The Trial of John Bunyan & The Persecution of the Puritans — The Folio Society | 1978 | First Edition | Japanese Wood Veneer Boards | Quarter Leather

A very good first edition of the Folio Society's 1978 publication of The Trial of John Bunyan & The Persecution of the Puritans — a beautifully produced anthology drawn from the primary writings of two of the most compelling figures in the history of English Nonconformism, and one of the most distinctive bindings in the Folio Society's catalogue of the 1970s.

John Bunyan (1628–1688) is best known as the author of The Pilgrim's Progress, one of the most widely read books in the English language. But his significance extends far beyond that single masterwork: he was a preacher, a polemicist, and a man of extraordinary moral courage who endured twelve years of imprisonment at Bedford Gaol rather than renounce his right to preach outside the established Church. His account of that imprisonment — written in his own hand, with simplicity, honesty, and a fierce quiet dignity — is one of the essential documents of English religious and political history.

Alongside Bunyan's own writings, this volume includes the remarkable narrative of Agnes Beaumont (d. 1720), a young Puritan woman whose account of her own persecution stands as an equally compelling and unjustly neglected record of the dangers faced by Nonconformists in Restoration England. The selection is introduced and edited by Monica Furlong, one of the most respected religious writers and thinkers of the twentieth century, whose introduction provides an authoritative and sympathetic context for these extraordinary texts.

The Folio Society's production is one of quiet, considered distinction. Quarter bound in dark brown skiver leather over Japanese wood veneer boards — a binding material of genuine originality and appropriateness, evoking the austere material culture of seventeenth-century Puritanism with considerable skill. Silver cross devices and lettering to spine. Brown top edge. Illustrated with ten black and white plates reproducing contemporary portraits, etchings, woodcuts, and facsimiles of manuscripts and early printed books relating to Bunyan and the Puritans. 200 pp.

Housed in the original tan card slipcase, which has split along the spine edge — as is common with this edition — but otherwise remains present and functional.

The book itself is in very good condition throughout — leather spine bright and clean, wood veneer boards sound and attractive, pages fresh, binding tight and square.

A compelling piece for collectors of English religious history, seventeenth-century literature, Nonconformist history, or fine Folio Society productions of the 1970s.