Four-Volume F.A. Venter Lande-Series Set by F. A. Venter

Four-Volume F.A. Venter Lande-Series Set 

The F.A. Venter Lande-Series: Four Afrikaans Great Trek Novels Offered Together as a Series

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Four-Volume F.A. Venter Lande-Series Set
• Author: F. A. Venter
• Publisher: Tafelberg-Uitgewers, Kaapstad
• Publication Date: 1985
• ISBN-13: 9780624012146
• ISBN-10: 0624023133
• Edition Details: Offered as a four-book series. Gelofteland: Eerste sagtebanduitgawe 1985 (first published 1966), Sewende druk 1981 as printed.
• Binding: Gelofteland: original illustrated card wrappers, perfect bound. Series also includes hardcovers: Geknelde Land (grey cloth, school edition), Bedoelde Land (brown boards with dust jacket) and Offerland (boards with dust jacket).
• Physical Format: Four volumes. Gelofteland is a trade-sized softcover; the other three are hardcovers. Endpaper maps in Geknelde Land and Offerland.
• Language: Afrikaans

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Good (G)
• Exterior / Covers: Gelofteland, the only softcover, has blue, black and brown illustrated wrappers with a creased spine and lightly rubbed edges. Geknelde Land is in grey cloth boards, a school edition. Bedoelde Land is in brown boards, and Offerland in boards. Bedoelde Land and Offerland retain their dust jackets, and Offerland's jacket is chipped at the head and corners. Geknelde Land is without a jacket.
• Interior: Gelofteland has a tight, clean text block with toned page edges; the title page shows faint foxing and a small crease. Offerland carries a pencil arrow in the margin and a library-style stamp. Geknelde Land has staining to the map endpaper, tape marks and a pencil arrow. Overall the set reads as Good to Very Good.
• Provenance: Offerland bears a blue library-style stamp ('Uitreikingsetiket', 'Naam van leerling', 1976) and pencil notes on the jacket flap. A pencil arrow appears on a page of Geknelde Land. No other ownership marks are evident.
• The Dust Jacket: Bedoelde Land and Offerland have dust jackets, protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover; Offerland's jacket is chipped at the head and corners. Gelofteland is a softcover issued without a jacket Geknelde Land is without a jacket.

Synopsis & Historical Value

This four-book set brings together F.A. Venter's Afrikaans Great Trek novels: Geknelde Land, Offerland, Gelofteland and Bedoelde Land. It is offered as a series, the F.A. Venter Lande-Series. The novels follow the Dreyer family through the Great Trek.

In Gelofteland, Rudolf Dreyer, his wife Hendriena and their community debate whether to leave their farm Grensplaas, setting the human cost of the decision against the wider migration of the Voortrekkers.

Together the volumes offer collectors of Afrikaans literature and Afrikaner heritage a complete run of one of the best-known Trek fictions, in mixed formats: one softcover, two jacketed hardcovers and a school-edition cloth volume.

Author Profile: F. A. Venter

Frans A. Venter was born in Hopetown on 27 November 1916 and died on 8 July 1997. He studied at Stellenbosch and began a career in journalism in 1938. He farmed from 1960 and retired to Strand in 1976 to write full-time.

He won the Hertzog Prize for prose in 1961 for Swart Pelgrim and Geknelde Land. His other notable works include Swart Pelgrim (1951) and Wit Oemfaan (1965).

F.A. Venter Lande-Series · Gelofteland Venter · Venter Great Trek novels · Afrikaans Great Trek fiction · Geknelde Land Offerland Bedoelde Land · Tafelberg Afrikaans novels set · Hertzog Prize author Venter