My Brilliant Career Revisited, by Peter Leyland
My Brilliant Career Revisited
The recent screening on Netflix in six episodes of My Brilliant Career by Miles Frankllin caused me to look out the two books of hers that I had purchased in second hand bookshops. The first, the title book itself, I found in a shop in Sherborne Dorset, which I have been frequenting for many years. It is run by Claire who stations herself in a downstairs room, her person eclipsed by a mountain of books waiting to be catalogued or bought. I discovered the book, attracted by its superbly designed Virago cover, in the upstairs paperback room. It was asking to be read and so after browsing further I took it down from the shelves, went back down the stairs, paid the relatively small amount written in pencil on the title page and began.
The story, which was based on the author’s life, is that of a young girl growing up in the Australian outback at the end of the 19th Century. It romps along, telling how Franklin’s alter ego, Sybylla Melvyn, is moved away from her family’s life on a farm in Possum Gully to her grandmother’s house in Caddagat some distance away, ostensibly to assist the destitute Melvyn family, but covertly to improve her marital prospects. But don’t let that put you off. As you read it becomes the antithesis of a romantic novels about seeking a husband and moves in a wonderful style all its own to stories of the rough and ready growing up of Sybylla.
She is helped in the process by her Aunt Helen who also lives at Caddagat. Helen’s story is told briefly but it involves her marriage to a Colonel Bell who takes her to America for a year before deserting and abandoning her for another woman. Returning to Australia, Helen has obtained a judicial separation and lives with her own mother, Sybilla’s grandmother. She has moved away from her past and is in a perfect position to advise Sybylla about how to look at herself not in the negative ways she has been accustomed to in Possum Gully but in a whole new manner :
“Come, Sybylla,” she said, starting up brightly, “I have a plan – will you agree to it? Come and take a long look at yourself in the glass. Then I will turn it to the wall, and you must promise me that for three or four weeks you will not look in a mirror… During this time I will take you in hand, and you must follow my directions implicitly. Will you agree? You will be surprised what a nice-looking little girl I will make of you.” p.49
Sybylla agrees but is then struck down with influenza, and at the same time a serving maid accidentally scalds her foot with a pan of boiling pot liquor, so she must take to her bed for weeks during which she absorbs the contents of the bookshelf in her room. She enthuses about novelists like Thackeray and Dickens and Australian poets, discovering Gordon and Kendall from the past, and bush poets Lawson and Banjo Patterson who are more recent.
To gather material for a summary of the story at this point I did a close reread of the book and found that once again I was drawn in by the storyteller’s art. It revolves around the relatively fun times that the 17-year-old Sybylla has at her grandmother’s house in Caddagat, where she must fend off the attentions of male admirers like Frank Hawden, which she does successfully, and Harold Beecham who is more of a challenge. He is attractive and wealthy, lives nearby at Five-Bob Downs and finds it hard to take no for an answer. The story proceeds at a rollicking pace during which they share experiences like falling in the river together and riding daredevilishly in Harold’s buggy. These events are accompanied by humorous comments from the author such as this when a horse’s trace is broken:
Men are clumsy, stupid creatures regarding little things, but in their right place they are wonderful animals. If a buggy was smashed to smithereens, from one of their many mysterious pockets they would produce a knife and some string, and put the wreck in working order in no time. p.106
The issue of the relationship between them is partly resolved with his giving her a ring in a future hope of engagement and her agreeing to give him an answer when she is 21. Before then however other events occur: Harold’s business fails and he loses his wealth; Sybylla’s father, already more or less bankrupt, is asked to repay the sum of money he owes to Peter M'Swat. To achieve this Sybylla must move to Barney’s Gap and work as a governess for the M’Swats, whose lifestyle is very much less than that to which she has now become accustomed. She is tasked with the care of 5 reluctant children – ‘Lizzer, aged fourteen; Jimmy, twelve; Tommy, Sarah and Rose Jane, younger'.This whole episode, written with tremendous humour, is a severe trial for Sybilla and matters come to a head when M’Swat suggests that she marry his adult son also called Peter...
To this reader’s relief Sybylla’s future is saved when she is overtaken by another illness and must be taken home to Possum Gully. Once there she learns that Harold’s fortunes have been restored. He renews his courtship, but Sybylla is made of stronger stuff. They exchange letters and she eventually succeeds in her absolute refusal of marriage, telling him that she wants to become a writer. Finally, he comes to accept her decision.
You may be surprised to learn that Miles Franklin was in her teens when she wrote My Brilliant Career. Her life story is fascinating and she wrote several other books while leading an eventful life amongst the Australian literati of the day. One of these is my second book of hers which I discovered in Leakey's second hand bookshop in Inverness. Its title is My Career Goes Bung and deals autobiographically with rest of her life, being a sequel to her first highly original book. To paraphrase and quote the blurb on the back of the Virago edition, it was written in 1945 but not published until 1946. “It was considered too audacious and perhaps too revealing of its creator’s own persona for publication. Miles Franklin was one of Australia’s greatest pastoral novelists... but My Brilliant Career has brought her autobiographical novels to a new audience.”
Looking back at the Netflix series where I began this article, it got a five star rating from the author and TV critic, Lucy Mangan. It took some liberties with the original text, such as incorporating references to racism, colonialism and sexism, which are probably deemed necessary for the work to appeal to a modern audience, but these issues shouldn’t take away from the book’s power to entrance and amuse. If you liked the series, it is a highly recommended read.
References
My Brilliant Career (1901) Miles Franklin
Mr Career Goes Bung (1946) Miles Franklin
TV Review by Lucy Mangan in The Guardian, Friday 14th August 2026. 'This joyful and witty adaptation fizzes with vim and vigour'.
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