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My Brilliant Career
Series: Penguin Clothbound Classics
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Brief Description
The beloved Australian classic, published in a stunning Penguin Clothbound Classics edition for the first time. My Brilliant Career, 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...
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Description
The beloved Australian classic, published in a stunning Penguin Clothbound Classics edition for the first time.
My Brilliant Career, 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 the emergent women's rights and suffrage movement during this period, and memorably evoke the intensity of youth.
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780241699584
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 30 January 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 23.0mm
Width: 136.0mm
Height: 205.0mm
Weight: 385g
Pages: 272
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.
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