A charity shop customer who spent 50p on a bargain bin item has been left stunned after excited historians informed her of the significance of her find. The woman revealed a discounted book caught her eye thanks to her studies of the Industrial Revolution - as it was written around the same time in the 18th century.
The title in question is Paradise Lost: A Poem In Twelve Books. Written by John Milton, the shopper's particular edition remarkably dates back to that very time.
Reddit Revelation
Posting about her amazing find on Reddit, she wrote: "1751 edition of Paradise Lost with original engravings. Bought for £0.50 in the book bin.
"I had recently finished my degree in English literature and had studied the Industrial Revolution and how the printing press transitioned from copper to steel plate engravings.
"So I honestly just thought the engravings were super cool and liked the signature from 1822, only really clicked when I got home that it's actually a very valuable prize that I'll keep ahold of."
The discovery prompted fellow Reddit users to share their excitement as well.
Fellow Users React
"Wow, what a find, could be worth £100+," one person said. "An eBay seller has theirs for £98, but yours looks in much better condition."
A second declared: "Those illustrations are exquisite, I'd love to see more! What an absolute corker of a find!" A third person added: "You won in a lottery."
Meanwhile, a fourth Reddit user pondered: "Oh, that's a badly run shop. Looks like they thought, 'Oh, old religious poems', and threw it in the bargain bin. They probably have Reader's Digest Condensed Reads on the shelves! I would look up the value of that."
Update and Impact
The delighted bargain hunter later returned to her post to update followers, writing: "I think they just got a big box of books and the person working that day couldn't be bothered to sift through them.
Sadly mine has been rebound which impacts the value, but the pages and engravings are better preserved because of it so I'm happy!"
According to GoodReads, Paradise Lost tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of innocence pitted against corruption, in which God and Satan fight a bitter battle for control of mankind's destiny.
It adds: "The struggle rages across three worlds - heaven, hell, and earth - as Satan and his band of rebel angels plot their revenge against God. At the center of the conflict are Adam and Eve, who are motivated by all too human temptations but whose ultimate downfall is unyielding love.
Marked by Milton's characteristic erudition, Paradise Lost is a work epic both in scale and, notoriously, in ambition. For nearly 350 years, it has held generation upon generation of audiences in rapt attention, and its profound influence can be seen in almost every corner of Western culture."
As fellow Reddit users highlighted, Milton's work has served as A-Level English Literature coursework for generations.
