Physical description

Hard cover book. The City of Gold
Author: Francis Brett Young
Publisher: William Heinemann Limited
Date: 1939
Further Information: Blue Cloth hardcover,and spine with lettering in white to spine and a personal crest/coat of arms of the English author Francis Brett Young to front cover. The spine has a Library label with an inscription.

Publication type

fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on the spine with typed text PAT FIC YOU
Paste down front end paper has a sticker from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute and Free Library covered by a sticker from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a sticker from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute
Flyleaf has a stamp from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute

Summary

The City of Gold is a historical novel and the sequel to Young’s 1937 They Seek a Country. It follows the Grafton family, established in the Transvaal Republic after the Great Trek more than thirty years earlier, and covers events from 1872 to 1896, including the gold rush, the founding of Johannesburg and the Jameson Raid. The family splits into pro-Boer and pro-British factions, anticipating the Second Boer War, and real figures such as Cecil Rhodes and Paul Kruger appear. A 1939 review noted that it recounts the events leading to Johannesburg’s founding and the Raid through the lives of the Boer-English Grafton family.