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Capricornia
Reprinted January, 1949
510 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1938
39 people are currently reading
1008 people want to read
About the author
Xavier Herbert
23 books23 followersBorn Alfred Jackson in 1901 (the year of Australia's federation), Herbert was the illegitimate son of a social climbing mother and an engine driver. After studying pharmacy, Herbert moved to Melbourne where he became a magazine short story writer, drawing on his often fantastic views of boyhood, having grown up in Western Australia on the edge of the untamed outback. Herbert then moved to Darwin where he had several jobs including being "Protector of Aborigines", a colonial role in an age when many Aboriginal Australians could not vote or find work. This role increased his belief in the injustice of white Australians towards black Australians.
Herbert's first book, "Capricornia", was published in 1938. A dense epic set in the Northern Territory, it tells the story of a white man who takes in his criminal brother's half-black child The novel was released alongside the sesquicentenary celebrations of white Australia. Herbert sought to portray racism and class bigotry in Australia. The novel won the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal and was much feted overseas. "Capricornia" is often cited as a contender for the Great Australian Novel.
Having married his wife Sadie, Herbert struggled with his writing during the subsequent decades. His next two novels - "Seven Emus" and "Soldiers' Women" - had reasonable sales but were not critically acclaimed'; they have largely been dismissed by modern critics. Herbert followed these with a short story collection, "Larger than Life", and his autobiography "Disturbing Element" (1963). Herbert was regarded as an important part of Australia's literary fabric - and he did a lot to push his own mythology. His autobiography, as with interviews - was full of stories that historians have come to see as exaggerations if not outright fictions.
Herbert and Sadie eventually moved to Queensland, where Herbert could avoid the literary world. He continued to have affairs and, even after Sadie's death, the aged Herbert continued to seek solace with female friends. A passionate believer in Australian self-determinism, and a critic of bigotry (as well as fighting for Aboriginal causes, Herbert's wife was Jewish, and he portrayed the corruption of the rich and landed classes in his novels), Herbert's views nevertheless came to be seen as dated by the 1970s. What had once been radical had become - in the eyes of younger people - unpleasant. But his charm and magnetism made him a fascinating figure to the public.
In 1975 (at age 74), he published his fourth novel and sixth book, "Poor Fellow My Country". At 1,463 pages and around 852,000 words, it is the longest Australian novel ever written and arguably the longest novel in English to be published in a single volume. Set during the 1930s, the novel deals again with matters of Australian nationalism bigotry and corruption, in a deeply satirical vein. It sold well, although Nobel laureate Patrick White privately confessed he didn't read all of it.
In his last years, Herbert's reputation for difficulty increased. He criticised a Jewish member of his publishing firm for correcting him on points of Jewish life, and stunned an audience when he detailed Sadie's death to such a level that similarly bereaved attendees complained (Herbert became enraged and stormed out). In 1980, when Herbert told the University of Queensland that he would not stand for the national anthem when the Governor-General formally presented the Herbert's archives to the university library, staff removed all the chairs in advance so that everyone had to stand.
In 1984, at the age of 83, Herbert set out on a solo driving trip from his Queensland home to the interior of Australia. In May, he refused to be awarded an Order of Australia as it was a colonial honour, bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II. On reaching the "heart" of the country he loved so much, Herbert collapsed and was taken to Alice Springs Hospital, where he died on 10 November.
Herbert's first book, "Capricornia", was published in 1938. A dense epic set in the Northern Territory, it tells the story of a white man who takes in his criminal brother's half-black child The novel was released alongside the sesquicentenary celebrations of white Australia. Herbert sought to portray racism and class bigotry in Australia. The novel won the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal and was much feted overseas. "Capricornia" is often cited as a contender for the Great Australian Novel.
Having married his wife Sadie, Herbert struggled with his writing during the subsequent decades. His next two novels - "Seven Emus" and "Soldiers' Women" - had reasonable sales but were not critically acclaimed'; they have largely been dismissed by modern critics. Herbert followed these with a short story collection, "Larger than Life", and his autobiography "Disturbing Element" (1963). Herbert was regarded as an important part of Australia's literary fabric - and he did a lot to push his own mythology. His autobiography, as with interviews - was full of stories that historians have come to see as exaggerations if not outright fictions.
Herbert and Sadie eventually moved to Queensland, where Herbert could avoid the literary world. He continued to have affairs and, even after Sadie's death, the aged Herbert continued to seek solace with female friends. A passionate believer in Australian self-determinism, and a critic of bigotry (as well as fighting for Aboriginal causes, Herbert's wife was Jewish, and he portrayed the corruption of the rich and landed classes in his novels), Herbert's views nevertheless came to be seen as dated by the 1970s. What had once been radical had become - in the eyes of younger people - unpleasant. But his charm and magnetism made him a fascinating figure to the public.
In 1975 (at age 74), he published his fourth novel and sixth book, "Poor Fellow My Country". At 1,463 pages and around 852,000 words, it is the longest Australian novel ever written and arguably the longest novel in English to be published in a single volume. Set during the 1930s, the novel deals again with matters of Australian nationalism bigotry and corruption, in a deeply satirical vein. It sold well, although Nobel laureate Patrick White privately confessed he didn't read all of it.
In his last years, Herbert's reputation for difficulty increased. He criticised a Jewish member of his publishing firm for correcting him on points of Jewish life, and stunned an audience when he detailed Sadie's death to such a level that similarly bereaved attendees complained (Herbert became enraged and stormed out). In 1980, when Herbert told the University of Queensland that he would not stand for the national anthem when the Governor-General formally presented the Herbert's archives to the university library, staff removed all the chairs in advance so that everyone had to stand.
In 1984, at the age of 83, Herbert set out on a solo driving trip from his Queensland home to the interior of Australia. In May, he refused to be awarded an Order of Australia as it was a colonial honour, bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II. On reaching the "heart" of the country he loved so much, Herbert collapsed and was taken to Alice Springs Hospital, where he died on 10 November.
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February 3, 2025
Capricornia is lush in colours, rich in irony and written in juicy style.
Capricornia is a tropical part of Australia situated above the Tropic of Capricorn.
The history of the colonization is the history of bloodshed… Colonizers and natives… The carnivorous and herbivorous…
The northern coast gets slowly civilized… There is a small port town by the sea… One day in come two brothers…
The destiny of these brothers and their children is traced throughout the entire novel… The elder brother becomes a grazier and he has a daughter… The young brother turns into a rogue and criminal and he has a neglected halfcaste son… The Great War begins and ends…
Fornicating and boozing… Brawls and hostility… Lethal accidents and murders… Misfortune and misadventures… And the despised aborigines existing in the utter squalor and misery…
Foolishness, greed, lust, envy, hate are forces that ruin man all over the world.
Capricornia is a tropical part of Australia situated above the Tropic of Capricorn.
The history of the colonization is the history of bloodshed… Colonizers and natives… The carnivorous and herbivorous…
Then someone, discovering that they were hard-put for food since the warring had scared the game from their domains, conceived the idea of making friends with them and giving them several bags of flour spiced with arsenic. Nature is cruel. When dingoes come to a waterhole, the ancient kangaroos, not having teeth or ferocity sharp enough to defend their heritage, must relinquish it or die.
The northern coast gets slowly civilized… There is a small port town by the sea… One day in come two brothers…
…the brothers Oscar and Mark Shillingsworth arrived there. They were clerks, quite simple men, who came to join the Capricornian Government Service from a city of the South…
The destiny of these brothers and their children is traced throughout the entire novel… The elder brother becomes a grazier and he has a daughter… The young brother turns into a rogue and criminal and he has a neglected halfcaste son… The Great War begins and ends…
The Great War was ended; foe was embracing foe, but the Ethiopian had not changed his skin, and therefore was still contemptible.
Fornicating and boozing… Brawls and hostility… Lethal accidents and murders… Misfortune and misadventures… And the despised aborigines existing in the utter squalor and misery…
In the bush the blacks were dying like flies of consumption and measles and leprosy and gonorrhoea for the sake of a few pounds’ worth of facilities to treat them. Oh, the paltriness!
Foolishness, greed, lust, envy, hate are forces that ruin man all over the world.
May 7, 2019
A great novel, although one that must be read in context if it is to be read at all.
Released in the 150th anniversary year of Australian settlement by white people, and timed for one of the first major Aboriginal "Days of Mourning" (itself strategically linked to the white holiday Australia Day), Capricornia is an angry book. Angry about what white people have done to the natives of the land, angry about the system that has ground down not just Aboriginal but Chinese, Jewish, uneducated, poor, free-thinkers. Angry about the everyday acts of corruption and greed so often concealed behind paper-thin disguises that others choose not to interrogate so as not to upset their own worldview.
Xavier Herbert could be a very angry man on these topics, and when his own voice comes through - either in the narration or in the characters who are most clearly his mouthpieces - we get a sense of why this book riled many of the more conservative white people of the day. (A few months after Capricornia was published, there were calls to lynch a black man accused of raping two white women; Herbert - now a celebrity, if an iconoclastic one - responded with an article entitled Lynch 'em in which he put forward a bold and sarcastic argument noting how the occasional attacks of black upon white were seen as obscene crimes, while the daily acts of molestation committed by white men upon black women were accepted, or at the worst, merely tolerated. )
The novel brings together the key traditions of Herbert's literary life, namely the Dickensian mode, so clear in his peripatetic (not quite picaresque) narrative and his delight in small moments of wit and character insight amongst a broader canvas, and the bush yarn tradition embodied by Henry Lawson. But it is not - as someone once said of another of my favourite authors - merely "much incident and little wit". Herbert is endlessly amusing. He is a fascinating, engaging writer, who resounds off every single page. The narrative voice interjects, or turns sarcastic, or turns sentimental. Words, phrases, dialects, zig and zag in a cacophonous clangour. (One contemporary reviewer, punning on the original name of the Ballarat area "Australia Felix" which Herbert mentions several times, called the book "Australia Prolix". And he wasn't entirely wrong.) Whether describing the plight of one person in a barren landscape over several weeks, or a tightknit sequence in which a few dozen characters occupy a courthouse for one single afternoon, Herbert's skill rises to the occasion.
And although the characters - in the manner of both Dickens and the more superficial of Lawson's stories - usually represent types, their inability to engage in objective thought is a core part of Herbert's thesis. His ideology of humanity is much more cynical than Dickens'. Whereas this makes lack of dimensionality a flaw in the Englishman's narratives, it is a strength here. While I say his characters lack objective thought, they do not lack interiority. Their actions are always in keeping with themselves and their circumstances and what they believe to be their great insight and intellect. And the character of Norman Shillingsworth, as much as he is the generic Nicholas Nickleby hero, is utterly lovable and holds the centre of the book together with his naivete, compassion, bouts of temper, and the great gulf we come to recognise between his personhood and the "half-caste" stereotype with which he is saddled.
But, as we often must say of books that are now coming to the end of their first century, there are a couple of flaws. And, by golly, they're substantial. First of all (I won't harp on about it) this is a book about men. Miles Franklin, the great female Australian author, noted this in her review when the book was first released, sarcastically thanking Herbert for writing a "textbook for practicing feminists." While Tocky and Heather and Fat Anna and Ma McLash have their places in the narrative, they are ultimately mothers/wives/whores/objects, but this is very much in keeping with the world Herbert inhabited, and the boundaries of his own mind. Although Herbert was always self-consciously aiming for the literary, he came from the "Boy's Own" tradition, and many of his short stories that pre-date Capricornia fall easily into this zone. I recommend interested readers track down Frances De Groen's exquisite biography of Herbert for a greater understanding of this, and so much more.
But while that is an inherent flaw in the narrative, as notable in 1938 as it is today, the second challenge is harder. That exactly what made Herbert "progressive" for his age makes him confronting now. Characters use words and phrases we find utterly appalling when it comes to discussing race. Well, this we can live with; after all, they are the words of the characters whom Herbert is usually destroying with his pin-prick satire, not his own thoughts. Full-blooded Indigenous characters are left as stereotypes. Well, this is true, but so are the white people with the possible exception of Oscar. The problem lies more in Herbert's underlying ideology, which was - in short - tied to a sense of alienation, even rejection from Britain, the mother country, and his idea, popular in the early 20th century, that black people were honest and true, perhaps more true than whites, but ultimately doomed by the mere facts of evolution and cultural growth. What made Herbert challenging to his countrymen was that he also thought white people were, to no small degree, feckless and horrible. He believed that mixed-race people seemed to be the solution, but in a worryingly racist way by our standards where he links "blood" to identity, and certainly feels that mixed-race people have a nobility that their "full-blooded" compatriots lacked. It's messy, but again I direct you to the biography and other contextual documents to understand that. Reading this as an historical document published during one of the first years for the Aboriginal rights movement, which would have its climaxes in the 1960s, 1980s and (we hope) the first half of the 21st century, is to delight in its sweep of the magnificent land, in Herbert's cruel attacks on a very cruel people, the moments of truth that are found in the discussion on race and humankind, and simply as a fantastic story.
I continue my journey to find the "Great Australian Novel" and I must ultimately conclude that, for all its incredible strengths, Capricornia is not it. It's closer than almost anything I've yet read, in that it captures a country at a moment while also betraying something baked-in to the premise of that country across time. But Herbert doesn't quite reach what I'm after. Instead, as the late poet Mudrooroo says in his 1990 introduction to the book, I'm going to call this the "Great Australian Yarn". It deserves that title, unequivocally.
Released in the 150th anniversary year of Australian settlement by white people, and timed for one of the first major Aboriginal "Days of Mourning" (itself strategically linked to the white holiday Australia Day), Capricornia is an angry book. Angry about what white people have done to the natives of the land, angry about the system that has ground down not just Aboriginal but Chinese, Jewish, uneducated, poor, free-thinkers. Angry about the everyday acts of corruption and greed so often concealed behind paper-thin disguises that others choose not to interrogate so as not to upset their own worldview.
Xavier Herbert could be a very angry man on these topics, and when his own voice comes through - either in the narration or in the characters who are most clearly his mouthpieces - we get a sense of why this book riled many of the more conservative white people of the day. (A few months after Capricornia was published, there were calls to lynch a black man accused of raping two white women; Herbert - now a celebrity, if an iconoclastic one - responded with an article entitled Lynch 'em in which he put forward a bold and sarcastic argument noting how the occasional attacks of black upon white were seen as obscene crimes, while the daily acts of molestation committed by white men upon black women were accepted, or at the worst, merely tolerated. )
The novel brings together the key traditions of Herbert's literary life, namely the Dickensian mode, so clear in his peripatetic (not quite picaresque) narrative and his delight in small moments of wit and character insight amongst a broader canvas, and the bush yarn tradition embodied by Henry Lawson. But it is not - as someone once said of another of my favourite authors - merely "much incident and little wit". Herbert is endlessly amusing. He is a fascinating, engaging writer, who resounds off every single page. The narrative voice interjects, or turns sarcastic, or turns sentimental. Words, phrases, dialects, zig and zag in a cacophonous clangour. (One contemporary reviewer, punning on the original name of the Ballarat area "Australia Felix" which Herbert mentions several times, called the book "Australia Prolix". And he wasn't entirely wrong.) Whether describing the plight of one person in a barren landscape over several weeks, or a tightknit sequence in which a few dozen characters occupy a courthouse for one single afternoon, Herbert's skill rises to the occasion.
And although the characters - in the manner of both Dickens and the more superficial of Lawson's stories - usually represent types, their inability to engage in objective thought is a core part of Herbert's thesis. His ideology of humanity is much more cynical than Dickens'. Whereas this makes lack of dimensionality a flaw in the Englishman's narratives, it is a strength here. While I say his characters lack objective thought, they do not lack interiority. Their actions are always in keeping with themselves and their circumstances and what they believe to be their great insight and intellect. And the character of Norman Shillingsworth, as much as he is the generic Nicholas Nickleby hero, is utterly lovable and holds the centre of the book together with his naivete, compassion, bouts of temper, and the great gulf we come to recognise between his personhood and the "half-caste" stereotype with which he is saddled.
But, as we often must say of books that are now coming to the end of their first century, there are a couple of flaws. And, by golly, they're substantial. First of all (I won't harp on about it) this is a book about men. Miles Franklin, the great female Australian author, noted this in her review when the book was first released, sarcastically thanking Herbert for writing a "textbook for practicing feminists." While Tocky and Heather and Fat Anna and Ma McLash have their places in the narrative, they are ultimately mothers/wives/whores/objects, but this is very much in keeping with the world Herbert inhabited, and the boundaries of his own mind. Although Herbert was always self-consciously aiming for the literary, he came from the "Boy's Own" tradition, and many of his short stories that pre-date Capricornia fall easily into this zone. I recommend interested readers track down Frances De Groen's exquisite biography of Herbert for a greater understanding of this, and so much more.
But while that is an inherent flaw in the narrative, as notable in 1938 as it is today, the second challenge is harder. That exactly what made Herbert "progressive" for his age makes him confronting now. Characters use words and phrases we find utterly appalling when it comes to discussing race. Well, this we can live with; after all, they are the words of the characters whom Herbert is usually destroying with his pin-prick satire, not his own thoughts. Full-blooded Indigenous characters are left as stereotypes. Well, this is true, but so are the white people with the possible exception of Oscar. The problem lies more in Herbert's underlying ideology, which was - in short - tied to a sense of alienation, even rejection from Britain, the mother country, and his idea, popular in the early 20th century, that black people were honest and true, perhaps more true than whites, but ultimately doomed by the mere facts of evolution and cultural growth. What made Herbert challenging to his countrymen was that he also thought white people were, to no small degree, feckless and horrible. He believed that mixed-race people seemed to be the solution, but in a worryingly racist way by our standards where he links "blood" to identity, and certainly feels that mixed-race people have a nobility that their "full-blooded" compatriots lacked. It's messy, but again I direct you to the biography and other contextual documents to understand that. Reading this as an historical document published during one of the first years for the Aboriginal rights movement, which would have its climaxes in the 1960s, 1980s and (we hope) the first half of the 21st century, is to delight in its sweep of the magnificent land, in Herbert's cruel attacks on a very cruel people, the moments of truth that are found in the discussion on race and humankind, and simply as a fantastic story.
I continue my journey to find the "Great Australian Novel" and I must ultimately conclude that, for all its incredible strengths, Capricornia is not it. It's closer than almost anything I've yet read, in that it captures a country at a moment while also betraying something baked-in to the premise of that country across time. But Herbert doesn't quite reach what I'm after. Instead, as the late poet Mudrooroo says in his 1990 introduction to the book, I'm going to call this the "Great Australian Yarn". It deserves that title, unequivocally.
September 5, 2014
I first read Capricornia by Xavier Herbert (1901-1984) more than 30 years ago when I was majoring in English and was astonished at the scope and daring of the story. It’s a powerful exposé of race relations in Australia, delivered palatably in the form of a most engaging story. When I saw it in Dymocks as an audio book and had a book voucher to spend, I didn’t hesitate, and I’ve been listening to it in the car on the way to work for weeks now, because it’s a long book, 23 hours listening time on 20 CDs.
Written early in the 1930s but not published till just before World War Ii, Capricornia is mostly set in the interwar years, depicting life in the Northern Territory through the story of successive generations of families both black and white. It begins with the story of the Shillingsworth brothers, Mark (the tearaway) and Oscar(the respectable one). Mark goes on to be a sometime father to Norman (Nawnim i.e. No Name) who - handicapped by his mixed race identity in a racist society – is raised as a white man but never treated as one outside his family. (Not even within it sometimes, as when his cousin Marigold doesn’t want to have him attend her wedding).
To read the rest of my review please visit
http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/201...
Written early in the 1930s but not published till just before World War Ii, Capricornia is mostly set in the interwar years, depicting life in the Northern Territory through the story of successive generations of families both black and white. It begins with the story of the Shillingsworth brothers, Mark (the tearaway) and Oscar(the respectable one). Mark goes on to be a sometime father to Norman (Nawnim i.e. No Name) who - handicapped by his mixed race identity in a racist society – is raised as a white man but never treated as one outside his family. (Not even within it sometimes, as when his cousin Marigold doesn’t want to have him attend her wedding).
To read the rest of my review please visit
http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/201...
September 22, 2013
A sweeping drama about the early days of the Northern Territory (Capricornia).
Herbert was a obviously a great lover of Dickens and copied much of his style in this drama. The towns, based on actual places have been changed, but if you know the Top End, you can locate them easily. Most importantly, are the character's names - they are pure Dickensian. The State Prosecutor is called Mr Thumbscough (Thumbs-screw) and so on. Even the narrative follows a Dickensian format - except for the very beginning: various scenes involving minor characters (clowns in the Shakespearean sense) developing the main theme of inequality of the two races, with one story becoming the dominant in the 2nd half of the book & supplying the dramatic conclusion. All that was missing was the page turning introduction.
The main premise is the distinction and ultimate acceptance (if the region is to develop) of reducing the difference between European and Indigenous tribes and embracing the strengths of both, and the outcome of an ever increasing half-caste population. Herbert considers the half-castes - the "New Men" that will make the place a strong and noble region. The tyrannical weather is ever present and is a common cause of failure, along with the fickleness of the southern & eastern states - which until the 2nd World War was true (this book was published in 1938).
I think Australians, or Aussie-philes will get a lot more out this book than the rest of the international readership, but it is worth working your way this thick tone - at your leisure. I started out listening to this as an audiobook, and only converted to he printed page when I found less time to listen & really wanted to complete the sweeping drama.
Herbert was a obviously a great lover of Dickens and copied much of his style in this drama. The towns, based on actual places have been changed, but if you know the Top End, you can locate them easily. Most importantly, are the character's names - they are pure Dickensian. The State Prosecutor is called Mr Thumbscough (Thumbs-screw) and so on. Even the narrative follows a Dickensian format - except for the very beginning: various scenes involving minor characters (clowns in the Shakespearean sense) developing the main theme of inequality of the two races, with one story becoming the dominant in the 2nd half of the book & supplying the dramatic conclusion. All that was missing was the page turning introduction.
The main premise is the distinction and ultimate acceptance (if the region is to develop) of reducing the difference between European and Indigenous tribes and embracing the strengths of both, and the outcome of an ever increasing half-caste population. Herbert considers the half-castes - the "New Men" that will make the place a strong and noble region. The tyrannical weather is ever present and is a common cause of failure, along with the fickleness of the southern & eastern states - which until the 2nd World War was true (this book was published in 1938).
I think Australians, or Aussie-philes will get a lot more out this book than the rest of the international readership, but it is worth working your way this thick tone - at your leisure. I started out listening to this as an audiobook, and only converted to he printed page when I found less time to listen & really wanted to complete the sweeping drama.
July 31, 2019
First published in 1938, this debut novel by author Xavier Herbert was said to be the inspiration for the epic Baz Luhrmann film 'Australia', starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Perhaps so, but this book, set in the far north of Western Australia, in the fictional region of Capricornia, is almost entirely about the treatment of, and attitudes towards, the indigenous Aborigine population and, to a lesser extent, other ethnic minorities (Chinese, Greek, Italian). What is so incredibly hypocritical is that, throughout the book, 'white men' automatically assume that they can take an Aboriginal woman (referred to as 'lubras') and use and discard them at will - any offspring that happen to come from such relationships are then dubbed with a series of denigratory titles (half-caste, quadroon etc. depending on the percentage of 'white' heritage) and generally looked down upon as untrustworthy etc. Nonetheless, the book goes on to depict many of these mixed race people themselves adopting a superior attitude towards the Aborigines and other nationalities.
The writing and characterisation is excellent throughout, this particular extract summing up the essence of the book for me, evoking feelings enough to make you want to cry:-
"When the white people came from the quarters to the hospital dining-room they passed the Lazaret but did not see the [leper] girls. Laughing, they trooped into the dining-room, to sit at a gleaming cloth before bright silver and fragrant flowers. The matron took up a little bell in plump white hands and rang imperiously. In came brownish-handed Tocky with the soup and soon was deftly lifting, deftly setting down, speeding on bare prehensile toes, scarcely breathing for fear of giving offence, wide-eyed and watchful, open-lipped with cherry tip of tongue between her teeth. Everyone around the shaded lights looked beautiful, but none so beautiful as swarthy Tocky; yet no-one looked at her, no-one thanked her, no-one even realised she was there breathing, feeling, living as they were; for she was Coloured, and hence unseeable, not even to be thought of."
A superlative read - 9/10.
The writing and characterisation is excellent throughout, this particular extract summing up the essence of the book for me, evoking feelings enough to make you want to cry:-
"When the white people came from the quarters to the hospital dining-room they passed the Lazaret but did not see the [leper] girls. Laughing, they trooped into the dining-room, to sit at a gleaming cloth before bright silver and fragrant flowers. The matron took up a little bell in plump white hands and rang imperiously. In came brownish-handed Tocky with the soup and soon was deftly lifting, deftly setting down, speeding on bare prehensile toes, scarcely breathing for fear of giving offence, wide-eyed and watchful, open-lipped with cherry tip of tongue between her teeth. Everyone around the shaded lights looked beautiful, but none so beautiful as swarthy Tocky; yet no-one looked at her, no-one thanked her, no-one even realised she was there breathing, feeling, living as they were; for she was Coloured, and hence unseeable, not even to be thought of."
A superlative read - 9/10.
September 14, 2025
Three things about me: 1. I’m a sucker for a Western, 2. I’m a nut for Australian history, and 3. I love the Top End. I really enjoyed this book - it definitely got better as it went along. It’s certainly of its time and place: If you can get past the really horrid racist language and the assimilationist undertones then it is worth a read for a number of reasons. What needs to be kept in mind is that Xavier Herbert believed that Australia needed to abandon British race-patriotism and integrate First Nations culture into our consciousness to produce a new and more robust national identity. He also believe that this needed to have a genetic component, which is where the especially icky, eugenics stuff comes in. On the other hand, for someone who worked in as the “Protector for Aborigines” in the Northern Territory in the early 20th century, it is surprisingly damning of Australian racism - both towards Indigenous people and Asian-Australians. At times it reads as a stark indictment of White Australia and the contradictory assumptions built into settler-colonial racism. Then the eugenics comes in and you have to just put your head in your hands and mutter “what on earth?”.
The prose is very strong. There are some beautiful descriptions of the landscape. The dialogue is dated but vivid, and there are gripping sequences that come alive in your mind as you read. I also appreciated how important small details throughout the book became by the end. This is a multi-decade-spanning epic, and what seem like weird non-sequitur characters at the beginning serve their purpose (as they should in any decent book).
If you are interested in Australian frontier history, you must read this book. Strikingly it was written only two years after the last recorded massacre of Aboriginal people on the Northern Territory, and does not shy away from depicting this kind of violence (something that disappeared from the Australian consciousness through the Great Australian Silence, and despite the magnificent efforts of historians like Lyndall Ryan, Marcia Langton and Henry Reynolds still seems to be something most Australians are not willing to remember). Worth a read for sure!
The prose is very strong. There are some beautiful descriptions of the landscape. The dialogue is dated but vivid, and there are gripping sequences that come alive in your mind as you read. I also appreciated how important small details throughout the book became by the end. This is a multi-decade-spanning epic, and what seem like weird non-sequitur characters at the beginning serve their purpose (as they should in any decent book).
If you are interested in Australian frontier history, you must read this book. Strikingly it was written only two years after the last recorded massacre of Aboriginal people on the Northern Territory, and does not shy away from depicting this kind of violence (something that disappeared from the Australian consciousness through the Great Australian Silence, and despite the magnificent efforts of historians like Lyndall Ryan, Marcia Langton and Henry Reynolds still seems to be something most Australians are not willing to remember). Worth a read for sure!
February 26, 2011
An unpleasant book, but I think important to read, for the way that people thought then. Few white writers now could be that honest about prejudice. They can condemn it with sickeningly violent examples, but seem to miss their own complicity, or avoid the hypocrisy that nurtured its existence in the first place. Herbert the author faces it head on, as an unapologetic white man of those times, and his appropriation of the voices of others is racist in itself. But he has laid it out for all to see and for this we can thank him.
June 7, 2012
Capricornia offers an excellent view of Australia at its founding and in the early years, especially in the way it treated its aboriginal population. Herbert weaves an excellent tale over a 30-40 year span and presents not only the story of a family's growth (as well as some other characters who rise and fall around the same time), but also the appaling treatment of the 'first inhabitants'. A telling tale that has the guts to put on paper the truly pathetic way the government and citizens of Australia treated them, while countries like Canada and the United States bury this aspect of their country's past (and present).
It is no wonder that Herbert won an award for this story, as it touches on so many of the key aspects of rural Australian life, while keeping the Australian purity of the language, flora, fauna, and peoples. Written in its early years, Herbert gathers enough of the Australian northern area to show just how the rurals lived, while life in Victoria and the National Capital Region progress with ease.
I am intrigued to get my hands on another Herbert book and see how powerful his books can be. I am reminded of Bryce Courtenay when I read this book, though I suppose Courtenay should be the one compared to Herbert, in a literary respect.
Kudos Mr. Herbert. Sensational work!
It is no wonder that Herbert won an award for this story, as it touches on so many of the key aspects of rural Australian life, while keeping the Australian purity of the language, flora, fauna, and peoples. Written in its early years, Herbert gathers enough of the Australian northern area to show just how the rurals lived, while life in Victoria and the National Capital Region progress with ease.
I am intrigued to get my hands on another Herbert book and see how powerful his books can be. I am reminded of Bryce Courtenay when I read this book, though I suppose Courtenay should be the one compared to Herbert, in a literary respect.
Kudos Mr. Herbert. Sensational work!
October 12, 2015
This is one of those books which have languished on my shelf for years! An Australian classic that took on a challenging view on the treatment Aborigines received by the invading whites. The first third of the book was a bit slow as author sets up the world of Capricornia; beginning with the first exploration until our main protagonist, Norman Shillingsworth, was born. Despite its slow beginning, author shows his passion for the Aborigine people and was very clear in his comments how unjust the Aborigines have been treated (like animals). Their culture is different but was in no way, Uncivilised. In fact, the way they have deteriorated as a people is because of the treatment they have received from the invading ‘civilisation’. He, then, proceeded to show just how different things could be, if only, an Aborigine person is treated with respect and given all the opportunities accorded to a white person. Norman Shillingsworth is born of a white father and an Aborigine mother. With an inauspicious beginning, he came under the protection of his uncle and was taken away from Capricornia. Later on, he appeared in the story as a ‘civilised’ person with education and neatly pressed slacks. As he returned to Capricornia where everyone but himself knows his background, he began to struggle with who he really is and society’s view of him. The struggle is real and whilst the book does not provide the full solution, it does suggest a beginning of reconciliation. Not just between the two clashing cultures in society but also as it is found inside oneself.
June 11, 2009
This novel seems influenced by The Grapes of Wrath; its comparable to Catch 22 with its huge cast and removed, bemused narrator while it seems to have influenced Tim Winton’s colloquial humour and affection for the bush rascal. Long patches of crude sermonising in the middle. It seems as if he ran out of puff. But he comes back compellingly. The other writer he reminds me of is Cormac McCarthy, because of the passion for the landscape that they share and the harshness.
October 9, 2011
I've read this twice and still can't believe it's not rated as one of the best books ever. Guess that's what personal taste is all about. For me every paragraph is gripping, entertaining, informative, genius... etc. Australian true history is a romp. Who needs fantasy when you such a colourful history. Australia has yet to come to terms with its indigenous people and culture. This should be on every Aussie's read list.
November 21, 2022
Not a fan. I eventually got into the story but it took at least half of the book before I cared to follow any character's journey. I'm not sure if it's Australian slang or just older writing but I felt that many of the terms and phrases I didn't understand, and assumed were likely racial slurs. The author didn't even seem to care about his own characters by constantly killing them off casually or making them irredeemable.
September 7, 2012
An uncomfortable read which must have been shocking in its day for its honesty about race relations and the abuse of Aboriginals and immigrant labour by white Australians in the deep north. The story is engaging and humorous at times (particularly its treatment of the police and legal system) but ultimately ends tragically.
January 28, 2019
Another long read, this book isn't one to try to fly through, it's slow going. But the writing is good, a strange mix of detached wry observation mixed with occasional sympathy for the characters. Capricornia is a sprawling tale of the Northern Territory across fifty years or so, and a large cast of characters. There are no truly likeable characters, but most of the characters have some likeable aspects. It's cynical and brutal when it comes to race relations, portraying the racism and hypocrisy of the era with frankness. At times, I grew bored by the slow pacing and lack of any truly likeable protagonists. I don't know that it's a book I'd ever reread, but it feels like an important document of an era.
October 14, 2024
Having never read this classic of Australian literature it was time to make amends. It is hard to believe that this book written in 1938 is so relevant still today. Apart from the stories of early settlers in the north of Australia and their complete disregard for the welfare of the original inhabitants - the question becomes....how far have we come? Almost 90 years later and we still cannot recognise an indigenous Voice in our constitution. It is a truly shameful history. Herbert displays the richness and vitality of this time - but also its cruelty and inhumanity
October 18, 2017
This novel is an Australian classic, and deservedly so - epic in outlook, Dickensian in the best senses of that word, and forward looking for its time, Capricornia is not only a moral tale for the citizens of Australia, it is one of the great books about the "Deep North" of this continent.
Capricornia is the inter-generational tale of the extended Shillingsworth family, and their life in Capricornia, a fictional area of what is recognisably the Northern Territory of Australia (Herbert also fictionalizes the names of the cities in the South - Batman for Melbourne, Flinders for Sydney and Churchton for Adelaide). Herbert, although he wrote this novel while living in London, had spent several years in Darwin as protector of Aborigines, so a lot of the raw material for the book would have been garnered first-hand.
While the book follows the paths of the two Shillingsworth brothers, Oscar and Mark, from their first arrival in Capricornia, the book mainly deals with racial issues. Mark fathers an illegitimate son - Norman - by an Aboriginal woman and much of the book revolves around how he and other people with Aboriginal blood are treated by the government and the people of Capricornia.
Herbert succeeds in showing that the way the Indigenous people of the country are marginalized, bastardized, ignored and used up and thrown away is not only morally repugnant, it actually is stunting the natural growth of the country and all the people in it, white, coloured and Aboriginal. Herbert's strong views on the situation come out again and again, with set-piece scenes that show the ridiculous nature of the situation, and speeches explaining (at one stage to Norman, who is struggling to understand his heritage) how the Aboriginals are a noble race cruelly crushed under the white mans boot. This thinking, natural to us today, was no doubt in advance of the majority when the book was published - Herbert had learnt well from his experiences up North.
The novel owes quite a debt to Dickens - crowded with the most amazing characters who revel in the most fantastic names - Joe Ballest the Railway Ganger, The Reverend Theodore Hollower, Magistrate Paddy Larsney, Police Trooper O'Crimnell, to name a few. There is plenty of humour throughout what is essentially a tragic tale for the main protagonists. Their travails against corruption, drunkenness, and against the land itself come over the course of the book to seem futile - whenever someone gets ahead, they are dragged back to earth with a thump, either by nature or the wiles of their fellow man.
One other major character in the novel is the countryside itself - Herbert obviously loved the countryside just as much as he hated the injustices dished out to the native inhabitants, and he brings it to life in all its harshness and beauty.
This book is immensly readable, with great moments of high farce and high drama. While the narrative flags in some places, with characters moved abruptly out of the story when they are no longer serving a useful purpose, the language never loses a vibrancy and the touch of the true north.
Highly recommended.
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
Capricornia is the inter-generational tale of the extended Shillingsworth family, and their life in Capricornia, a fictional area of what is recognisably the Northern Territory of Australia (Herbert also fictionalizes the names of the cities in the South - Batman for Melbourne, Flinders for Sydney and Churchton for Adelaide). Herbert, although he wrote this novel while living in London, had spent several years in Darwin as protector of Aborigines, so a lot of the raw material for the book would have been garnered first-hand.
While the book follows the paths of the two Shillingsworth brothers, Oscar and Mark, from their first arrival in Capricornia, the book mainly deals with racial issues. Mark fathers an illegitimate son - Norman - by an Aboriginal woman and much of the book revolves around how he and other people with Aboriginal blood are treated by the government and the people of Capricornia.
Herbert succeeds in showing that the way the Indigenous people of the country are marginalized, bastardized, ignored and used up and thrown away is not only morally repugnant, it actually is stunting the natural growth of the country and all the people in it, white, coloured and Aboriginal. Herbert's strong views on the situation come out again and again, with set-piece scenes that show the ridiculous nature of the situation, and speeches explaining (at one stage to Norman, who is struggling to understand his heritage) how the Aboriginals are a noble race cruelly crushed under the white mans boot. This thinking, natural to us today, was no doubt in advance of the majority when the book was published - Herbert had learnt well from his experiences up North.
The novel owes quite a debt to Dickens - crowded with the most amazing characters who revel in the most fantastic names - Joe Ballest the Railway Ganger, The Reverend Theodore Hollower, Magistrate Paddy Larsney, Police Trooper O'Crimnell, to name a few. There is plenty of humour throughout what is essentially a tragic tale for the main protagonists. Their travails against corruption, drunkenness, and against the land itself come over the course of the book to seem futile - whenever someone gets ahead, they are dragged back to earth with a thump, either by nature or the wiles of their fellow man.
One other major character in the novel is the countryside itself - Herbert obviously loved the countryside just as much as he hated the injustices dished out to the native inhabitants, and he brings it to life in all its harshness and beauty.
This book is immensly readable, with great moments of high farce and high drama. While the narrative flags in some places, with characters moved abruptly out of the story when they are no longer serving a useful purpose, the language never loses a vibrancy and the touch of the true north.
Highly recommended.
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
April 16, 2020
This is one of the most gripping, brutal books I’ve ever read. A stunning indictment of Australian society and its pitiless treatment of its indigenous peoples. Herbert was an old fashioned liberal nationalist, and some of his ideas about the compatibility of colonial culture and indigenous spirituality are a little vexed. But his humanity and his steely moral gaze are utterly compelling. I even loved the rants that some of the characters go on—Herbert has an acidic pen, and etches away the fragile little lies we Australians still tell ourselves about our free, fair and democratic society. He is not just a wicked polemicist, though. He is also a brilliant storyteller, and I would recommend this exciting, sprawling adventure to anyone.
December 16, 2013
Capricornia is the lengthy, epic tale spanning over generations in what we call 'the top end' (the Northern Territory) of Australia. I'm not even sure where to start. So many characters, so many intertwining storylines but all flowed well and made sense. It is the story of the trials and tribulations people who lived there, the white Australians, the Aboriginals, the half caste, the Chinese and all the rest. It is a very real look at the history of Australia, and how the North was very different to the South.
If you don't know Australia, I can try to sum up the differences for you. The climate and landscape are very different in the North compared to the South - instead of four seasons there are two, Wet and Dry. Both are extreme. The North is mainly desert, hardly habitable for cattle. And yet there are many who live there and try to 'make a go of it'. It's not an easy life.
The story begins when two of the Shillingsworth brothers move up North and join the Capricornian Government Service. Oscar becomes a gentleman but Mark is restless in his new role. He wants to be fixing engines, not observing them. It's not long before he takes up with Ned Krater, a trepang fisherman, who introduces him to all the temptations of Capricornia. Mark soon bears a son to an Aboriginal woman, a 'lubra' and it is this son, Norman, who struggles to find his place in Capricornia. Raised by his Uncle Oscar back down South as a white man, but regarded as a black once home in Capricornia Norman does not know where he fits in.
As well as Norman, we meet the O'Cannons, a white man with an Aboriginal wife and a tribe of kids, the Differs, a white man raising a half caste daughter, the McLashs, the mother who runs the local store and the son who drives the locomotive, and a colourful cast of other characters. And there is the underlying mystery - where is Mark Shillingsworth?
I thought Capricornia was a fantastic novel and felt a little shocked by the end (in hindsight I think I should have seen it coming!). It is an important piece of Australian history that we should remember, although I have to agree with the following line from the novel : How could anyone understand the ways of Capricornia unless he lived there? which is exactly how I felt when trying to explain this novel to my friends.
If you don't know Australia, I can try to sum up the differences for you. The climate and landscape are very different in the North compared to the South - instead of four seasons there are two, Wet and Dry. Both are extreme. The North is mainly desert, hardly habitable for cattle. And yet there are many who live there and try to 'make a go of it'. It's not an easy life.
The story begins when two of the Shillingsworth brothers move up North and join the Capricornian Government Service. Oscar becomes a gentleman but Mark is restless in his new role. He wants to be fixing engines, not observing them. It's not long before he takes up with Ned Krater, a trepang fisherman, who introduces him to all the temptations of Capricornia. Mark soon bears a son to an Aboriginal woman, a 'lubra' and it is this son, Norman, who struggles to find his place in Capricornia. Raised by his Uncle Oscar back down South as a white man, but regarded as a black once home in Capricornia Norman does not know where he fits in.
As well as Norman, we meet the O'Cannons, a white man with an Aboriginal wife and a tribe of kids, the Differs, a white man raising a half caste daughter, the McLashs, the mother who runs the local store and the son who drives the locomotive, and a colourful cast of other characters. And there is the underlying mystery - where is Mark Shillingsworth?
I thought Capricornia was a fantastic novel and felt a little shocked by the end (in hindsight I think I should have seen it coming!). It is an important piece of Australian history that we should remember, although I have to agree with the following line from the novel : How could anyone understand the ways of Capricornia unless he lived there? which is exactly how I felt when trying to explain this novel to my friends.
September 13, 2022
'Capricornia' is a giant of an Australian novel, not so much because of the quality of the fiction, but more as a landmark of how our national identity has been shaped, informed, warped and propagated with race at the very core of its being. In a country where colonial interactions with the First Nations people have been so destructive, so invasive, so dominated by racist exploitation, stories that explore this fundamental aspect of what it means to be Australian need to be read. That Herbert wrote such a sprawling Dickensian epic on this theme, and did so at a time when race and sexuality where minefields for local authors, is in itself a major achievement. That his novel is so entertaining yet also shocking, comical yet tragic, will come as a surprise to those who sit down to read it. Sadly, and this is where the catch lies, a novel of Tolstoyan length written from a whitefella's perspective over 80 years ago will struggle to gain the audience it might deserve today. 'Capricornia' is, like some of Herbert's characters, a voice in the wilderness, struggling to find a place in a hostile world.
In the introductory paragraph to this review I referred to the novel's Dickensian nature and there is no doubt that Herbert was influenced by the famous Victorian novelist. There are the obvious links between the English author and his Australian counterpart vis-a-vis the use of idiosyncratic character names. 'Capricornia' has a pair of police troopers, O'Theef and O'Crimnell, an ex-soldier named O'Cannon, a magistrate called Larseny. They may be caricatures and not exactly key to the story, however they add a similar richness to the fictional world of Herbert's novels as any of Dicken's creations did for his.
Herbert is also, like Dickens, interested in the world of business and money, the schemes and dreams of small and big men, the petty politics of the middle class and the vulgarities of the workers. Sinners are not always punished and the virtuous can and do go through great trials. Destiny and fate draw the characters of 'Capricornia' along paths that become enmeshed with others to such an extent that their existence is just as messy as those we see in 'Martin Chuzzlewit' or 'Nicholas Nickleby'. Riches are won and lost, lost and won, and at the end just like in Dickens Herbert leaves the readers and his characters with the uncertain emotional ramifications of the novel's complex plot. Morality and love have not run a smooth course in either author's novels.
However, as noted as well in my initial paragraph, 'Capricornia' is at its core a novel about race. Herbert confronts the ugliness, the exploitative, the shameful effect of white men's depredations of the indigenous peoples who owned and lived in the Northern Territory (the real 'Capricornia') and concomitant with this is the lust that these men feel for the Aboriginal women. It goes without saying that this book will offend and shock a lot of people who read it today as Herbert depicts the sexual abuse committed by the white men in the matter-of-fact way that goes to his own personal knowledge of the issue. Unlike another, though more narrowly focused novel of the era that deals with the sexual racism of white colonials ('Coonardoo') their is no redemptive relationship between the white men and their indigenous women. This is not a yarn where the union of the sexes and of the races is supposed to establish some kind of metaphorical harmony between European and native. Herbert writes of a greed and acquisitiveness that mirrors the desire for whites to (violently) possess a land that cannot be truly integrated.
Alongside the issue of sexual exploitation that runs rampant through 'Capricornia' Herbert positions the 'problem' of the children that are produced from rape, from sexual servitude. Through the focus on Norman Shillingsworth, the novel's protagonist for the bulk of the book, as well as the narratives of some of the lesser characters Herbert examines how these 'yella fellas' exist in a social purgatory. Not black enough to feel at one with their Aboriginal families, not white enough to fit into colonial society, Norman and those like him challenge the world of those that created their existence. Whilst the tribes of the bush are uneasy when someone like Norman is in their midst, they generally find a modus vivendi that allows them to live with the mixed race character. Whites on the other hand are ever-eager to through the 'taint' of inherited Aboriginality back into the face of Norman et.al. By the novel's end Herbert has repeatedly emphasized that whitefella society has created the problematic existence of their 'mixed breed' children and as this cannot be considered a crime, a thing to work against, then the racially impure need to be vilified, to be punished.
'Capricornia' is a very long novel and this will undoubtedly deter some readers from starting it, and may lead for some to leave it unfinished (if it's not abandoned because of its confronting content). For the most part Herbert's prose is highly readable, so that mitigates against the length of the book. The characters' dialogue has the veracity and linguistic nuance that one would expect from a writer who had lived in the real world of Northern Australia, and it may be fair to argue that Herbert has a fine ear for the interplay between slang and pidgin patois.
Where Herbert's prose can and does surprise the reader is his ability to create some incredibly evocative literary images of the landscape of 'Capricornia'. The plants, the rivers, the landmarks, the rivers, the seas, the beaches, the islands...Herbert paints an exhaustive picture of the raw world of nature in the north that deserves high regard. He may not be able to capture the best aspects of humanity in this novel but Herbert definitely captures the physical reality of the Territory.
So, who will want to read 'Capricornia', and who should. Anyone with a passion for Australian literature can fall into both camps. Students of Australian history and culture, with a specific interest in race relations should also consider reading Herbert's text. Anyone who has enjoyed Dickens will get something from the book, as may those familiar with epic popular novelists such as James A Michener (in the American tradition).
Unfortunately I suspect that no matter how much praise one finds for this book, no matter how valid the causes for reading 'Capricornia' are, it will ultimately fail to find a contemporary audience. To read a book that tries to examine through fiction the complexity and criminality of racist colonialism in the north of Australia as written by a white man over 80 years ago seems dare I say out of touch. Curiosity and literary value can only take 'Capricornia' so far as a book to read today when there are almost certainly more politically viable texts out there, written by First Nations' authors, and without the Dickensian stylistic mannerisms. I am glad I read this book but I would not be surprised that I'll be the only one in my immediate or even wider social circle who has or will.
In the introductory paragraph to this review I referred to the novel's Dickensian nature and there is no doubt that Herbert was influenced by the famous Victorian novelist. There are the obvious links between the English author and his Australian counterpart vis-a-vis the use of idiosyncratic character names. 'Capricornia' has a pair of police troopers, O'Theef and O'Crimnell, an ex-soldier named O'Cannon, a magistrate called Larseny. They may be caricatures and not exactly key to the story, however they add a similar richness to the fictional world of Herbert's novels as any of Dicken's creations did for his.
Herbert is also, like Dickens, interested in the world of business and money, the schemes and dreams of small and big men, the petty politics of the middle class and the vulgarities of the workers. Sinners are not always punished and the virtuous can and do go through great trials. Destiny and fate draw the characters of 'Capricornia' along paths that become enmeshed with others to such an extent that their existence is just as messy as those we see in 'Martin Chuzzlewit' or 'Nicholas Nickleby'. Riches are won and lost, lost and won, and at the end just like in Dickens Herbert leaves the readers and his characters with the uncertain emotional ramifications of the novel's complex plot. Morality and love have not run a smooth course in either author's novels.
However, as noted as well in my initial paragraph, 'Capricornia' is at its core a novel about race. Herbert confronts the ugliness, the exploitative, the shameful effect of white men's depredations of the indigenous peoples who owned and lived in the Northern Territory (the real 'Capricornia') and concomitant with this is the lust that these men feel for the Aboriginal women. It goes without saying that this book will offend and shock a lot of people who read it today as Herbert depicts the sexual abuse committed by the white men in the matter-of-fact way that goes to his own personal knowledge of the issue. Unlike another, though more narrowly focused novel of the era that deals with the sexual racism of white colonials ('Coonardoo') their is no redemptive relationship between the white men and their indigenous women. This is not a yarn where the union of the sexes and of the races is supposed to establish some kind of metaphorical harmony between European and native. Herbert writes of a greed and acquisitiveness that mirrors the desire for whites to (violently) possess a land that cannot be truly integrated.
Alongside the issue of sexual exploitation that runs rampant through 'Capricornia' Herbert positions the 'problem' of the children that are produced from rape, from sexual servitude. Through the focus on Norman Shillingsworth, the novel's protagonist for the bulk of the book, as well as the narratives of some of the lesser characters Herbert examines how these 'yella fellas' exist in a social purgatory. Not black enough to feel at one with their Aboriginal families, not white enough to fit into colonial society, Norman and those like him challenge the world of those that created their existence. Whilst the tribes of the bush are uneasy when someone like Norman is in their midst, they generally find a modus vivendi that allows them to live with the mixed race character. Whites on the other hand are ever-eager to through the 'taint' of inherited Aboriginality back into the face of Norman et.al. By the novel's end Herbert has repeatedly emphasized that whitefella society has created the problematic existence of their 'mixed breed' children and as this cannot be considered a crime, a thing to work against, then the racially impure need to be vilified, to be punished.
'Capricornia' is a very long novel and this will undoubtedly deter some readers from starting it, and may lead for some to leave it unfinished (if it's not abandoned because of its confronting content). For the most part Herbert's prose is highly readable, so that mitigates against the length of the book. The characters' dialogue has the veracity and linguistic nuance that one would expect from a writer who had lived in the real world of Northern Australia, and it may be fair to argue that Herbert has a fine ear for the interplay between slang and pidgin patois.
Where Herbert's prose can and does surprise the reader is his ability to create some incredibly evocative literary images of the landscape of 'Capricornia'. The plants, the rivers, the landmarks, the rivers, the seas, the beaches, the islands...Herbert paints an exhaustive picture of the raw world of nature in the north that deserves high regard. He may not be able to capture the best aspects of humanity in this novel but Herbert definitely captures the physical reality of the Territory.
So, who will want to read 'Capricornia', and who should. Anyone with a passion for Australian literature can fall into both camps. Students of Australian history and culture, with a specific interest in race relations should also consider reading Herbert's text. Anyone who has enjoyed Dickens will get something from the book, as may those familiar with epic popular novelists such as James A Michener (in the American tradition).
Unfortunately I suspect that no matter how much praise one finds for this book, no matter how valid the causes for reading 'Capricornia' are, it will ultimately fail to find a contemporary audience. To read a book that tries to examine through fiction the complexity and criminality of racist colonialism in the north of Australia as written by a white man over 80 years ago seems dare I say out of touch. Curiosity and literary value can only take 'Capricornia' so far as a book to read today when there are almost certainly more politically viable texts out there, written by First Nations' authors, and without the Dickensian stylistic mannerisms. I am glad I read this book but I would not be surprised that I'll be the only one in my immediate or even wider social circle who has or will.
January 2, 2015
Read while I was visiting northern Queensland, this book provided a shocking picture of the early years of settlement, and particularly the brutal treatment of aboriginals, and the rough tough life on the frontier. The book was slow to warm up, often rambling, had many side narratives, peopled by stereotyped characters that never evolved (even down to Dickenesque character names), and told by a detached narrator. Nevertheless. I became entirely absorbed by the narrative arc in the second half of the book. Brought 'The Grapes of Wrath' to mind though it was originally published a year before that classic.
May 11, 2015
I don't know what to say about this book, other than it was hard work to get through, so much so that I couldn't finish it. On the hole I found it a very interesting story as Australian history is something I don't know a lot about. The relationship between white people and the Aborigines was also interesting. But it was just to much of a heavy read for me.
I would recommend for any one who is interested in Australia and it's history.
I would recommend for any one who is interested in Australia and it's history.
March 16, 2016
Awful book. I was forced to read this for class and suffered through its racist and sexist violence. This was written by an evil white supremacist and misogynist. Of course then it's an Australian classic and never been out of print. A truly disgusting book with no redeeming features
April 3, 2022
A novel well ahead of its time. The sympathetic and compassionate approach to Aboriginal people was largely unheard of at that time. A strong social justice ethos and message prevails throughout.
Additionally, it is easy to read. Celebrate and enjoy Australian authors.
Additionally, it is easy to read. Celebrate and enjoy Australian authors.
January 3, 2014
Unwieldly and rough as guts and a punch in the guts to knock the wind out of the sails of the whitewashed version of Australian history. Kick 'em in the ribs too, Xavier. Couldn'ta said it better.
April 9, 2016
there's some cool parts where he gets really angry and cynical that have some nice writing, but a lot of it is mediocre.
July 27, 2018
terrific about aboriginal life in the outback and city
May 29, 2017
I first heard of Xavier Herbert's Capricornia nearly ten years ago. I was a huge fan of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil, and their most recent album Capricornia is partially inspired by the novel. When I went traveling in Australia this year, I finally decided to give the historical novel a go.
Capricornia is not a bad novel. There are many interesting and unique scenarios that don't feel like cliches, sa Herbert explores the relationships between Aborigines and white Australians. What Herbert does best is capturing the atmosphere of Northern Australia in the early 1900s. The book gave me a deeper understanding of Australian culture and environment, and I recognized many of the things Herbert was talking about.
Capricornia follows several characters over multiple decades, constantly changing the point of view. However, there aren't many likable characters, so it's difficult to really care about the protagonists. The book feels quite aimless and uneven, and the limits of the authors knowledge are all too plain. The functions of trains and ships are explained in great detail, but when one character spends several months with Aboriginals, his whole experience is summed up in a few vague sentences.
I enjoyed reading Capricornia, but I wasn't thrilled by it. I was constantly wishing for the book to end soon. And when the ending came, it felt rushed and disappointing. The Kindle edition was okay, although there were a few errors like abruptly ending sentences that must have appeared during the conversion.
Capricornia is not a bad novel. There are many interesting and unique scenarios that don't feel like cliches, sa Herbert explores the relationships between Aborigines and white Australians. What Herbert does best is capturing the atmosphere of Northern Australia in the early 1900s. The book gave me a deeper understanding of Australian culture and environment, and I recognized many of the things Herbert was talking about.
Capricornia follows several characters over multiple decades, constantly changing the point of view. However, there aren't many likable characters, so it's difficult to really care about the protagonists. The book feels quite aimless and uneven, and the limits of the authors knowledge are all too plain. The functions of trains and ships are explained in great detail, but when one character spends several months with Aboriginals, his whole experience is summed up in a few vague sentences.
I enjoyed reading Capricornia, but I wasn't thrilled by it. I was constantly wishing for the book to end soon. And when the ending came, it felt rushed and disappointing. The Kindle edition was okay, although there were a few errors like abruptly ending sentences that must have appeared during the conversion.
December 11, 2019
This is a novel of incredible scope that all Australians should read, especially the present generation. It spans a period beginning roughly around 1906 right through until somewhere in the 1930s. Set in Capricornia in far Northern Australia (it is believed that the author is actually referring to the area surrounding Darwin) - this novel is a study of race relations between indigenous and white Australians.
It is shocking and distressing, yet an accurate depiction of Australia at this time of the White Australia policy. I found it an utterly enthralling, although at times distressing read. The treatment of indigenous Australians was disgraceful, which made it easy to get behind the hero of the book 'half-caste' Norman Shillingsworth, son of a white father and Aboriginal mother.
Full of an amazingly colourful array of characters, many tragedies play out in this novel, but none more poignant than the final one which had me in tears.
There are a lot of characters to hate in this book - Jock, Ket, Marigold and Norman's father Mark, amongst others. I loathed Mark for much of the novel due to his poor treatment of both Norman and loyal Heather. I also hated Marigold when she became colour-proud and turned her back on Norman.
Norman, Oscar and Tocky were the most lovable characters by a long stretch.
Highly recommend!
It is shocking and distressing, yet an accurate depiction of Australia at this time of the White Australia policy. I found it an utterly enthralling, although at times distressing read. The treatment of indigenous Australians was disgraceful, which made it easy to get behind the hero of the book 'half-caste' Norman Shillingsworth, son of a white father and Aboriginal mother.
Full of an amazingly colourful array of characters, many tragedies play out in this novel, but none more poignant than the final one which had me in tears.
There are a lot of characters to hate in this book - Jock, Ket, Marigold and Norman's father Mark, amongst others. I loathed Mark for much of the novel due to his poor treatment of both Norman and loyal Heather. I also hated Marigold when she became colour-proud and turned her back on Norman.
Norman, Oscar and Tocky were the most lovable characters by a long stretch.
Highly recommend!
July 4, 2020
This has been on my 'I should read but don't particularly want to' list for years because I assumed it would typically portray colonising Australians in a good light. Strike me blue it didn't. While I found some of the colloquialisms difficult to follow, the general thrust of the book is that white Australians were generally extremely unpleasant to those not as white as they were. Challenging but honest for a white person - such as me. A relevant read in these 'Black Lives Matter's times because it shows that such sentiments have been held for a long time by some, although sadly they don't appear to have gained traction with the general white populace.
January 5, 2021
great story
speaking of settler nations with race and caste holding native populations down
NZ Maoris - not nearly eradicated by disease - armed & fought for equality - but English land tenure kept impoverished
Australia - caste - racism - extermination an on-going process as in the U.S. with English land tenure again key in impoverishment
creoles - as caste bound as in the U.S. (showing that race is a social construct)
color - not the content of one's character - determining far more than laws
speaking of settler nations with race and caste holding native populations down
NZ Maoris - not nearly eradicated by disease - armed & fought for equality - but English land tenure kept impoverished
Australia - caste - racism - extermination an on-going process as in the U.S. with English land tenure again key in impoverishment
creoles - as caste bound as in the U.S. (showing that race is a social construct)
color - not the content of one's character - determining far more than laws
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