– Including 11 photographs of Sydney in the 1890s to early 1900s, depicting life in colonial Australia at the time this book is set.
Stella ‘Miles’ Franklin’s debut novel “My Brilliant Career” is a classic of colonial Australian literature. Published in 1901, when Miles was still a teenager, it caused a sensation, resulting in Miles withdrawing from the public attention it caused. Shortly after its publication, she wrote this sequel, originally titled “The End of My Career”. Her publishers, however, stated this could not be published, as it was “too audacious” for the time, not just for Miles’ forthright opinions and feminist leanings, but chiefly its criticism and portrayal of members of Sydney society and literary figures of the time. For decades, the manuscript was thought lost, but when a copy surfaced, Miles decided to publish it. And so 45 years after “My Brilliant Career”, its sequel, “My Career Goes Bung” was published “purporting to be the autobiography of Sybylla Penelope Melvyn”.
