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What does freedom mean when a woman wants more than the life others expect her to lead?
In Some Everyday Folk and Dawn, Miles Franklin gives ordinary Australians the attention they deserve. Daily lives carry serious questions: what may a woman become, and how much room does she have to choose? Against an Australian setting, the novel explores the pressures on women who want a life of their own.
The vote belongs to this larger struggle for freedom. Franklin brings the early years of women's voting rights into a world of neighbours, lively talk and everyday concerns. Country and town pull in different directions, while her direct, often funny style keeps social questions close to the people who live with them.
What you’ll discover
- Ordinary lives matter Meet everyday Australians whose voices and daily concerns deserve a place at the centre.
- A life of her own Explore the pressures that shape what a woman may be, choose and do.
- Beyond the ballot Consider women's voting rights as one part of a wider fight for independence.
- Country and town Feel the pull of country space, close neighbours and a rough kind of freedom.
- Humour with a purpose Enjoy lively speech, local expressions and sharp observations that give social questions a human voice.
Who will love it
Readers who love funny, talkative country novels, strong older women and spirited girls will enjoy this book. It also suits those drawn to early struggles for women's rights and rural Australian life around 1900.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Plain speaking opens a closed door
- Grandma's pride grows from family pain
- Dawn dreams of a larger life
- Love means sharing trust and work
- The narrator finds a possible knight
- New voters stir the whole town
- Neglect reveals the cost of inequality
- A ballot becomes a public recognition
- Freedom runs through ordinary lives
Who’s who
- The narratorAn unnamed actress in hiding, sick at heart and in body, who boards at Clay's and takes up matchmaking for Dawn.
- DawnNineteen, beautiful and outspoken, she hates dusty Noonoon and dreams of the stage, fine dresses and a bigger life.
- Grandma ClayMartha Clay, seventy-five, runs the boarding house and guards Dawn fiercely, remembering her days as a coach driver.
- Ernest BreslawA rich, kind young athlete, training in secret under an alias, who is shy with women and strong as an ox.
- AndrewDawn's sixteen-year-old cousin, grubby and quick-witted, who loves his dog Whiskey and avoids farm work.
- CarryThe lady's help, frank and hardworking, she wants a home of her own and will not be pushed around.
- Dora EwewordA big, good-natured farmer who sells pumpkins and hopes to win Dawn, with Grandma's full blessing.
- Mrs BrayA prosperous neighbour and tireless gossip who claims to champion women while belittling them.
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Some Everyday Folk and Dawn
by Miles Franklin · 1909
A sick actress in hiding sets out to marry off a beautiful, stubborn girl in a dusty valley town of melons.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“It’s not what things actually are, it’s everything they stand for.”
In short
What happens when a woman with a broken heart and a weak heart is sent to a country town to rest, and finds herself drawn into everyone else's lives? Some Everyday Folk and Dawn opens on a hot railway platform in Noonoon, a valley town of melons, spinning tin kangaroos and dusty streets.
Some Everyday Folk and Dawn at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 30 min5 h 10 min fast, 7 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 92,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1909by Miles Franklin
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A sick stranger sets her heart on Clay's
Doctors have sent the narrator to a country resort for the sake of a weak heart, so she steps off the express at Noonoon. Three tin kangaroos spin on a roof, and the streets are thick with red dust. At the hotel she hears of another house, Clay's, which stands beside the river. Everyone says the chief attraction is Dawn, the granddaughter who runs the place.
She writes to the owner, Mrs Martha Clay. The replies are short and prickly. Mrs Clay says she is too full, and then that she takes no boarders in winter, because even the best of them poke their noses everywhere. Each refusal makes the narrator more determined.
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Details
- First published
- 1909
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Franklin, Miles. Some Everyday Folk and Dawn. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-everyday-folk-and-dawn.
Franklin, M. (2026). Some everyday folk and Dawn. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-everyday-folk-and-dawn (Original work published 1909)
Franklin, Miles. Some Everyday Folk and Dawn. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-everyday-folk-and-dawn.
@book{franklin2026some,
author = {Franklin, Miles},
title = {Some Everyday Folk and Dawn},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-everyday-folk-and-dawn},
note = {First published 1909}
}
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What is Some Everyday Folk and Dawn about?
It follows a sick actress in hiding who boards at a river house in a New South Wales town and tries to arrange a good future for the beautiful Dawn, while the town fights its first election with women voting.
Who is the narrator of Some Everyday Folk and Dawn?
The narrator is an unnamed woman, once a stage star, now weak in health and in hiding from her old public. She keeps her profession from Grandma Clay, who thinks actresses are shameless.
When was Some Everyday Folk and Dawn written?
Miles Franklin dedicated the book to English men who believed in votes for women. It is set around the time Australian women won the vote, so the election scenes reflect real events and arguments of the period.
The author
Miles Franklin
1879–1954 · Australian novelist and feminist
Miles Franklin (1879–1954) was an Australian novelist and feminist. She was born in Talbingo, New South Wales, and died in Sydney. She also lived in the United States and England. Her novels include My Brilliant Career, published in 1901, and Some Everyday Folk and Dawn, published in 1909.
“It’s not what things actually are, it’s everything they stand for.”
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