Girls! Girls! Those of you who have hearts, and therefore wish for happiness, homes, and husbands by and by, never develop a reputation for being clever. When sixteen-year-old Miles Franklin began writing a thinly disguised novel about her youth in the Australian bush, she meant to 'show just how ridiculous the life around me would be as story material.' But when My Brilliant Career was published in 1901, it struck its author's native country like a small bomb and so scandalized Australians that Franklin demanded that it not be published again until ten years after her death. Today it remains electrifying for its passion, candor, and contrariness. Introduction by Sandra M. Gilbert