A First Year in Canterbury Settlement by Samuel Butler ~ Full Audiobook [history]

A First Year in Canterbury Settlement by Samuel Butler audiobook.

Genre: history

In A First Year in Canterbury Settlement, Samuel Butler turns his sharp eye and wry humor on the practical realities of starting over at the edge of the British Empire. Newly arrived in New Zealand, Butler sets out for the Canterbury plains of the South Island with big hopes, limited experience, and the uneasy conviction that respectable plans rarely survive first contact with weather, distance, and human nature. Part travel narrative, part working diary, the book follows his early attempts to find his footing among fellow settlers, organize supplies and labor, and learn the daily rhythm of frontier life - from makeshift housing and uncertain routes to the relentless demands of livestock and land. Along the way, Butler paints vivid portraits of the landscape and the small, improvised society forming within it, capturing both the exhilaration of open space and the loneliness that can settle in after the excitement fades. With an eye for irony and a talent for observation, he explores ambition, self-reliance, and the gap between idealized settlement and the hard, often comic work of making a place livable.

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:09:50) Chapter 02

(00:35:03) Chapter 03

(00:51:13) Chapter 04

(01:03:09) Chapter 05

(01:43:04) Chapter 06

(01:59:22) Chapter 07

(02:21:59) Chapter 08

(03:01:47) Chapter 09

(03:25:21) Chapter 10

(03:44:19) Chapter 11

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