1840 Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan. Parts 1 & II. Illustrated by Thomas Stothard.

A handsome binding binds this 19th century edition of Bunyan's important work, Pilgrim's Progress. Also, this edition is attractively illustrated with engravings after Thomas Stothard.

Pilgrim's Progress is a Christian Allegory, first published in 1678. It follows the journey of Christian, an everyman character, as he progressed through life towards a heaven-like destination. Along the way Christian experiences many perils and miraculous occurrences.

Samuel Johnson said, "this is the great merit of the book, that the most cultivated man cannot find anything to praise more highly, and the child knows nothing more amusing."

It has been translated into more than two hundred languages.

About the Illustrator -

Thomas Stothard (1755-1834) was an English artist who studied at the Royal Academy and produced paintings, illustrations and engravings. "These are popular with collectors for their grace and distinction." - Wikipedia. The first edition of his illustrations for Pilgrim's Progress were published in 1788.

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 20 x 14.5 x 3 cm. Black crushed calf binding. Boards with outer frame of fillets and a roll of leafy vines. Spine with five compartments; four with a rich dentelle style floret decoration, and one with the title on morocco. Marbled edges. Marbled endpapers. Illustrated. Two parts, with continuous pagination. Pages - xviiii, 408

Condition -

See pictures. A handsome binding despite wear of use. Corner and edge wear, some rubbing to boards. Slightly out-of-square. Graphite bookseller note at rear of flyleaf. "Henry Parkinson" in an old-hand on blank unpaginated front endpaper. Toning, thumbing and fox spots throughout, as is common to paper of this period. Frontis plates and title page have hint of pink coloring on them. Fore-edge of right frontis is worn and has a 1 cm fore-edge tear, no printing affected. 3" crease at bottom of 160-165. Well-thumbed, but there's something almost reassuring about that in such an important work; I find no tears, annotations, etc., and the hinges are not cracked. It was read much, but taken care of.