Prester John: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Prester John, credited to John Buchan, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Prester John, by John Buchan. Read by Grant Hurlock. This classic adventure novel by the author of Greenmantle and The Thirty-Nine Steps relates the first-person exploits of young David Crawfurd before the age of twenty. As a boy growing up on the coast of Scotland, minister's son Davie and two friends were pursued with murderous intent along the cliffs one night by John Laputa, a visiting black African preacher, whom they had witnessed performing un-Christian rites round a campfire on the beach. A few years later, when his father's death forces Davie to quit college and join the tribe of wandering Scots, our hero finds himself in South Africa, assistant shopkeeper in a seemingly sleepy back-veldt store. There he re-encounters Laputa, now charismatic leader of an incipient native uprising, secretly preaching the incendiary creed of "Africa for the Africans," and proclaiming himself heir to the mantle of Prester John, a legendary 15th-century Christian king of Ethiopia. Can young Davie possibly penetrate the megalomaniac's mountain stronghold, foil the insurrection, prevent a massacre of white settlers, and make off with the rebels' war-chest of gold and diamonds? It's going to take some doing - and not a little derring-do!

Recording facts

• Recording title: Prester John
• Author credits: John Buchan
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 23
• Listed recording duration: 7:44:54

Catalogue topics

• South Africa
• adventure

Track guide

1. 01 - The Man on the Kirkcaple Shore — 26:30
2. 02 - Furth! Fortune! — 29:51
3. 03 - Blaauwildebeestefontein — 21:47
4. 04 - My Journey to the Winter-veld — 23:32
5. 05 - Mr. Wardlaw Has a Premonition — 14:07
6. 06 - The Drums Beat at Sunset — 21:02
7. 07 - Captain Arcoll Tells a Tale — 28:56
8. 08 - I Fall in Again with the Reverend John Laputa — 14:19
9. 09 - The Store at Umvelos' — 17:51
10. 10 - I Go Treasure Hunting — 12:56
11. 11 - The Cave of the Rooirand — 21:21
12. 12 - Captain Arcoll Sends a Message — 24:57
13. 13 - The Drift of the Letaba — 11:21
14. 14 - I Carry the Collar of Prester John — 22:44
15. 15 - Morning in the Berg — 16:45
16. 16 - Inanda's Kraal — 20:54
17. 17 - A Deal and Its Consequences — 24:43
18. 18 - How a Man May Sometimes Put His Trust in a Horse — 15:07
19. 19 - Arcoll's Shepherding — 20:06
20. 20 - My Last Sight of the Reverend John Laputa — 20:43
21. 21 - I Climb the Crags a Second Time — 22:58
22. 22 - A Great Peril and a Great Salvation — 20:22
23. 23 - My Uncle's Gift Is Many Times Multiplied — 12:14

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.