I am given to something which a man never pardons in a woman. You will draw away as though I were a snake when you hear.’ With this warning, Sybylla confesses to her rich and handsome suitor that she is given to writing stories and bound, therefore, on a brilliant career. In this riotous first novel by Miles Franklin, originally published in 1901, Sybylla Melvyn is a independent young woman, who grows up passionate and rebellious in rural New South Wales. Forswearing the usual options open to young women – marry or teach – Sybylla is determined to do neither, deciding she will have a career instead. Headstrong and imaginative, Sybylla Melvyn is one of the most endearing heroines of Australian literature.
