Description

This listing is for an incredibly rare 1728 edition of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, featuring: Leather wrapped Hardbound covers; Gilt Seal embossed on cover "Sigillum AcademiÆ DummerianÆ 1763"; tight spine; marbled end papers; ex-libris imprint Mifs Lewis; 22 copper plate engravings, two and twentith edition; in very nice condition with minor surface wear but the first page has separated from the binding. Size: 8" x 5" x 1-1/2". This is the first complete edition to be published as a fine book, containing two parts, and the first edition to feature John Stuart’s Illustrations. Bunyan died in 1688, so this edition was printed just 40 years after his death. The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come is a 1678 Christian allegory written for John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of theological fiction in English literature and a progenitor of the narrative aspect of Christian media. It has been translated into more than 200 languages and has never been out of print. It appeared in Dutch in 1681, in German in 1703 and in Swedish in 1727. The first North American edition was issued in 1681. It has also been cited as the first novel written in English. According to literary editor Robert McCrum, "there's no book in English, apart from the Bible, to equal Bunyan's masterpiece for the range of its readership, or its influence on writers as diverse as William Hogarth, C. S. Lewis, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, George Bernard Shaw, William Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Enid Blyton." The lyrics of the hymn "To be a Pilgrim" are based on the novel. Bunyan began his work while in the Bedfordshire county prison from 1660 to 1672 (right after he had written his spiritual autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners) for violations of the Conventicle Act 1664, which prohibited the holding of religious services outside the auspices of the established Church of England. Title: The Pilgrim's Progress, From This World to that Which is to Come, Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream, Wherein is discover'd The Manner of his Setting Out, His Dangerous Journey, and Safe Arrival at the Desired Country, In Two Parts, Complete, The Two and Twentieth Edition, adorned with Twenty-Two Copper Plates, engraved by J. Sturt, London, 1728; The Pilgrim's Progress From This World to that which is to Come, Part 11, Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream, Wherein is set forth, The Manner of the Setting out of Christian's Wife and Children, their Dangerous Journey, and Safe Arrival at the Desired Country, London, Printed for John Clarke, at the Golden Ball in Duck Lane, 1727 Author: BUNYAN (John), . Publisher: Printed for J. Clarke at the Golden Ball in Duck-Lane and J. Brotherton at the Bible next the Fleece-Tavern in Cornhill - 1727 The entire book is presented as a dream sequence narrated by an omniscient narrator. The allegory's protagonist, Christian, is an everyman character, and the plot centres on his journey from his hometown, the "City of Destruction" ("this world"), to the "Celestial City" ("that which is to come": Heaven) atop Mount Zion. Christian is weighed down by a great burden—the knowledge of his sin—which he believed came from his reading "the book in his hand" (the Bible). This burden, which would cause him to sink into Hell, is so unbearable that Christian must seek deliverance. He meets Evangelist as he is walking out in the fields, who directs him to the "Wicket Gate" for deliverance. Since Christian cannot see the "Wicket Gate" in the distance, Evangelist directs him to go to a "shining light", which Christian thinks he sees. Christian leaves his home, his wife, and children to save himself: he cannot persuade them to accompany him. Obstinate and Pliable go after Christian to bring him back, but Christian refuses. Obstinate returns disgusted, but Pliable is persuaded to go with Christian, hoping to take advantage of the Paradise that Christian claims lies at the end of his journey. Pliable's journey with Christian is cut short when the two of them fall into the Slough of Despond, a boggy mire-like swamp where pilgrims' doubts, fears, temptations, lusts, shames, guilts, and sins of their present condition of being a sinner are used to sink them into the mud of the swamp. It is there in that bog where Pliable abandons Christian after getting himself out. After struggling to the other side of the slough, Christian is pulled out by Help, who has heard his cries and tells him the swamp is made out of the decadence, scum, and filth of sin, but the ground is good at the narrow Wicket Gate.