The Pilgrim’s Progress LE - is it worth it?

A few days ago I just got an email from Folio stating this limited edition is low in stock (currently 76). For people here who have already purchased it, at $445usd is it worth it? I've never been completely sold to get it but was just wondering what people's thoughts were since it will sell out soon. Thanks!

Personally, I was disappointed. The quality is nowhere near the other William Blake volumes by FS I've got. Those looked very much like the original watercolours, which isn't the case here at all, partly because of the paper they used.

I can't make a direct comparison, but I've read that there was also an edition by Limited Editions Club. I suspect that this is better than the FS edition, at least judging by photos. The watercolours themselves are gorgeous, by the way. I was lucky enough to see them in the Blake exhibition in London a year ago. So my issue is really with the way FS printed them, not the artwork.

At the time this Limited Edition was released, I was looking for a really fine edition of Pilgrim's Progress for my personal library.

I accept that William Blake is a remarkable artist but I thought that this Folio Society Limited edition would be dominated by Blake's illustrations at the expense of Bunyan's prose.

The world of Blake was a very different one to that of Bunyan. Blake just did not seem the right choice for me.

Thanks for the replies. I'm still not sure whether to buy it. It seems it is a little overpriced for what you get but I feel I will likely regret my decision if I let it sell out without getting a copy.

>4 Joshbooks1:

You might be more entertained if you buy the Tristam Shandy which is cheaper.

Lawrence Sterne was of course a Church of England clergyman and in reading this novel you might be surprised that a priest would write such a novel.

But then what was the Reverend Thomas Gilpin doing writing about the picturesque? Or the Reverend Gilbert White becoming in effect the world's first ecologist with his The Natural History of Selbourne. Or the Reverend Thomas Malthus writing his book on Economics and Population growth etc etc.

>4 Joshbooks1:

In the end, it's your decision and I know how you feel. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been as frustrated if I hadn't already got the far superior Night Thoughts and Poems of Thomas Gray, as well as having seen the original watercolours in a museum. In contrast to me, you might enjoy the book.

>6 SF-72: Ya I own both and they are spectacular - that's what worries me. Just looking online it seems similar to the Goethe, Dante, and Milton quarter leather at 3-4 times the price.

>7 Joshbooks1: "Just looking online it seems similar to the Goethe, Dante, and Milton quarter leather at 3-4 times the price."

Yes, and that's where I shelve my copy but sadly it's just different enough to stand out. I think the prints came out quite nicely. No match for Night Thoughts, the Poems of Thomas Gray, or even the FS Paradise Lost but still nice. As to the price, what FS book isn't overpriced?

The slipcase is better than on those Fine editions, but, yes, a nice sturdy slipcase, a leather label on the front of the volume, the limitation and the passage of time even all taken together seem thin justification for a price hike of around 300%. Personally I don't find the smoother leather on the spine as agreeable as that on the earlier books, and it's certainly a narrower strip. I don't regret the purchase, but might if other things were competing for the money.

>5 English-bookseller:

Not that surprising. 18th and late 17th century English clergy were all men of the world. You have to remember that this was not long after the horrific religious wars of the 17th (first half), 16th and 15th centuries. Zealotry there was not...decorum was all anyone wanted from their reverends, at least in England. Tristram Shandy is full of decorum -- double entendres, etc. Naughty but absolutely nothing stated baldly or outright.