A beautiful new edition of the Australian classic. '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. 'Sybylla, with her touching charm, her impetuosity, her inappropriateness, ranks with the great romantic figures of the nineteenth century' The Times