Product Description

First published in 1901, this Australian classic recounts the live of 16-year-old Sybylla Melvyn. Trapped on her parents' outback farm, she simultaneously loves bush life and hates the physical burdens it imposes. For Sybylla longs for a more refined, aesthetic lifestyle -- to read, to think, to sing -- but most of all to do great things. Suddenly her life is transformed. Whisked away to live on her grandmother's gracious property, she falls under the eye of the rich and handsome Harry Beecham. And soon she finds herself choosing between everything a conventional life offers and her own plans for a 'brilliant career'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55289 in Books
• Published on: 1980-07-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 248 pages

Review
'Unashamedly high-spirited and romantic' COMPANY 'A splendidly vivid display ... carrying the reader by force of its narrative and its sharply detailed, entirely convincing voice' THE TIMES

THE TIMES
'A splendidly vivid display ... carrying the reader by force of its narrative and its sharply detailed, entirely convincing voice'

About the Author
Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (1879-1954) was born into a pioneering family settled in New South Wales. Between 1918 and 1933 she lived in London, and in 1933 she returned to Australia where she spent the rest of her life.

Customer Reviews

A teenage heroine to love
I read this book first when I was about 15, and 24 years on I still love it. The vividness of the Australian settings: countryside, small town and city, the heroine, her relationships with family and friends- all are utterly absorbing and convincing. Sybella, of course- ho could fail to love such an exasperating, feisty teenager?

Character and voice
I first read this book in my teens and adored the wayward Sybella. The writing has such vitality and youthful passion, it carries you along.