The City of Gold by Francis Brett Young (Vintage 1939 First Edition)

Description

Set in South Africa’s Rand, The City of Gold is a sequel to They Seek a Country (1937). The history of the Grafton family, taken up thirty years after the ending of the first novel stretches from 1872 to 1896. It is a story of the Annexation of the Transvaal; of Sekukuni’s wars; of the development of the mining industry of the Transvaal; and of Johannesburg, the city of gold. Historical figures such as Kruger, Joubert, the Rhodes brothers and Jameson are included in the fiction. The brothers and sisters of the Grafton family represent a variety of opinion: nationalistic; pro-Boer; pro-English; moderate; and, in the case of Janse and Lena, South Africa as a great nation in which all races and groups would be reconciled. This is a magnificent novel bringing to life the beauty of an immense and varied land, and of its people, written with the sensitivity of a born poet.