Prester John - Softcover

Buchan, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140011382 ISBN 13: 9780140011388

Publisher: Penguin, 1981

Synopsis

Nineteen-year-old David Crawfurd travels from Scotland to South Africa to work as a storekeeper. On the voyage he encounters again John Laputa, the celebrated Zulu minister, of whom he has strange memories. In his remote store David finds himself with the key to a massive uprising led by the minister, who has taken the title of the mythical priest-king, Prester John. David's courage and his understanding of this man take him to the heart of the uprising, a secret cave in the Rooirand. John Buchan wrote Prester John, his sixth novel, in 1910, seven years after he returned from South Africa. It was his first to reach a wide readership across the world, and it established him as the writer of the fast-paced adventures for which he is famous. In this, the only critical edition, David Daniell shows what went into the making of Prester John and explores what sets it apart from the boys' yarns of the period.

About this title

About the Author:

John Buchan (1875-1940) was born in Perth, Scotland and educated at Oxford where he published five books and won several awards, including one for poetry. He went on to be a barrister, a member of parliament, a soldier, a publisher, a historical biographer, and - in 1935 - he became the Govenor-General of Canada. Today he is best remembered as the author of his perennially popular adventure novels.

Synopsis:

South Africa at the turn of the century. Crawfurd, his studies interrupted by his father's death, is off to work as a storekeeper. But a strange encounter and the whispers he hears on the journey tell him that Blaauwildebeestefontein may not be as predictable as he has supposed.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0140011382
• ISBN 13: 9780140011388
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208