3-000-265 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Christian Knocking at the Gate", from "The Pilgrim's Progress", 1860. 'The personages of the book, as they appear in Mr. Watson's pictures, are clothed in the garb of the period at which Bunyan wrote; and the characteristics of each have been portrayed with singular point and effect...Christian...appears, knocking at the gate, in that earlier part of his pilgrimage whence the interest begins to grow so strong...Of course, the pictorial character of the edition of "The Pilgrim's Progress" is intended as its chief claim to attention. But there have been great pains and care expended on the editorial department of that which is confessedly an English classic. The book is reproduced mainly, if not entirely, in the form in which it was published by Bunyan himself...there is every mark that the editing of the work has been a labour of love...the skill of the printer, paper-inker, binder, and decorator has been lavishly brought into play to render the accessories of the volume as beautiful as its text is valuable and interesting'. Illustration from "The Pilgrim's Progress. A new Edition, with Memoir and Notes", by George Offor. Illustrated by J. D. Watson, (Routledge). Published in "Illustrated London News", 1860.