Narrative

6. This ‘Miniature Book’ of Pilgrim’s Progress, abridged, only 48 pages, and sold for only one penny, remained in paper covers. Such downmarket editions provide an important contrast to the complete, more expensive editions of 200-400 pages that often included a biography, new illustrations or perhaps an introduction, and ended up covered in calf, with gilt lettering and likely a stamp inside indicating ownership. In this way, Pilgrim’s Progress was an important part of the literary connection between upmarket and downmarket readers that occurred with the expansion of print and access to reading over the course of the nineteenth century.