
My Brilliant Career
'My Brilliant Career' Summary
The heroine, Sybylla Melvyn, is an imaginative, headstrong girl growing up in rural Australia in the 1890s. Drought and a series of poor business decisions reduce her family to subsistence level, her father begins to drink excessively, and Sybylla struggles to deal with the monotony of her life. To her relief, she is sent to live on her grandmother's property, where life is more comfortable. There she meets wealthy young Harold Beecham, who loves her and proposes marriage; convinced of her ugliness and aware of her tomboyish ways, Sybylla is unable to believe that he could really love her. By this time, her father's drinking has plunged the family into debt, and she is sent to work as governess/housekeeper for the family of an almost illiterate neighbour to whom her father owes money. She finds life there unbearable and eventually suffers a physical breakdown which leads to her return to the family home. When Harold Beecham returns to ask Sybylla to marry him, she concludes that she would only make him unhappy and sends him away, determined never to marry. The novel ends with no suggestion that she will ever have the "brilliant career" as a writer that she desires.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1901Authors

Miles Franklin
Australia
Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, known as Miles Franklin, was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel My Brilliant Career, published by Blackwoods of Edinburgh in 1901. Whi...
Books by Miles FranklinDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Cranford is an episodic novel by the English writer Elizabeth Gaskell. It first appeared in instalments in the magazine Household Words, then was publ...

Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre oder die Entsagenden by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre oder die Entsagenden ist ein Roman von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, der 1821 in seiner ersten Fassung erschien. Der Roman...

Battle of the Books by Gail Hamilton
A fictionalized account of a real-life conflict between a female author and her publisher, this book is a witty and incisive look at the challenges fa...

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
One of the most controversial novels written by Austen, Mansfield Park follows the life of the young heroine Fanny Price as she searches for her place...

garçonne by Victor Margueritte
Published in 1922, *Garçonne* by Victor Margueritte is a controversial novel that explores the changing social landscape of post-World War I France. I...

Two Sides of a Question by May Sinclair
Two Sides of a Question, a collection of novellas by May Sinclair, explores the complexities of women's lives and their quest for freedom in Victorian...

Majoor Frans by A. L. G. Bosboom-Toussaint
Een arme jonker, Leopold, wordt onverwacht een grote erfenis in het vooruitzicht gesteld na de dood van een oud-tante – onder één voorwaarde: hij moet...

Uli der Knecht by Jeremias Gotthelf
**Uli der Knecht** ist ein 1841 erschienener Roman von Jeremias Gotthelf. Der pikareske Roman handelt von der Erziehung des Knechtes Uli, der durch ve...

Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), also known by the sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo religionist, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and...

Pursuit by Lester Del Rey
This is a thrilling science fiction novel that takes readers on a captivating journey through a dystopian future. The story follows Jim Stanley, a cou...
Reviews for My Brilliant Career
No reviews posted or approved, yet...