'My Brilliant Career was written by Stella Franklin (1879-1954) when she was just nineteen years old. The novel struggled to find an Australian publisher, but was published in London and Edinburgh in 1901 after receiving an endorsement from Henry Lawson. Although Franklin wrote under the pseudonym 'Miles Franklin', Lawson’s preface makes it clear that Franklin is, as Lawson puts it 'a girl.'
'The novel relates the story of Sybylla Melvyn, a strong-willed young woman of the 1890s growing up in the Goulburn area of New South Wales and longing to be a writer.' (Publication summary)
My Brilliant Career
( dir. Gillian Armstrong
)
Adelaide
:
Margaret Fink Productions
,
1979
Z817179
1979
single work
film/TV
(taught in 7 units)
Based on the book by Miles Franklin, this feature film tells the story of an Australian country girl who, at the end of the nineteenth century, wants to make her own way in the outside world.
Rejecting an offer of marriage from a wealthy suitor (who is also her childhood friend), she instead finds herself obligated to work off her father's debt to a neighbouring family, for whom she works as governess and housekeeper. Returning home, she again rejects her suitor's proposal, this time in favour of writing a novel based on her experiences.
My Brilliant Career
2020
Strawberry Hills
:
Currency Press
,
2021
17261804
2020
single work
drama
'Australia, on the cusp of a new century. Sybylla Melvyn has grown up beyond the black stump, but she is determined to get away and make her own spectacular mark on the world. But if that’s to happen, she must first surmount collapsing family fortunes, a world hardwired against headstrong women, and the insistent nagging of love.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Sybylla Melvyn is a young woman on the verge of life and freedom and is determined, above all else, to break down the barriers keeping her from both.
'From the award-winning Skin of Our Teeth Productions comes My Brilliant Career, a theatrical re-imagining of Stella Miles Franklin’s timeless novel. This is the story of Sybylla Melvyn, a young woman on the verge of everything – hope, loss, freedom and the search for independence. Christine Davey’s adaptation is a glorious love letter to landscape and language, a homage to life.'
Source: La Mama Theatre.
'Sybylla Melvyn is the smartest, funniest, most outrageous teenager Australia has ever witnessed. Just ask her.
'She’s growing up in the 90s – the 1890s, that is – where life doesn’t throw a lot of options at a girl. But life didn’t reckon on Sybylla. Forced to choose between romance and her own genius, her family and a future she defines, she’s decided she’s having it all.
'Miles Franklin’s novel My Brilliant Career still pulsates with the wild electric energy that made it such a sensation a century ago, and this new adaptation channels that fire into a high-energy musical. It’s a makeover that transforms one of our most enduring literary figures into a heroine for this very moment, while retaining all the wit and charm that has made this such a timeless work.
'A live soundtrack that’s equal parts contemporary pop, folksy bush band and raucous pub rock will translate the untameable spirit of Sybylla into a live theatre experience to blow the ceiling off.
'Adapted by music theatre’s most dynamic duo Mathew Frank and Dean Bryant alongside Sheridan Harbridge, with a cast led by Kala Gare (SIX), this world premiere is directed by our own Artistic Director Anne-Louise Sarks.' (Production summary)
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 12 (Literature Unit 3)
Themes
adaptation of novel to film, Australia, Australian country life, film study, gender, love, narrative voice, setting, social reading, structure, women
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Information and communication technology, Intercultural understanding
My Brilliant Career Insight Text Guide
Cheltenham
:
Insight Publications
,
2023
27820643
2023
single work
criticism
'Growing up in Australia in the 1970s, I much preferred the hijinks of Han Solo and Chewie to Princess Leia’s sexualised damsel in distress. My sister and I spent an entire summer pigging out on Choc Wedges and Barney Bananas so we could collect the men’s cricket team on specially marked sticks. Feminism seemed a world “far, far away”. Yet what Australian girls could and couldn’t do was being explored through a glut of screen adaptations of classic novels.' (Introduction)
'Curator Grace Blakeley-Carroll looks at early twentieth-century Australian female writers and the publishing industry.'
