My Brilliant Career

Miles Franklin (1879–1954) is a well-known writer, a classic of Australian literature, who published her first book at the age of twenty. Her autobiographical novel “My Brilliant Career” caused a sensation in society and remained Franklin’s best work (her fame in Australia can be compared to the popularity of L. M. Alcott’s “Little Women”).

The main heroine of this passionate, bold, and funny book lives on a cattle-raising farm and dreams of a musical career. She feels she has talent and the ability to captivate millions of enthusiastic hearts—but instead she has to milk cows and herd sheep in forty-degree heat. Sybilla fiercely resists the fate prepared for her, but again and again loses her fight against the laws and conventions of society. And even her first romantic feelings, it seems, bring Sybilla nothing but suffering…