Name: My Brilliant Career
Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
ISBN: 9781600963780

Miles Franklin

Alternately hilarious and heartwarming, this beloved coming-of-age novel from the Australian outback brings together unforgettable characters with clarity and truth, all told in a unique young woman's voice. My Brilliant Career was made into an award-winning film starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 6-by-9-inch format by Waking Lion Press.

My Brilliant Career

My brilliant career

Jamieson

“life itself is anything beyond a heartless little chimera- it is as real in its weariness and bitter heartache” 


I read this book for university and at first, I wasn't that into it but it grew on me a lot as it went on, and I particularly enjoyed the middle section. This is Jane Eyre meets Pride and Prejudice in the Australian bush. Except, Miles Franklin is kind of critical of Jane Eyre and wants to subvert your expectations of romance and the romance genre. 

Lots of people seem not to like Sybylla but I did. She's got a lot of flaws and the way she constantly changed her mind frustrated me, but I liked her strength of character. I also liked what Franklin did with her character at the end - it's what I constantly whine about saying Jane Eyre should have been and it's nice to actually see that, happen. Harold Beecham, the love interest, was also actually genuinely sweet which is kind of crazy for a classic. 

Franklin also has beautiful writing, the descriptions of the Australian bush were vivid and the emotional language she used allowed you to enter these characters minds with ease. 

Overall I really enjoyed this, I could actually see myself rereading it in the future which isn't always the case with classics.

Shannon Jade

A wonderful glimpse into old Australian life, Sybylla is far ahead of her time, and like her creator, is able to serve as a role model and epitomisation of early feminist ideals. Her actions are often the opposite of what they might be expected be, and by this she is compelling to her audience.

First published in 1901, this Australian classic recounts the live of 16-year-old Sybylla Melvyn. Trapped on her parents' outback farm, she simultaneously loves bush life and hates the physical burdens it imposes. For Sybylla longs for a more refined, aesthetic lifestyle -- to read, to think, to sing -- but most of all to do great things. Suddenly her life is transformed. Whisked away to live on her grandmother's gracious property, she falls under the eye of the rich and handsome Harry Beecham. And soon she finds herself choosing between everything a conventional life offers and her own plans for a 'brilliant career'.

My Brilliant Career

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