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Cindie
Randolph Biddow's family joins him on his sugar cane plantation in North Queensland, and their maid, Cindie, by teaching herself the sugar trade, becomes the manager of Biddow's property
332 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
About the author
Jean Devanny
13 books1 followerJane (Jean) Devanny was an Australian writer and communist. Born in Ferntown, New Zealand, she migrated to Australia in 1929, eventually moving to Townsville in northern Queensland, where she died at the age of 68.
She is best known for the novels Sugar Heaven and The Butcher Shop.
She is best known for the novels Sugar Heaven and The Butcher Shop.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 30, 2021
Very good indeed, and a very enjoyable read.
Particularly interesting for how it remains problematic, for how the author is clearly taking steps along the right road away from racism and prejudice, but still has a way to go. Interesting too for this Brit with minimal knowledge of Australian history of this period (the White Australia movement etc). Deserves to be widely read.
Particularly interesting for how it remains problematic, for how the author is clearly taking steps along the right road away from racism and prejudice, but still has a way to go. Interesting too for this Brit with minimal knowledge of Australian history of this period (the White Australia movement etc). Deserves to be widely read.
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February 29, 2024Purchased at Heartwood Books, a Charlottesville institution, during a visit to my parents in the snowy January of 2022, and I’ve only just got round to it but it was worth the wait. This is a novel about a family trying to make it as sugar cane growers in North Queensland, Australia, in the 1890s. It primarily focuses on their maidservant, Cindie Comstock, who finds that the increased social freedoms afforded to women in pioneer country give her a sense of purpose, pride, and achievement, and who rises from a patronised and belittled lady’s maid to become the manager of the entire estate. She is a fantastic character, the book’s beating heart, whose struggles to overcome her own learned racism and determination to deal fairly with everyone are completely absorbing. There are moments at which Devanny’s explanations of Australian politics at the time become obtrusive—they could have been smoothed out into the narrative a bit better, I think—and I’m not sure how I feel about the ending (mild spoilers: why must there always be a love story), but this is a deeply memorable book: surprisingly frank about the dynamics of sexuality and desire, illuminating about the conditions of change under imperialism, full of images and events that will stick with me. I’m so glad I bought it.
September 3, 2025
An historical novel about Kane Sugar farming in Australia. The author kind of wrote it as a social commentary novel, and it is certainly more interesting for the historical setting, then for any intricate plot or complex characters. However, it was still an enjoyable read, and opened my eyes to a whole era of history I had no previous contact with. The concept of White Australia seems crazy today!
November 22, 2016
Cindie by Jean Devanny was published in 1949 towards the end of Devanny’s prolific career of writing about labor issues in Australia. She was, on and off, a member of the communist party which every now and then expelled her because while they supported her interest in social and labor issues they had a hard time coming to terms with her feminism. This book was her last novel and was inspired by the Queensland cane cutters’ strikes in 1909 and 1911 and later.
At the start of the book Cindie has arrived as the servant of Blanche Biddow who is joining her husband, Randolph Biddow, formerly a secretary, in Masterman, Northern Queensland in 1896 where he is starting a sugar plantation funded in large part by Blanche Biddow’s father. Blanche comes from a wealthy middle-class family and hopes that this endeavor will turn him into the successful man she believes she is entitled to have as a husband. Despite being hosted and mentored by an established plantation owner, Barney Callaghan and his wife Mary, it is a big adjustment which Biddow is putting his heart and soul into managing while Blanche resists coming to terms with their new world.
Devanny is first and foremost a political writer who explores issues of feminism and class through the account of the gradual coming into her own of Cindie, who develops over ten years from submissive servant to successful grower, first of cane and then coffee. Devanny’s main focus, however, is on the gradual development of the White Australia Policy. When the Biddows arrive in Queensland most of the manual work is being done by Kanakas, Melanesians brought as indentured workers not necessarily voluntarily, minimally paid and generally poorly treated. They are, however, considered to be one step above the local Aborigines whom no one considers trainable or worth hiring. Biddows treats his men well and Cindie goes out of her way to treat them as individuals to the horror of Blanche.
Cindie’s development into an independent and capable person, despite the barriers of gender and class, contrasts with Blanche’s passivity and feelings of entitlement, and Blanche becomes jealous of her husband’s respect for Cindie. This leads to what I think is the weak part of the novel, its descent into what is almost soap opera at times with various romantic relationships somewhat grafted on to the historical subject matter. The other weakness is Devanny’s need from time to time to give the reader a detailed and rather preachy history lesson.The history of the period from 1896 to 1906 is interesting, the gradual movement to repatriate the Kanakas and the changes forced on plantation owners to persuade whites take the place of the Kanakas is fascinating, but a well-written novel will `show’ not `tell’ . Cindie’s championing of the Aborigine’s rightful role in the future of sugar growing is Devanny’s ideal solution. Biddow’s support for Cindie is Devanny’s idea of how gender relations should play out.
I am very interested in Australian history so I found this to be a fascinating introduction to the period and the place and the interplay of racism and owner-worker relations.
At the start of the book Cindie has arrived as the servant of Blanche Biddow who is joining her husband, Randolph Biddow, formerly a secretary, in Masterman, Northern Queensland in 1896 where he is starting a sugar plantation funded in large part by Blanche Biddow’s father. Blanche comes from a wealthy middle-class family and hopes that this endeavor will turn him into the successful man she believes she is entitled to have as a husband. Despite being hosted and mentored by an established plantation owner, Barney Callaghan and his wife Mary, it is a big adjustment which Biddow is putting his heart and soul into managing while Blanche resists coming to terms with their new world.
Devanny is first and foremost a political writer who explores issues of feminism and class through the account of the gradual coming into her own of Cindie, who develops over ten years from submissive servant to successful grower, first of cane and then coffee. Devanny’s main focus, however, is on the gradual development of the White Australia Policy. When the Biddows arrive in Queensland most of the manual work is being done by Kanakas, Melanesians brought as indentured workers not necessarily voluntarily, minimally paid and generally poorly treated. They are, however, considered to be one step above the local Aborigines whom no one considers trainable or worth hiring. Biddows treats his men well and Cindie goes out of her way to treat them as individuals to the horror of Blanche.
Cindie’s development into an independent and capable person, despite the barriers of gender and class, contrasts with Blanche’s passivity and feelings of entitlement, and Blanche becomes jealous of her husband’s respect for Cindie. This leads to what I think is the weak part of the novel, its descent into what is almost soap opera at times with various romantic relationships somewhat grafted on to the historical subject matter. The other weakness is Devanny’s need from time to time to give the reader a detailed and rather preachy history lesson.The history of the period from 1896 to 1906 is interesting, the gradual movement to repatriate the Kanakas and the changes forced on plantation owners to persuade whites take the place of the Kanakas is fascinating, but a well-written novel will `show’ not `tell’ . Cindie’s championing of the Aborigine’s rightful role in the future of sugar growing is Devanny’s ideal solution. Biddow’s support for Cindie is Devanny’s idea of how gender relations should play out.
I am very interested in Australian history so I found this to be a fascinating introduction to the period and the place and the interplay of racism and owner-worker relations.
Want to Read
May 22, 2010My great uncle had a liaison with this lady and I'm reading the book to find out a little bit more about her
April 5, 2010
My first Australian novel. Very good, all in all. Made me look for more Australian classics.
November 22, 2014
Amazingly amazing. It deserves more than 5 stars
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews