old are when she repeatedly talks about how ugly she is and also when she describes falling in love. But I don't really look at these things as negatives because they make the book read so accurately and it brought me back in time to when I was sixteen and felt the same way as Sybylla. This is a wonderful book and it is filled which such wonderful descriptions of Australian life in the early 20th century. I am so glad that I read this book and I enjoyed all of the honest youthful descriptions in the book.

Life was good for Sybylla when she was very young and her father didn't drink and all the family lived at Bruggabrong. They were miles from any neighbor; and she was a wild and free little girl. Her father gets in his head that they need a change -- and a farm called Possum Gully would be just the thing.

And this is where things start to go downhill...and continue downhill for quite some time.

Some of the plot points were parallel to Jane Eyre (although Sybylla is not an orphan...they are both spunky heroines of small stature and describe themselves as plain) Sybylla goes to live with her grandmother and aunt for awhile -- and this middle section of the book most reminds me of Jane Eyre's story. There is a love interest named Harry Beecham, and a third person in flouncy finery named Miss Derrick who brings out the jealousy in Sybylla. The other things that remind me of Jane Eyre are Sybylla's witty repartee with Mr. Beecham, her low self-esteem; the fact she becomes a governess -- and a scene in which she spooks a horse.

Sybylla is obstinately resistant to authority or control. She will NOT go forward into situations when she forsees she would lose her independence. (Although for a bit longer she is still under her parents' control, mainly her mother's)

Whereas Jane seems to find a balance and sees herself an equal and counterpart to Rochester...Sybylla runs hot and cold about Beecham -- and sends mixed messages. She is a young woman still figuring out what she thinks, believes, and feels.

This book is NOT for anyone who wants a traditional romance. "My Brilliant Career" is a wonderfully written book -- with humor and bite -- highs and lows -- and a fallible, but strong-willed heroine.

A good picture of life in Australian society but the author's personal experience strognly gives a negative note to the book.