My Brilliant Career / My Career Goes Bung - Softcover

Franklin, Miles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0207186952 ISBN 13: 9780207186950

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers PTY, 2000

Synopsis

Miles Franklin's classic of 1901 follows the unconventional life and struggles of one of Australia's most memorable female characters. Sybylla's passion and rebellion bring her no end of trouble, in life and in love. Included in this edition is the sequel, My Career Goes Bung.

About this title

From the Publisher:

For the first time ever, My Brilliant Career is published with its sequel.

Review:

Strong-headed, competent Sybylla has lived her sixteen years in and out of poverty in the Australian outback. She happily remembers her early years, including her mother's concern that she is too much of a tomboy and her father's response that "the curse of her sex will bother her soon enough." When she is ten, Sybylla's life changes drastically as her family moves, her father's businesses fail, and years of drought blight their land: "We felt the full force of the heavy hand of poverty...the wounded pride and humiliation which attacked us." At fifteen, with no visions of escape from her difficult life, Sybylla is invited to her grandmother's estate and there tastes some of the pleasures she longs for - music, books, art. She also falls in love and feels the joy and sorrow love can bring. Sybylla provides a vivid recollection of youth as she fights the conventions of her time and pays a high price to be true to her heart. Under the pen name Miles Franklin, Stella Marie Sarah Miles Franklin wrote My Brilliant Career at age sixteen. Many readers saw the novel as purely autobiographical, and the negative reaction to her portrayal of people in the outback made her stop further publication of the book. She continued to write throughout her life, but My Brilliant Career, an exploration and celebration of life and its choice, was not reprinted until 1966, twelve years after her death. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers PTY
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0207186952
• ISBN 13: 9780207186950
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480