My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin (book recommendations TXT) ๐
Description
My Brilliant Career is a classic Australian work published in 1901 by Stella Miles Franklin, with an introduction by Henry Lawson. A thinly-veiled autobiographical novel, it paints a vivid and sometimes grim picture of rural Australian life in the late 19th Century.
Sybylla Melvyn is the daughter of a man who falls into grinding poverty through inadvised speculation before becoming a hopeless drunk unable to make a living from a small dairy farm. Sybylla longs for the intellectual things in life such as books and music. She wants to become a writer and rebels against the constraints of her life. For a short period she is allowed to stay with her better-off relatives, and there she attracts the attentions of a handsome and rich neighbour, Harold Beecham. The course of true love, however, does not run smoothly for this very independent young woman.
The author, like many other women writers of the time, adopted a version of her name which suggested that she was male in order to get published. Today, the Miles Franklin Award is Australiaโs premier literary award, with a companion award, the Stella, open only to women authors.
My Brilliant Career was made into a well-regarded movie in 1979. Directed by Gillian Armstrong, it features Judy Davis as Sybylla and Sam Neil as Harry Beecham.
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- Author: Miles Franklin
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โNow, uncle, you have had your say, I will have mine. You seem to think I have more than a friendly regard for Mr. Beecham, but I have not. I would not marry him even if I could. I am so sick of everyone thinking I would marry any man for his possessions. I would not stoop to marry a king if I did not love him. As for trying to win a man, I would scorn any action that way; I never intend to marry. Instead of wasting so much money on me in presents and other ways, I wish you would get me something to do, a profession that will last me all my life, so that I may be independent.โ
โNo mistake, youโre a rum youngster. You can be my companion till further orders. Thatโs a profession that will last you a goodish while.โ
With this I had to be contented, as I saw he considered what I had said as a joke.
I left uncle and went in quest of grannie, who, by this, was beyond the other side of the course, fully a quarter of a mile away. Going in her direction I met Joe Archer, one of the Five-Bob jackeroos, and a great chum of mine. He had a taste for literature, and we got on together like one oโclock. We sat on a log under a stringybark-tree and discussed the books we had read since last we met, and enjoyed ourselves so much that we quite forgot about the races or the flight of time until recalled from book-land by Harold Beechamโs voice.
โExcuse me, Miss Melvyn, but your grannie has commissioned me to find you as we want to have lunch, and it appears you are the only one who knows the run of some of the tucker bags.โ
โHow do you do, Mr. Beecham? Where are they going to have lunch?โ
โOver in that clump of box-trees,โ he replied, pointing in the direction of a little rise at a good distance.
โHow are you enjoying yourself?โ he asked, looking straight at me.
โTreminjous intoirely, sor,โ I replied.
โI suppose you know the winner of every race,โ he remarked, quizzically watching Joe Archer, who was blushing and as uneasy as a schoolgirl when nabbed in the enjoyment of an illicit love-letter.
โReally, Mr. Beecham, Mr. Archer and I have been so interested in ourselves that we quite forgot there was such a thing as a race at all,โ I returned.
โYouโd better see where old Boxer is. He might kick some of the other horses if you donโt keep a sharp lookout,โ he said, turning to his jackeroo.
โLadies before gentlemen,โ I interposed. โI want Mr. Archer to take me to grannie, then he can go and look after old Boxer.โ
โIโll escort you,โ said Beecham.
โThank you, but I have requested Mr. Archer to do so.โ
โIn that case, I beg your pardon, and will attend to Boxer while Joe does as you request.โ
Raising his hat he walked swiftly away with a curious expression on his usually pleasant face.
โBy Jove, Iโm in for it!โ ejaculated my escort. โThe boss doesnโt get that expression on his face for nothing. You take my tip for it, he felt inclined to seize me by the scruff of the neck and kick me from here to Yabtree.โ
โGo on!โ
โItโs a fact. He did not believe in me not going to do his bidding immediately. He has a roaring derry on disobedience. Everyone has to obey him like winkie or they can take their beds up and trot off quick and lively.โ
โMr. Beecham has sufficient sense to see I was the cause of your disobedience,โ I replied.
โThatโs where it is. He would not have cared had it been some other lady, but he gets mad if anyone dares to monopolize you. I donโt know how you are going to manage him. He is a pretty hot member sometimes.โ
โMr. Archer, you presume! But throwing such empty banter aside, is Mr. Beecham really bad-tempered?โ
โBad-tempered is a tame name for it. You should have seen the dust he raised the other day with old Benson. He just did perform.โ
I was always hearing of Harold Beechamโs temper, and wished I could see a little of it. He was always so imperturbably calm, and unfailingly good-tempered under the most trying circumstances, that I feared he had no emotions in him, and longed to stir him up.
Grannie greeted me with, โSybylla, you are such a tiresome girl. I donโt know how you have packed these hampers, and we want to have lunch. Where on earth have you been?โ
Miss Augusta Beecham saluted me warmly with a kiss, and presented me to her sister Sarah, who also embraced me. I went through an introduction to several ladies and gentlemen, greeted my acquaintances, and then set to work in dead earnest to get our provisions laid outโ โthe Five-Bob Downs party had theirs in readiness. Needless to say, we were combining forces. I had my work completed when Mr. Beecham appeared upon the scene with two young ladies. One was a bright-faced little brunette, and the other a tall light blonde, whom, on account of her much trimmed hat, I recognized as the lady who had been sitting on the box-seat of the Beecham drag that morning.
Joe Archer informed me in a whisper that she was Miss Blanche Derrick from Melbourne, and was considered one of the greatest beauties of that city.
This made me anxious to examine her carefully, but I did not get an opportunity of doing so. In the hurry to attend on the party, I missed the honour of an introduction, and when I was at leisure she was sitting at some distance on a log, Harold Beecham shading her in a most religious manner with a dainty parasol. In the afternoon she strolled away with him, and after I had attended to the remains of the feast, I took Joe Archer in tow. He informed me that Miss
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