My Brilliant Career

Written when Miles Franklin was still a teenager and published in 1901, this fierce, funny novel gave Australian literature one of its first great heroines. Sybylla Melvyn is poor, plain by her own account, and bursting with ambition on a drought-stricken bush property in 1890s New South Wales. When the wealthy and good-natured Harold Beecham offers marriage and comfort, she balks, unwilling to trade her dreams of writing and independence for any man’s household. Part comedy, part protest, the book reads as a young woman’s argument with the only future her world was prepared to imagine for her. Franklin drew heavily on her own upbringing. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.