This first critical edition is one of few reprints of a book which was originally published in 1680, two years after The Pilgrim's Progress, when it was described by Bunyan as 'the Life and Death of the Ungodly, and their travel from this world to Hell', in contrast to Christian's journey to heaven. In fact, Badman is not a true sequel to the great allegory; rather, it is a very different book, a dark, coarse, vigorous delineation of provincial vice. From his
apprenticeship until he becomes a prosperous shopkeeper, Badman gives free rein to greed, lust, and the exploitation of others, including his virtuous wife. Puritan moral abstraction is almost buried under realistic detail in a work which looks both back to the medieval homily and forward to the novel. It
is an indispensable work for the study of seventeenth-century Puritan society and its mythology; as with the same editors' The Holy War, it contains a full introduction and commentary.
- ISBN10 3849153002
- ISBN13 9783849153007
- Publish Date 27 November 2012 (first published 25 August 1988)
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Tredition Classics
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 206
- Language English