Retrieve My Brilliant Career Documented By Miles Franklin Available As Textbook

atbecause of the poor audiobook quality on Librivox, When the novel is in first person, my head can't process each chapter being narrated by a different reader, some of whom are outstanding narrators and some, below average.
Might reread this some day because the heroine is quite a rebel for her era and whatever content I heard sounded appealing.
and a half. I dont remember reading this at school, if I did it didnt leave an impression, Sybylla is both a wonderful and an awful character, shes an overwrought, self obsessed teenager one minute and almost wise the next.
I enjoyed reading this book though not for her but for the slice of Australian life in thes that she describes.
The hard life of all those on the land whether they be wealthy or poor is shown so well.
Im quite impressed that Miles Franklin didnt go for the obvious ending, She stays true to her lead character being unique for a woman of her time, I was reminded of Louisa Mae Alcott while reading this book, The two authors, neither of whom ever married, are best known for one semiautobiographical novel which eclipsed their other efforts.
Both women were also early feminists and wrote some of their work under male pseudonyms, Also, in both My Brilliant Career as in Little Women, there is a romantic element that will probably frustrate many readers since it defies conventional expectations.
It did frustrate me!

Its hard to say, since I knew going in that Franklin wrote this book as a very young woman, but I think it is evident it was written by a young adult.
There is quite a lot of teenage angst, mood swings and emotive language, The story is of Sybylla who at ageis sent from her fathers unsuccessful dairy farm to her maternal grandmothers home.
Her life with her family in Possums Gully is a grind where the children work long hours only to see their father drink away any profits the farm makes.
On the other hand, at her grandmothers, where her mother grew up, life is fairly cultured and lively which Sybylla soaks up like a sponge, so starved was she for books and music and company.


Sybylla is a great heroine, even though the reader will want to shake her more than once.
She is, however, in her wish to live a life beholden to no man but completely on her own terms, a very modern heroine and one to be admired.
Also, the book is very much worth reading for Franklins loving descriptions of the Australian landscape,

I wish I could have read an annotated version so I could have more easily accessed the Australian English in the book like jackaroo, cockie or bobberie.
I was expecting a much more enjoyable read than this since I have mainly enjoyed the Australian novels I have read in the past.
This is a classic and there is no doubt that this writer had talent and I can see why she later made a career out of writing, but this novel, which was written when she washas a protagonist who was apparently ahead of her time yes and no, since there were others of that time with the same commitment to not marry, and even before her time, although it was certainly rare, but overall I found her rather selfish and short sighted.
This and her treatment of one of the characters spoiled what might have been an enjoyable read, once I got past the beginning of the book, which I really didn't like.
There were entire stretches that I enjoyed, and I thought it would be a three star read, but, alas, they were not enough of the book to make it so.


There is no summary here, because there is one on the book description, About time this Aussie girl read this book, written by a fellow Aussie girl, sitelinkMiles Franklin the iconic Australian author, has penned this classic, written when she was barely an adult herself.
She was a woman born of another era, Her times were meant to be spent, toiling the land or should I say house, performing house duties and supporting her family that was lacking money.
She was better than that well she knew she was better spent bettering herself and continuing the continuance of lifelong learning she yearned to be able to write, perform music and use her cleverness for something better.
Sybylla isand this is her story,

I am not overly romantic or have any grandiose visions of happily ever afters or needing a man to complete a picture of happiness, but even I was disappointed for her.
Miles comments that there is no plot, as her life does not contain one or anyone else that she knows has one either.
There is too much work to be toiled than to have the luxury of a plot, Harry Beecham calling her Syb made me sad as he was lovely, There was also another lovely scene where Sybylla talks of Harrys lovely large comforting hands, I borrowed the physical copy after listening to this on audio, but searching for a little paragraph to place the quote here was too hard!

An interesting classic that has its little bit of relevance today.


As an after thought, and after perusing a lovely hard copy that was donated to the University library where I work, I would not recommend listening to the audio version.
Too much to be missed out on in regards to the poetry, I liked it. I've always avoided this book being under the misunderstanding that it was a dry and dusty tome.
ie boring! I'm glad I gave it a go, as it is certainly not boring, Sybylla is

an odd girl, kind of like Anne of Green Gables with a fervent feminist streak.
It's nice to see a romance written by a young girl that doesn't have a cloying, happy ending, and I admire her resolve to do the "right" thing by Harold in the end, even though that may not be what he thinks he wants.
I'm quite certain I could never have been that committed to an ideal given similar lack of opportunities, but perhaps if I'd had to grow up in the stultifying world of colonial Australia things would be very different.
The book is definitely a bit childish and melodramatic, but I think it shows nicely the way that feminism and female suffrage were viewed at the time of Federation, from the point of view of someone who lived through it.
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