Make block of text italicized

Question

I'm working on a book using the book document class.

I have several portions of text that I want to be italicized, each of which are several paragraphs long.

I was only able to replicate the issue by using line breaks.

Here's my header

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\usepackage{blindtext}

\begin{document}

This one inconsistently italicizes and reports an error.

% Doesn't work right
\section{block}
\textit{
\blindtext

\blindtext
}

This one works

% Works
\section{em}
\begin{em}
\blindtext

\blindtext
\end{em}

This one usually only italicizes the first paragraph, and is generally inconsistent.

% First pargraph
\section{textit}
\begin{textit}
\blindtext

\blindtext
\end{textit}

This one also only italicizes the first paragraph, and is generally inconsistent.

\section{emph}
\begin{emph}
\blindtext

\blindtext
\end{emph}

Yet, several answers on this site and others places (here and here) have said to use \textit and not \em. So, two questions:

1. What is the best way to make several paragraphs italicized at once?
2. Is using \begin{em} an okay solution?

Answer 1

Here are some options, depending on whether you want the text to stand out or not:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{lipsum}

\newenvironment{itquote}
  {\begin{quote}\itshape}
  {\end{quote}\ignorespacesafterend}
\newenvironment{itpars}
  {\par\itshape}
  {\par}
\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]
\begin{quote}
  \lipsum[2]
\end{quote}
\lipsum[3]
\begin{itquote}
  \lipsum[2]
\end{itquote}
\lipsum[4]
\begin{itpars}
  \lipsum[2]
\end{itpars}
\lipsum[5]

\end{document}

The main principle is to use the declaration \itshape rather than a macro (like \textit).

Answer 2

You wrote:

I have several portions of text that I want to be italicized, each of which are several paragraphs long.

The macro \textit is not designed to work across paragraph breaks. Hence, don't use \textit{...} for the portions of text in question. Instead, use {\itshape ...}.

Assuming the macro \em hasn't been redefined somehow, {\em ...} will also render several paragraphs in italics.