My Brilliant Career

Description

Sybylla Melvyn yearns for a life in the arts. She loves music and is determined to write a book. But as the daughter of a poor dairy farmer, she despairs of ever realising her ambitions. Then comes the opportunity for Sybylla to go and live with wealthy relatives. In her new home she tastes a life of culture and refinement. She also meets handsome, rich Harold Beecham, who offers her a future most young women would dream of. But Sybylla is torn between a comfortable married life and the career she craves. Will Harold win her over? How will Sybylla live with the choice she makes?

Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, known as Miles Franklin (1879-1954) was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel My Brilliant Career, published in 1901. While she wrote throughout her life, her other major literary success, All That Swagger, was not published until 1936. Australian illustrator Brian Harrison-Lever was a designer in the television industry before spending fourteen years at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, lecturing in design and drawing. James and Gillian worked together at ELT materials developer International Language Teaching Services, and now run their own ELT business at ELT Essentials in Australia's New South Wales. James is the author of numerous successful books and series for English language learners.

"As with all the Real Reads books for children this one promotes a terrific discussion about the role of women in modern times and in other places/other times. In this little books are the pathos of women, whose plight was much dimmer in the Western World in times past, with little choice but to get married and keep house for a husband who provided the livelihood. Although Western women are much more in charge of their destiny and daily life now, there are still many choices which must be made. In this book the woman chooses her writing career over a life with a man who loves her, but she discovers she still has to do the chores she thought she could avoid by choosing a single life. Very thought provoking and well written."--Bonnie Neely "Real Travel Adventures"