THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS

Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, London, no date but 19^th century.  Hard cover, 399 pages plus ads.  Fair; blue cloth with gilt lettering and design on front and spine; boards rubbed with some stains; heavy edge, corner and spine end wear.  Repairs to spine, tape residue on front board across spine with mid to bottom front board detached from spine; binding weak.  All edges gilt; dark blue end papers.  Prior owner’s name at top of title page; frontis of Bunyan; illustrated.  Ad section at rear barely attached at gutter and appears an attempted repair was made.  Interior pages unmarked; scattered foxing throughout but all text very legible.  ‘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.’ (from Wikipedia)