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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Without a doubt my favourite book ever, Franklin gets to the heart of what it means to live in Australia, to be ambitious and to be a girl.
Comments in <20 words: Weariness weariness! Joy joy! Enough enough! Exclaims "ugly" unlikable late-19th-century Australian girl unhappily stuck in tradition and outback poverty.
This Text Classics edition I borrowed from the library has a whole chunk of text taken out of the Chapter 7 "Self Analysis" section. I switched to Project Gutenberg Australia after, which unfortunately came with minor OCR issues. At least Gutenberg is the version the public domain Librivox audiobook read from – with OCR error corrections, thankfully, or I would probably have fallen off the treadmill laughing. ("Do you not get sufficient to cat?")
This Text Classics edition I borrowed from the library has a whole chunk of text taken out of the Chapter 7 "Self Analysis" section. I switched to Project Gutenberg Australia after, which unfortunately came with minor OCR issues. At least Gutenberg is the version the public domain Librivox audiobook read from – with OCR error corrections, thankfully, or I would probably have fallen off the treadmill laughing. ("Do you not get sufficient to cat?")
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship
Minor: Miscarriage, Misogyny
3and a half stars. I don’t remember reading this at school, if I did it didn’t leave an impression. Sybylla is both a wonderful and an awful character, she’s an overwrought, self obsessed teenager one minute and almost wise the next. I enjoyed reading this book though not for her but for the slice of Australian life in the 1890s that she describes . The hard life of all those on the land whether they be wealthy or poor is shown so well. I’m quite impressed that Miles Franklin didn’t go for the obvious ending. She stays true to her lead character being unique for a woman of her time.
I recently reread this for an assignment. While I think the writing is fantastic, and there are a lot of funny, and interesting aspects to the novel, overall it was just really frustrating. I think it is a good book, and fascinating as part of Australian literary culture, but personally it was too frustrating for an overall enjoyable experience.
This was disappointing, but I suppose a case of a book written by a teenager with wonderful ability but no sense of the world outside herself.
It was overly frustrating. Normally I like books that take place entirely inside the mind of the protagonist, or even that revolve around intensely unlikeable characters, but Sybylla wasn’t interesting enough to warrant that. She didn’t grow as a person either, instead headstrong and ranty and preachy all the way.
I will read more of Franklin’s work - I like her feminism, her way with words, the life within her prose. But this one didn’t work for me; it didn’t ebb or flow, the character made the same mistakes over and over.
We were supposed to root for her stubbornness instead of her happy ending, and for her hurting a man merely because he was a man instead of loving him.
Eye rolling all the way home.
It was overly frustrating. Normally I like books that take place entirely inside the mind of the protagonist, or even that revolve around intensely unlikeable characters, but Sybylla wasn’t interesting enough to warrant that. She didn’t grow as a person either, instead headstrong and ranty and preachy all the way.
I will read more of Franklin’s work - I like her feminism, her way with words, the life within her prose. But this one didn’t work for me; it didn’t ebb or flow, the character made the same mistakes over and over.
We were supposed to root for her stubbornness instead of her happy ending, and for her hurting a man merely because he was a man instead of loving him.
Eye rolling all the way home.
I know I should judge this by the time period in which it was written, but I’m just sick of it. The author (a man) appears to think that poverty is more difficult for some women then others because they aren’t “suited” to it. Also it’s perfectly reasonable to accuse a woman of “flirting” at any time, even if she’s downright rude to a man. Yes, these are both historically accurate, but so annoying.
Okay, so it took me a really long time to finish this book because when I put it down, I never really felt the desire to pick it back up. It's not that it's entirely boring; it's just that it's interesting in a way that has nothing to do with plot. It's a fabulous slice of Australian bush life in the late nineteenth century. It's also a piece of early feminism. And that's what makes it fascinating. Plus, Miles Franklin was only 17 when she wrote this book. It shows. But still. It blows my mind.
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Like its main character, this book has very few redeeming qualities. A dull, constant stream of laments and fretful bellyaching, with little plot and nastily executed stereotypical characters.