An astonishingly mature first novel by a 16yo country girl in late 19th Century New South Wales. The book was a success on first publication in 1901, but wasn't republished until after Franklin's death in 1954; she was distressed by the widespread belief that her fictional characters were members of her own family, and withdrew it. All the same, she clearly identifies strongly with her heroine, Sybylla Melvyn.

This is a tale of a young girl's struggle to escape the monotony, drudgery and grinding poverty of rural life in the brief pioneering days of Australia. There, as in the more genteel world of Jane Austen, the only way a woman could improve her lot was through marriage. Sybylla will not accept this Faustian bargain. Feminism converges with modern romance: just like Elizabeth Bennet, Sybylla will only marry for love.

Sybylla is even more skeptical than Austen's heroine that such an exalted state can ever exist between man and woman. When the prospect of true love appears in the form of the handsome and wealthy young Harry Beecham, Sybylla behaves very skittishly, indeed she arses him about quite despicably.

All the same, I loved the eloquence and vitality of this novel, and will look for more of Franklin's work.

A classic of Australian literature.