Close (George Herbert)
ROSE OF RIETFONTEIN
A South African Pastoral Romance
Published: Cape Town, 1882
Stock Number: #4621/1
Price: R750
Approximately:
163 + 40 pages of commercial advertisements, 8vo (175 x 120 mm), original blue glazed paper covered boards, rubbed and worn along the back
An unremarkable romance set in Cape Town and the diamond fields. Of publishing interest are the forty pages of commercial advertisements from many the major firms of the day in Cape Town. A five-page explanation of South African Dutch idioms and terms is provided at the end. It seems Close published no other books in South Africa and this appears to have been an unusual attempt to publish popular fiction by the then Government Printer W.A. Richards and Sons.