But what is the series all about? Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n
Is it a new story?<\/p>\n
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\n Kate Mulvany and Phillipa Northeast Ian Routledge \/ Netflix<\/p>\n
Ian Routledge \/ Netflix \/ Netflix\n<\/p>\n
No \u2013 mostly (see further down for more on that). It\u2019s based on the book My Brilliant Career, written in 1901 by Australian author Miles Franklin. Franklin was just a teenager when she wrote the romance novel, apparently to entertain her friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about a young woman called Sybylla Melvyn, who dreams of becoming a writer. She\u2019s living in rural Australia and her father\u2019s drinking habits have a terrible impact on her family\u2019s fortunes. She\u2019s sent to live with her grandmother, but as she\u2019s trying to figure out how to live her dream of writing, her parents are trying to marry her off. Sybylla gets entangled with a local man, Harry Beecham \u2013 but will they marry?<\/p>\n
The book explores gender and misogyny (Sybylla faces many a glass ceiling) as well as romance, so there\u2019s tons here for a TV adaptation to explore.<\/p>\n
Intriguingly, because people believed at the time of the book\u2019s publication that it was based on Franklin\u2019s own life, she stopped it from being published until 10 years after her death. But it went on to become an Aussie classic.<\/p>\n
Is this the first adaptation of the book?<\/p>\n
Nope \u2013 you might have seen the 1979 film starring the late Sam Neill and Judy Davis, and there have also been stage adaptations.<\/p>\n
What else do we know about this new series?<\/p>\n
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\n My Brilliant Career\n<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the Netflix synopsis:\n<\/p>\n
Sybylla is a shockingly modern young woman with one searing ambition \u2013 to be a writer, while her family is determined to marry her off. With an irrepressible taste for fun, Sybylla breaks every convention of 1900 Australia as she searches for a story that will allow her to write her way to independence. For her, the choice between adventure or marriage seems easy, until she falls in love. Will Sybylla marry, or will she risk it all for a creative life?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the cast:<\/p>\n
Philippa Northeast (Territory, The Newsreader) as Sybylla
\nChristopher Chung (Slow Horses, Blitz) as Harry
\nJake Dunn (Renegade Nell) as Frank
\nAnna Chancellor (My Lady Jane, Outrageous) as Mrs Bossier\u00a0
\nGenevieve O\u2019Reilly (Andor, The Dry) as Helen
\nKate Mulvany (Hunters, Elvis) as Augusta, Harry\u2019s grandmother
\nMiah Madden (Paper Dolls, The Clearing) as Betty, a First Nations woman<\/p>\n
What has the cast said about it?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bonkers,\u201d Philippa Northeast told The Guardian<\/a>. \u201cYou really see this world through a teenage lens \u2013 which is true to Sybylla\u2019s spirit and Miles\u2019 age at the time she wrote the book \u2026 it reads like a teenager\u2019s diary entry, pretty much.\u201d<\/p>\n
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