My Brilliant Career

Using the breakup scenes with Everard and then later with Harry, discuss Sybylla’s maturity when it comes to love. Is her attitude more hurtful or mature? How does Aunt Helen’s definition of friendship-love impact Sybylla?

Using Sybylla’s time with the M’Swats, discuss her level of maturity and insight in her treatment of the family and in her letters to her grandmother.

According to Sybylla’s definition offered in her break-up scene with Harry, what is the role of a writer? Research the names of the writers Sybylla mentions as her favorites, particularly Charles Dickens. How does her reaction to the M’Swats indicate she is not ready to be Dickens? How do you read the closing three paragraphs?

The book begins with a brief Introduction and then a Special Notice. What do these sections add to the novel? In what way is this a frame narrative where the focus is really on the narrator as a character?

In what way is Dick Melvyn the novel’s tragic figure? What is his tragic flaw? Is there anything heroic in his financial failures and his descent in alcoholism?

Research the romances of Jane Austen, whose work Franklin acknowledged she had in mind. In what ways is Sybylla distinctly not Austen-esque, and not a romance heroine? Is her decision not to marry more heroic or foolish?

Nearly 40 years after the publication of My Brilliant Career, Franklin published a sequel called My Career Goes Bung (1946), a wildly satiric sendup of the first book. Research it and investigate how your perception of Sybylla changes.

Franklin was widely criticized for her depiction of life in rural New South Wales. Using a definition of local realism, critique the portrait of Australians the novel offers. What is accomplished by the closing three paragraphs?