The Pilgrim’s Progress. With a Life of John Bunyan by Robert Southey. Extra-Illustrated Copy
London: John Murray, 1830. First Edition Thus. Octavo, civ, 411 pages, bound in full red crushed morocco with gilt embellishments, signed by the binder, “Bayntun Binder Bath Eng,” with marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, and gilt dentelles. Illustrated with three hand-colored copper-engraved plates, including the portrait frontispiece, and numerous black-and-white wood engravings in the text; further extra-illustrated with 16 inserted color plates. John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, here accompanied by Robert Southey’s Life of John Bunyan, is one of the great classics of English religious literature and the most famous allegory of the Christian life in the language. First published in the seventeenth century, Bunyan’s enduring work follows the spiritual journey of Christian from the City of Destruction toward the Celestial City, presenting in vivid narrative form themes of sin, trial, perseverance, redemption, and salvation. The addition of Southey’s biography gives this 1830 edition added literary and historical interest, placing Bunyan and his masterpiece in a broader nineteenth-century context. Long prized by collectors for both its devotional importance and its central place in the history of English literature, the work remains a cornerstone of Christian allegory and imaginative religious writing. Both boards detached, currently housed in a red cloth slipcase, a few creases to free endpapers, minor discoloration, else in good + condition. Item #269
Price: $800.00