My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
"My Brilliant Career" is a novel by Australian author Miles Franklin, published in 1901, that follows the life of Sybylla Melvyn, a young woman from a once-wealthy cattle station family. As her family falls into poverty due to financial mismanagement and external hardships, including a drought, Sybylla grapples with the stark realities of her new life on a small farm called Possum Gully. Despite the challenges, she possesses a deep love for music and literature, yearning for a more fulfilling existence beyond the confines of her daily struggles.
The narrative captures Sybylla's journey of self-discovery amidst societal expectations, particularly regarding marriage and gender roles. Her encounters with characters like Harry Beecham, whom she finds intriguing yet perplexing, illustrate the complexities of romantic relationships in her time. Sybylla's strong sense of individuality and desire for autonomy often clash with traditional views, especially as she is pressured to conform to familial duties. Throughout the story, the theme of aspiration versus reality emerges, highlighting Sybylla's internal conflict and her search for purpose in a constraining society. This novel is often regarded as an important work in Australian literature, reflecting on themes of feminism and the quest for personal freedom.
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My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
First published: 1901
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Psychological realism
Time of plot: 1890’s
Locale: Australian Bush
Principal characters
Sybylla Melvyn , the teenage narratorRichard Melvyn , Sybylla’s fatherLucy Melvyn , Sybylla’s motherGertie , Sybylla’s sisterAunt Helen andGrannie , with whom Sybylla goes to liveUncle Julius , Aunt Helen’s brotherHarold Beecham , a wealthy bushman, in love with SybyllaEverard Grey , a young English aristocrat who befriends SybyllaFrank Hawden , suitor to SybyllaThe M’Swat Family , who employ Sybylla as governess
The Story:
Sybylla is the daughter of wealthy cattle station owner Richard Melvyn. When the family falls on hard times, Richard sells his three stations and buys Possum Gully, a small farm. Richard’s drinking habit undermines his livestock deals. He mortgages Possum Gully and uses the money to set up a dairy farm. The entire family slaves long hours for little return; the family drops from swelldom to peasantry. Sybylla’s previously gentle and refined mother becomes angry, thin, and careworn, while her father becomes slovenly and withdrawn; he loses all love for, and interest in, his family. Sybylla, fond of music and literature, longs for something better than the daily grind of work and sleep.
When Sybylla is fifteen years old, a drought brings the dairy farm to ruin. A dishonest moneylender’s agent absconds with Richard’s repayments, and the bailiffs are sent in; everything the family owns is sold. Their friends and neighbors, however, come to the rescue; they bid low for the family’s possessions and return them.
Because Lucy Melvyn finds her daughter’s presence a burden to her, Sybylla’s grandmother offers to have Sybylla stay with her. Sybylla leaves the farm to live at Caddagat, the home of Aunt Helen and Grannie. They welcome Sybylla warmly, in contrast to the cold farewell she received from her parents. Sybylla thrives in this loving and refined environment; she reads and plays the piano for hours.
Sybylla feels sad, however, convinced that she is so ugly and hence unlovable. Aunt Helen takes pity on Sybylla and takes her in hand to bring out her beauty. Sybylla’s “coming out” is to meet Uncle Julius (Uncle Jay-Jay) and a young English aristocrat, Everard Grey. Grey, impressed with Sybylla’s striking looks and talent for acting and singing, expresses a desire to introduce her to the stage, where, he believes, she will have a brilliant career. The notion of such a career, however, is dismissed by Grannie and Aunt Helen as unsuitable.
Aunt Helen and Grannie are friends of a neighboring wealthy squatter family, the Beechams. Sybylla meets Harry Beecham—described as her only real sweetheart—when she is dressed in one of the servant’s dresses and a pair of men’s boots. Mistaking her for a servant, he tries to kiss her and then tests her mettle by having her stand still while he cracks his stockman’s whip around her. When he finds out who she is, he is embarrassed, and Sybylla is delighted at having the power to make him so.
Harry and Sybylla continue to spend time together. Perplexed, yet intrigued by her wild nature, Harry proposes to Sybylla. She expresses surprise, because he had never uttered a word of love to her. She accepts the engagement, but she tells herself that it will be only for a little while. As he stoops to kiss her, she picks up a riding whip and strikes him in the face. He makes light of the incident.
When Harry presents her with an engagement ring, she takes it, but she refuses to put it on; she tells him that they will have a three-month probation period to see how they get along, during which time she will sometimes wear the ring.
Harry suddenly loses his money and station property. Sybylla offers to accept his engagement, now that he needs her. She will marry him when she reaches age twenty-one, whether he is rich or poor. Delighted by her response, Harry leaves to remake his fortune. Sybylla receives a letter from her mother, telling Sybylla that Sybylla must help the family by working as a governess for the M’Swat family. Sybylla’s father owes money to Peter M’Swat, who is willing to take twenty pounds per year off the debt if Sybylla teaches his children.
Sybylla unwillingly leaves her happy home to do her duty by her family. Life with the M’Swats is a kind of hell. The family lives in filth and does not possess a trace of refinement. Sybylla falls ill under the strain and is sent home. Her life has reached a dead end. Her mother is displeased, and Grannie has replaced her with her younger, prettier sister, Gertie. The presents Uncle Jay-Jay brings back from his travels are given to Gertie, instead of Sybylla.
Harry Beecham has remade his fortune; he returns to ask for Sybylla’s hand, but she cannot bring herself to marry him. In his disappointment, Harry sets off to travel the world.
Bibliography
Barnard, Marjorie. Miles Franklin. New York: Twayne, 1967. A lucid and comprehensive guide to Franklin’s life and works. An excellent starting point.
Callil, Carmen. Introduction to My Brilliant Career, by Miles Franklin. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980. This introductory essay establishes the initial modern perspective on the novel, a perspective debated since this reprinting.
Coleman, Verna. Miles Franklin in America: Her Unknown(Brilliant) Career. London: Sirius, 1981. Discusses Franklin’s novels in relation to the author’s life and her reception among readers and critics in the United States.
Ewers, John K. Creative Writing in Australia: A Selective Survey. Rev. ed. Melbourne, Vic.: Georgian House, 1966. Ewers finds Franklin’s My Brilliant Career true to Australia, with a clear vision of reality and a scorn of pretense, and advises reading it together with its sequel, My Career Goes Bung (1946), for a clear picture of an “extraordinary mind.”
Garton, Stephen. “Contesting Enslavement: Marriage, Manhood, and My Brilliant Career.” Australian Literary Studies 20, no. 4 (October, 2002): 336-349. Focuses on issues of enslavement in the novel. Discusses the novel’s depiction of marriage, the character of Harold Beecham, masculinity, and femininity. Garton’s piece is one of several articles in this issue that examine various aspects of My Brilliant Career.
Hadgraft, Cecil. “The New Century: First Harvest of Fiction.” In Australian Literature: A Critical Account to 1955. London: Heinemann, 1960. Although Hadgraft finds My Brilliant Career’s literary value to be unequal to its human interest and the dominating personality to be odd, he praises its setting, vocabulary, and circumstances as convincingly Australian, a “remarkable” achievement.
Mathew, Ray. Miles Franklin. Melbourne, Vic.: Lansdowne Press, 1963. Psychological study of Franklin’s novels. Contains valuable observations on Sybylla’s almost pathological mistrust of emotion.
Roe, Jill. Her Brilliant Career: The Life of Stella Miles Franklin. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2009. A comprehensive biography of Franklin, a work developed from “decades of research in thousands of papers” left by Franklin upon her death. The “definitive life of this remarkable writer and feminist.”
Sheridan, Susan. “Louisa Lawson, Miles Franklin, and Feminist Writing.” In Along the Faultlines: Sex, Race, and Nation in Australian Women’s Writing, 1880’s-1930’s. St. Leonards, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 1995. Examines the relation between Australian women’s fiction and feminist theories of cultural change, focusing on how women writers in the Australian colonies treated questions of nation, gender, and racial difference within the context of a settler society. This chapter compares the work of Franklin and Lawson, two Australian feminist writers.