My Brilliant Career

This was life – my life – my career, my brilliant career! I was fifteen – fifteen!’

First published in 1901, My Brilliant Career is a powerful portrayal of life in turn-of-the-century rural Australia. Young, headstrong and born into a family dogged by misfortune, Sybylla Melvyn is determined to avoid the lot of young women – to escape the drudgery of farm life by finding a husband – and instead devotes herself to the arts, adamant she will one day make her way as a writer, actor, artist…

Through a series of bad business decisions Sybylla’s father fritters away the family fortunes, and the hapless teen – considered a burden by her mother – is sent to live with her grandmother, where life is comparatively blissful. When a dashing neighbour makes an appearance Sybylla’s nerve is tested – but Fate has one more hand to play.

Now a major Netflix series