Ridge of Gold - Hardcover

Brown, James Ambrose

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031268231X ISBN 13: 9780312682316

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1986

Synopsis

Depicting Johannesburg's beginnings in the 1880s as a sprawling town of shacks and shanties, saloons and whorehouses, and mansions and mining magnates, this story describes the men and women whose drive and energy helped to create the city of Johannesburg

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Such a crush of characters jostle each other in their avidity to rape the gold mines of Johannesburg in the 1880s that the story Brown tells in this ambitious novel must wait until the principals are sorted out. But it soon becomes clear that the American miner Walter Gardiner will marry Katherine, daughter of Josiah Rawlinson who years before had made a killing in diamonds at Kimberley; that penniless Leonard Penlynne will, by virtue of a deal with a powerful absentee owner, threaten Rawlinson's stake in the gold lands surrounding the burgeoning city; that Kitty Loftus, lured from a dance hall by the spurious Baron de la Roche, will escape the white slavery she was destined for and garner her share of the new money that swells every pocket. Shanties abound, but so do dream castles, where politicians and peers are entertained against the day when, the huge profits collected, a knighthood or a governorship should follow. Etched sharply against the intrigue, the mine accidents, the stirrings of unionism is the struggle between Penlynne and Gardiner on one hand and Rawlinson on the other, a conflict involving chemicals, deep-pit mining and a bitter court battle that will keep the reader's heart in mouth and nerves on edge.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

The quest for El Dorado drew thousands of immigrants and adventurers to South Africa in the 1880s. Johannesburg was then a boom town, and in this novel Brown vividly portrays the raw environment, hardships, and heartaches of the Transvaal pioneers. Central to the story is Leonard Penlynne, who has vowed revenge against Josiah Rawlinson, mining magnate and Penlynne's former employer. The characters are well defined and the writing is smooth and full of imagery, splendidly capturing the clash of cultures and wildness of life in South Africa near the turn of the century. Recommended. Maria A. Perez-Stable, Western Michigan Univ. Libs, Kalamazoo
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 031268231X
• ISBN 13: 9780312682316
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1