The Pilgrim's Progress

Written by John Bunyan

Narrated by Stephen Johnston

Once the most deeply cherished book in English-speaking households other than Bible itself, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim's Progress is the allegorical tale of Christian the pilgrim on his journey to the Celestial City. Along the way, Christian encounters both worthy companions and dreadful adversaries. Although this book was written more than three hundred years ago, this stirring spiritual narrative still bears the power to challenge and encourage readers on their own spiritual journeys.

About the Hendrickson Christian Classics series:
Acts of faith always start with a small “yes”—so how can you get better at hearing his call? Learning from trusted elders and writers in Christianity who walked before us is a fantastic way to begin! Whether you are looking to get more out of Scripture, be challenged by God’s relentless love, or gain a greater understanding for how Jesus reveals himself, the Hendrickson Christian Classics series will inspire and provoke you into a deeper relationship with the Lord.

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Immerse yourself in these spiritual Christian classics!
Dive deep into these amazing masterworks and experience some of the greatest Christian classics, all masterfully narrated by Emmy Award winner Stephen Johnston:

• The Pilgrim’s Progress (by John Bunyan)
• Absolute Surrender (by Andrew Murray)
• The Practice of the Presence of God (by Brother Lawrence)
• How to Pray and How to Study the Bible (by R.A. Torrey)
• Heretics (by G.K. Chesterton)
• Humility (by Andrew Murray)
• In His Steps (by Charles Sheldon)
• The Imitation of Christ (by Thomas a Kempis)
• The Kneeling Christian (by Albert Richardson)
• Orthodoxy (by G.K. Chesterton)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
• Release date: Oct 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781683079163

John Bunyan

John Bunyan (1628–1688) was a Reformed Baptist preacher in the Church of England. He is most famous for his celebrated Pilgrim's Progress, which he penned in prison. Bunyan was author of nearly sixty other books and tracts, including The Holy War and Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. 

Reviews for The Pilgrim's Progress

[ironjaw-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Insufferable. Period

[lachlanp-387269 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to this on Audible.

This was a great book, a great narration, and a great allegory. I'm more familiar with the modern abridged versions so it was good to go back to Bunyan's original.

There were a couple things I found wanting though:
1. as a story, it could use some editing to tighten up the pacing. Particularly at the end, there was a lot of "discoursing" back and forth.
2. some of the discourses the pilgrims had, especially with the misguided/evil individuals they met, felt very preachy. I don't know if that's because it was how people back then told each other they were wrong, or whether as a minister, he felt it was better to get straight to the point to care for someone's soul. But it felt as if they didn't really "love" these people, possibly because Bunyan knew they were destined for Hell anyway. There could have been more friendliness in the disputes.

Besides that, I'd recommend reading it. Bunyan sprinkles in relevant biblical allusions all through it, from passing sentences to characters and places. And though occasionally his allegory falls back down to earth in a few places and uses our experiences without translating them, most of the time it depicts real things in the Christian life in a very graphic, useful way.

[mbmackay · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

In 2015 The Guardian published a list of the 100 best novels published in English, listed in chronological order of publication. Under Covid inspired lockdown, I have taken up the challenge.The Pilgrim's Progress, published in 1678, is the first in the list.I was underwhelmed. It is a Christian allegory, and has remained popular and recommended (although possible less read) ever since publication. I found the prose turgid and the content nonsensical.The 17th century had Shakespeare and poetry, and I expected more of the prose fiction of the era, but the genre had not really been established. Five hundred years after the Tale of Genji, English literaure was waiting for its first novel.The 17th century was also the dawn of the Enlightenment. Newton published Principia Mathematica 10 years after Pilgrim's Progress. In that context, Pilgim's Progress seems a last echoing cry of the non-rational world.

[danielstj · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A lucid story that weaves and flows its way through inception to conclusion.Recommended for everyone

[the_hibernator · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Summary: In this allegorical novel, a pilgrim named Christian travels a journey in which he loses the heavy weight of his sins, is tempted to sin again, and eventually reaches paradise.My thoughts: I’m not sure why this is the most printed book in English, other than the Bible. I love allegory generally, but this allegory beat you over the head with obviousness. Everyone and everything was given a name (like Christian) that said explicitly what the character or impediment represented. The story itself was interesting enough, I suppose, as a concept, I just wish it were more subtle. This is also not a book for non-Christians, unless they are reading for the sake of learning about classic literature.

[ecataldi-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I don't know if this is the worst book that I've ever read or if the audiobook was so atrocious that it made it into the worst thing ever. This book was a nightmare. I get it, I get it, I know it's supposed to be a Christian allegory, but listening to six hours of this (fully fucking dramatized) was hell. HELL. I wanted to bleach my ears. I couldn't handle it anymore, did Satan narrate this? This book made the Lord of the Rings trilogy look like a cake walk!! The Pilgrim's Progress was a long ass journey to heaven made by "Christian" and other people he runs into. They face all sorts of dumb shit and get into dumb trouble and make lots of dumb decisions but SOME FUCKING HOW still make it to heaven (spoiler alert). Christian loses lots of companions, walks into dumb scenarios every other page, but luckily for him, he had some faith so he made it. UGH. I hate everything. I'm glad this nightmare book is over.

[samtekoa · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is an abbreviated version with fantastic illustrations. Probably very good to read to children but a bit too simplistic for adults. Enjoyable none the less.

[oscarwilde87_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan was written in 1678 and can be counted among the most significant works of English literature. It is an allegory, presented as a narration of a dream, and it is divided into two parts. The first part follows protagonist Christian from the City of Destruction, i.e. this world, to the Celestial City, i.e. heaven. Christian sets out on this journey, leaving behind his wife, his children and his home, because he is weighed down by a burden. On his way, he goes through several stages and meets various persons, some of whom accompany him on his journey and some of whom try to convince him of leaving the path he is on. The characters he encounters have, as he himself, very straightforward names that show their main character trait. They can be regarded as flat characters whose name already gives away what their character is like and what their role in the story will be. Examples of such names are Legality, Goodwill, Faithful, Ignorance, Giant Despair, and Mistrust, to name but a few. The same thing can be said for the stages Christian passes through. There is the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Vanity Fair, the Hill of Difficulty, or the Delectable Mountains. The second part of The Pilgrim's Progress relates the story of Christiana, Christian's wife, who sets out with her children and Mercy, another woman from the City of Destruction, to follow her husband's path to Mount Zion and the Celestial City.Although the book was written in 1678, the text is very easy to follow as the language is quite simple with no complex sentence structures. Bunyan's writing style is very direct, which is probably due to the fact that the book was intended for a popular and not for a higher-educated academic readership. Being a Christian allegory it was aimed at a broad audience depicting Christian life as the only true way of life. The names of characters and places ensure that there is no trouble in deciphering the allegoric meaning of the novel. Yet, I have read that Bunyan, who is said to have traveled from Bedford to London, was influenced by his personal surroundings in the description of the places in the story. Generally, the book can be approached without much background knowledge, but you probably might get more out of it with a religious background.On the whole, 3.5 stars as the second part was somewhat repetitive after having read the first one. Plus, I felt I was getting a moralizing lecture.

[martinbodek · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book wasn't bad or awful, per se, it was simply painfully dull and boring with absolutely no vested interest in what occurs with the characters. Which brings us to the characters! Look, I get that this is a biblically-woven highly religious allegory of personal salvation, that much is clear, but does the reader have to be blunted over the head with it? The lead player is named Christian? Really? Couldn't call him Bob? And his wife is Christina? You're joking, right? Pamela would've been better. The biggest surprise - and there are none - is that his children aren't named Christine, Christopher, and Jiminy Christmas. Also, did Bunyan HAVE to name everyone else exactly what they are in metaphor? I found that aggravating, and the slog-through was mighty difficult, and the sudden bursts of rhyme were ridiculous and often non-rhyming, but I'm all the richer for having read it, right? Wrong. Guess I'm going to hell.

[bayardus-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

For those too lazy to read the Bible or too dumb to form even a surface level interpretation of Christianity, there’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. The journey of the Christian spirit cloaked in the thinnest of allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress is a book in two parts, the first part dealing with a man named Christian making his way to the celestial city (heaven, obviously). Part two follows his wife Christiana making a very, very similar journey. The names are indicative of the level of both subtlety and creativity that Bunyan put into this book.

The lack of subtlety is perhaps an unfair criticism, as Bunyan was clearly writing this book for the absolute lowest common denominator, but that proves to be a problem in its own right. For instance, Bunyan writes about brothers Passion and Patience to illustrate that patience is a virtue and that rash passion is bad: this is the 1678 precursor to the kid shows that nowadays run on the Christian TV channels to teach young children how to behave. Though Bunyan litters the book with Bible quotes, this book doesn’t contain any hint of the moral complexity that the Bible often explores: these lessons are black-and-white, the completely one-dimensional characters identified as on the side of good or evil immediately once their names are revealed (Goodwill, Faithful, and Old Honest are all good, surprise surprise). Not only does Bunyan make everything as simple as possible to promote mass consumption, but he also tries to gussy up the lessons by adding action scenes throughout the journey. In part 1 Christian fights a demon, and then in part 2 no less than four giants are slain, and the beast from the Book of Revelation is driven off as well (suggesting that Bunyan never grasped any of the symbolic meaning of the Book of Revelation at all). This is the Hollywood blockbuster of its time, designed to entertain and make the ideas within palatable to as broad an audience as possible, not to challenge the reader in any way. Unfortunately, the Bible isn't something that can be reduced to this type of bland and bite-sized entertainment without losing much of what makes it great.

What makes this book so painful to read is that Bunyan’s purpose in writing it, to set out the path a person needs to follow to get into heaven, has been done so much better elsewhere. Specifically Dante’s Divine Comedy puts Pilgrim’s Progress to shame in every way that I can think of, not to mention the Bible of course. Dante’s Divine Comedy is the closer parallel, as Dante is also using the journey of a man to illustrate the necessary traits and steps for getting into heaven and what steps to avoid. Dante not only wrote of the circles of Hell, levels of purgatory, and spheres of heaven to illustrate how a person should act, he was also doing a myriad of other things as well: writing about Italian politics at the time, merging the classical myths and teachings with the Christian system of morality, writing a moving letter to his deceased first love Beatrice, redefining the Italian language, and mapping the heavenly cosmos in detail. Not only did Dante do all of this, but he also did it all exceptionally well. For instance, each of the three stairs at the entrance to the mountain of Purgatory has a specific meaning- nothing is added at random, everything is in its place. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, in comparison, seems slapdash and lazy. Bunyan isn’t trying to do very much, just sketch some moral lessons that lead a soul to heaven in the least nuanced manner possible. Why is the Slough of Despond located where it is? Or the arbor called Slothful’s Friend? And why does Christian run into Atheist when he does? And why doesn’t Christiana run into Atheist at all? The answer seems to be that Bunyan decided to put those challenges where they are because that's when he thought up the lesson while writing the story, not because he had a clear concept of a soul’s journey, or that the placement was particularly symbolic, or any other good reason. He could have switched around the challenges the pilgrims faced in their journeys and nothing would have been lost. Thus, you finish Pilgrim’s Progress and feel nothing comparable to the unified vision of the universe that you get with Dante, just a bunch of disjointed lessons that are mostly mind-numbingly simplistic. It doesn’t help that Bunyan decides to go over the same journey twice, with only slightly different challenges the second time around.

Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress is a story of the soul’s journey to heaven that delivers only the simplest lessons, told in an uncreative way, and which seems thrown together instead of set in a specific order for a specific purpose. Despite the action added by Bunyan the journey isn’t a particularly interesting one- it's lacking all subtlety and moral complexity- and it’s rendered even more boring by the journey happening twice. There is no reason to read this book while there are still copies of The Divine Comedy and the Bible left in the world. Your time is much better spent reading one of those- a few pages of either have more worth than the entirety of The Pilgrim's Progress.

[joshrskinner-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great. Wonderful. Terrific! I cannot express how wonderful this book was. I loved it. My kids loved it. And now they want to read the "grown-up" version of Pilgrim's Progress.

Also, the curriculum to go with it is AMAZING! Looking forward to going through the book again!

[krista.rutherford · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is ancient! As an allegory of the Christian life, it still makes (almost?) perfect sense today. The second part with Christian's wife and children was kind of boring, probably because it's the retelling of the same story.

[benedict8-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a Christian book. But its principles of not getting tricked or waylaid off your chosen path as a baseball player or President. We get off our goals just as easily as a Christian apparently gets away from his or her goals in life.

[jvioland_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I started it once and put it down. Too boring. I picked it up a few years later and found it interesting - the tedious journey no longer seemed so. A puritanical pursuit of the good.

[amerynth · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I can appreciate why John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress," an allegory of the Christian faith, was beloved by Puritans. For me, it was incredibly tedious and a 1,001 book just to try and get through.I failed in that... after it became clear the second half was going to be pretty much a retelling of the first half, I finally gave up.

[bradkautz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

By reputation John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is one of the classics of English literature, being in print continuously since 1678 and being translated into over 200 languages. In its essence it is the story of Christian faith, following a person of faith as he journeys through life until he arrives at his heavenly home. It is told from the vantage point of a dream and makes excellent use of the method of allegory. Bunyan wrote this masterpiece in two parts, the first being the story of the journey of a pilgrim, Christian, from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. The second part is the story of his wife, Christiana, and their four children taking the same journey several years later. Christiana had mocked her husband when he left and she delights in learning the details of his travel as she finds herself being led along the same road. I found Christiana's travels more compelling, perhaps due to the way in which vibrant faith was also expressed in the children.While Bunyan used allegory to tell this story everything about it comes across as something he knows first-hand, either from his own personal experience as a Christian who was jailed for his faith, or that he learned while serving as a pastor. The struggles that Christian and Christiana go through, although written over 300 years ago, are the struggles of Christians today. And so are the joys and delights that are found in the Christian life. I received this book three years ago as a gift from someone who said he read from it often. And now, having read it myself, I am beginning to understand why, and I anticipate I will follow his habit.

[glennbell_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The book is composed of two stories. The story of the pilgrimage of Christian is followed by a story of his wife Christiana's pilgrimage with her children. The story has similarities to that of paradise lost. Bunyan's story is tedious and boring. I cannot recommend the book to anyone but the fanatic.

[lisamaria_c · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This 1678 work is Christian allegory with a capital C. It may not be necessary to be a Christian to love this, but I’m sure it helps. A lot. A whole lot. Particularly helps to be a “fire and brimstone” Christian who believes humans aren’t just fallen but completely depraved and not about to make it into Heaven unless they walk one narrow path. I’m not a Christian--I’m an atheist. That doesn’t stop me from loving Dante’s Divine Comedy, also a work suffused with Christian themes--but Bunyan is no Dante. There is something very human, let alone humanistic about Dante. Wonderful stories--often about real people and historic personages such as Vergil and Brutus with which Dante peopled his Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. Bunyan is much more abstract--his journey to the Celestial City is filled with such figures as “Pliance,” “Worldly Wiseman,” “Evangelist” and “Hopeful.” Dante’s a poet--Bunyan a preacher--and believe me, you can tell. Honestly I’m surprised I didn’t completely hate it, especially since I don’t like allegory that is so blatant. I read it because it’s on Good Reading’s “100 Significant Books”--and because it keeps coming up over and over in books I’ve read. It provides the title and theme for Thackeray’s Vanity Fair and the theme and structure for Alcott’s Little Women where the March sisters play at taking up Christian’s “burden.” The Introduction of the edition I read tells us that “for two hundred years, The Pilgrim’s Progress was, after the Bible, the most widely read book in the English-speaking world” and the “most widely influential book ever written in English.” From time to time I’ve heard of the “Slough of Despond,” “Doubtful Castle” and the “Delectable Mountains.” I think that kept my interest pretty keen through Part One, where Christian, taking up his “burden” of sin, climbs mountains and walks through such valleys as the Shadow of Death. Being raised a Christian as well as encountering the literary allusions to it meant I had enough of the context to keep me fairly engaged. Endnotes and footnotes and even sidenotes in the Barnes and Noble edition helped a lot in keeping the 17th century prose understandable. Without them a lot of the doctrinal squabbles between Catholics, Anglicans, Puritans, Quakers and other non-conformists alluded to in the work would have slipped right on by--although the spirit of intolerance towards those of Bunyan's coreligionists who don’t agree with him didn’t need footnotes to come through. There's only one way to Heaven--Bunyan's way. You go through the Wicket Gate, with your Robe and your Mark and your Roll or you fall into Hell. On the other hand, knowing Bunyan wrote this in prison, where he spent twelve years because he refused to abandon his Christian principles, did mean that when Christian encountered monsters and beasts and mobs I knew these weren’t just puffed up imaginary impediments. Bunyan walked the walk; I had to respect that. He lived this story. That came through too.I did start finding it a slog in Part Two. That part, written years later, isn’t a continuation as much as a sequel. One where wife Christiana and kidlets follow the road already traveled; I found that too repetitive. I think I was also irked that while Christian, who abandoned his family, is able to strike out on his own, his distaff counterpart has to have a guide, Greatheart. While Christian gets to fight the monster Apollyon himself, his wife stands by while her champion slays all in their way. If all is allegory, what does that say about the weakness of women’s souls? On the other hand, this part of the story at least is more compassionate than hectoring, as pilgrims help those weaker to make the journey. I am glad I did finally read Pilgrim’s Progress, if only to better catch the frequent references in literature. I don't know that I can honestly say I liked Part One though, and I wasn't far into Part Two before I was soooo tired of this. Yet I can’t help think a lot of fantasy from The Wizard of Oz to Narnia owes a debt to Bunyan. At the least, it might give any rereads of Little Women a whole new layer of meaning...

[mumfie_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This has to be one of the most tedious books ever written. The imagery used such as the Slough of Despondency is great but that's about it. It's the second time I've read it and don't think I'll manage a third.

[clarehatt · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely loved reading this! It has to be the best allegory of man's search for life and salvation. This book promises love, hope, light, healing, joy and peace. The only thing the reader must do, is find his path and then stay on it.

[nathan7c7moore · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Read the children's version half a dozen times as a child. I believe this is the first time I have read the original... I'm sure it isn't the last.

[randystafford · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The main reason to read this book is just because it was so phenomenally popular in England and America and not for a particularly novel theology.It’s short and surprisingly entertaining, especially for some of the allegorical names. The book definitely does not contain a modern, feel-good Christianity. At one time, when protagonist Christian and fellow pilgrim Hopeful are talking to Ignorance about whether his thoughts are godly, Ignorance insists they are. His heart is good because his thoughts are good. Christian lays into him and tells him that his thoughts are only godly if they match God’s thoughts and God thinks all of man’s ways are sinful. Bunyan bolsters his points with italicized quotes from the scriptures. There is a nice section where Christian outlays the psychology of the backslider. At many points, Bunyan the preacher makes his observations and arguments in a point by point format.I find the narrative structure interesting. Unlike William Langland’s Piers Plowman, this is not a single dream vision but pieced together from several sequential dreams of the narrator. I believe some have made the argument that this book served as a template for later quest fantasy narratives or fictional spiritual journeys. Certainly, its plot is sometimes surprising. Ignorance is whisked away to the City of Destruction in the novel’s last paragraph. The conversion of Hopeful, why he left Vanity Fair and his spiritual journey on the way to meeting fellow pilgrim Christian, is related towards the end of the novel rather than the expected beginning. The story starts off with Christian, fearing the imminent destruction of the world and his damnation, setting off for the City of God with a burden on his back. Bunyan starts and ends his book with a verse apology and song snatches at the end of sections summarize the moral or wisdom we are to take away.As I said, this story’s main value is getting a sense of one strain of popular Protestantism (not politically popular – Bunyan spent years in jail for preaching after Charles II took power). William Blake’s illustrations didn’t add much value for me. Unless you are a huge fan of his work, you’ll find his rather androgynous looking Christian, oddly muscled and always in blandly colored engravings, to not be terribly pretty or interesting.

[pondlife_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The classic 17th century Christian allegory.I thought this was worth reading for its literary significance and classic status. I'm glad that I read it, but I'm not sure I'll read it again.A couple of things I didn't like were:1. Christian seems to have no great connection with his family, friends or companions. He seems too quick to abandon people, and this made it difficult for me to connect with the character.2. The allegory is too direct. Yes, we all know it's an allegorical work, but it just seems too specific and everything has a one-to-one relationship with Christian theology.

[atreic · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I didn't really get on with this book, for three main reasons:1) An allegory for edification written in 16-mumble is not going to be a page turning plot or character driven romp. It was quite heavy going in places, and the number of times Christian spent much of the chapter telling someone what happened to him last chapter left me going 'I know! I just read that!'2) I didn't really agree with the theology that it was proposing. I spent a lot of the book wanting to clobber the author with 'there's a wideness in God's mercy'. There is one gate, and you must come in through that gate, even at the gates of heaven if you've Done It Wrong you'll be cast into Hell, and there are very precise things that make Good Christians and Fake Christians (the sections with Ignorance and Talkative make me twitch, lots). Most of these things involve constantly feeling utterly sinful and definitely having a Revelation TM. Still, 16 century protestants, it's hardly a surprise (and the fault may be with me and not the author...)3) Some of the time I was just plain confused - what are the wicker gate and scroll analogies for? [I have done some googling and looked at the Spark notes and am still confused]. The wicker gate is the Only Way to Heaven TM, and you Must have your Scroll or you won't get in (and you can drop it on the way)... for a book that is so painfully a direct analogy then I really feel I ought to know what these things are an analogy _of_!That aside, there are some lovely bits to it. The Pilgrims are not supermen - they are flawed and human, and mess up, and get back to things again, and the passage when they are trapped by Giant Despair really touched me. And it gets plus points for being the source of vast amounts of Stuff though, including 'Vanity Fair', the Slough of Despond, and even the holy text from Bujold's Borders of Infinity (It quite surprised me when I stumbled across the latter!)

[aulsmith · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to be a good Little Woman and love this book, but I didn't even get halfway through. How Louisa May Alcott, who suffered extensively from her father's neglect of his family while he pursued his own spiritual goals, could recommend this book, where the main character deserts his family in the first chapter, is beyond me.

[vibrantminds · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Written in the 1600's while John Bunyan was in prison for his criticism of the "Church". The book however, supports the "Church" ... maybe he had a change of heart while in prison? It begins with the author entering into a dream where Christian foresees the destruction of his city and desires to travel to the Celestial city. He longs for his family to join him but they aren't convinced and refuse to go. Along the way he meets many different characters which try to distract him and convince him to turn back. Some of whom he comes in contact with are: good will, faith, by-ends, hope, ignorance, giant despair, etc. All of which teach him a different lesson. Eventually he does make it to the Celestial city and is welcome in. Part two is Christian's wife Christiana who decides she was foolish to stay behind and longs to join her husband. She sets off with her 4 sons along the same journey with Mercy accompanying her. They come across some of the same challenges as Christian but have more help along the way. An interesting read on the struggles in life and the desire to live with God again.

[atimco-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan is a landmark work in both Christian theology and English literature. Since its publication in 1678, it has encouraged countless Christians on their journey from this world to the next, and its impact on the literary tradition of England has been profound.Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory in the purest sense of the word; everything in the book has a one-to-one correlation with a spiritual principle. In part one, a man living in the City of Destruction becomes troubled by what he reads in a book (the Bible) and leaves his home, warning his scoffing family and neighbors that their city is going to be destroyed. He carries a heavy weight on his back and initially undertakes his journey to find a way to take it off. Along the way he meets a man named Evangelist who speaks truth to him, but not all fellow travelers are so congenial. He meets with characters with names like Mr. Worldly-wiseman, Formalist, Hypocrisy, Timorous, Mistrust, and Wanton, as well as Apollyon (an archdevil) and the Giant Despair, among others. Through a landscape of theological traps and oases Christian (for that is now his name) must make his way ever onward to the Celestial City, sustained on his travels by the Lord of Pilgrims.The second part recounts the story of Christiana, Christian's wife, who eventually follows her husband's path from the City of Destruction to eternal life in the Celestial City. In terms of sheer dramatic effect, part two is far inferior to part one; instead of fleeing her city in despair over its coming destruction, Christiana receives an invitation from the Lord of Pilgrims to join Him and her husband in His city. She takes along her four sons and her handmaid Mercy, and they are aided on their journey by a Mr. Great-heart. There seems to be less action and more catechizing in this section of the book, but there are some valuable theological refinements as well. There are some pilgrims who probably wouldn't have been considered worthy of pilgrimage in the first part, like Mr. Fearing, Mr. Despondency, and his daughter Much-Afraid. These pilgrims are characterized by fear and weakness, but they are still loved by their Lord and they too eventually come to the Celestial City.Nowadays I think there is an attitude of amused condescension that many feel toward Pilgrim's Progress because of its theological themes sticking out in plain sight under the see-through fictional covering. I know I felt that way... oh Bunyan, my dear man, you mean well but must you be so hamfisted? Can't you cover things up a little more artistically, add some adornment to your catechismic dialogues? Don't you know that straight allegory is far, far out of fashion just now? But this was before I read it, before I understood the narrative power that can come from an author being completely honest about his themes and intentions. By stripping away every non-essential, Bunyan can get down to the theology while still working within his fictional frame. The result is rich doctrine with the immediacy of a gripping story — a heady mix that is very rarely imitated successfully.And you can't doubt the man's sincerity. Bunyan knew what it meant to be persecuted; he started the book from a prison cell where he ultimately spent twelve years of his life, imprisoned for holding church services outside the bounds of the Church of England. His imprisonment was costly not just to him, but to his family. His message is given weight by his experiences — here is a man who knows what it means to be on pilgrimage through lands ruled by the enemy. Persecution is inevitable; Christians will suffer in this world. But equally true is our reward in the Celestial City, where our Lord Himself will welcome us home. What a hope, what a joy on our journey!I have said that Pilgrim's Progress is stripped down, but maybe a truer statement would be that our conceptions of the Christian life are covered in needless accretions that both complicate and hinder our journey. Vanity Fair, the Slough of Despond, Doubting Castle, the Valley of the Shadow of Death — these are universal places we all visit. Bunyan's characters also have their counterparts in our world. Bunyan dramatizes the Christian life not to change it or present it as something it's not, but to show us where our experience is deceptive. Things are clearer in the realm of allegory. If we have never had pilgrimage experiences like those of Christian, we ought to check that we're on the right road and that we've come in through the right gate.The language is beautiful and not at all hard to understand. It has its quaint 1678-isms, but for me they added to the flavor. In many places I just stopped to savor it. I read this with my adult Bible fellowship, and most people read a version that was updated with modern English. I wouldn't advise that. The original writing is not that difficult, and while the updated version isn't terrible, it does lack Bunyan's indefinable force of language. Also there were some odd additions in the new version, theology I agreed with but that was not part of the original text. Hmm.I had read an abridged version as a child which didn't really grab me, but now I'm a pilgrim and have had some experience of the road. And now I see how powerful this story is and why it has informed the Christian imagination for centuries. In some sections I would just stop and marvel at Bunyan's fantastic theology and fertile imagination. And it doesn't hurt that the narrative is soaked in Scripture! Of Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon said, "'Prick him anywhere, his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is FULL of the Word of God.'" I couldn't get enough of it; who knew that Pilgrim's Progress could induce late-night reading vigils? I will certainly be rereading this!In the "apology" poem at the beginning, Bunyan writes, "this book will make a traveler of thee." Indeed it will.

[andyray_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the complete edition,. including the wife's journey to the Celestial City and JB's afterword. I was raised on the first part of the book. I attended a summer camp called Pilgrim Camp on the north end of Brant Lake, New York, where they studied this book as hard or harder than the Bible (at least, in the younger years of under 10), and I am glad they did. PP is a wonderfully spiritual allegory every child should read WITH his family.Publishing just the first section, however, seems to be the rule rather than the exception. I had a lovely 16" x 12" 1898 volume with aleather-covered and etched cover, engravings by Andre Dore on every few pages, I bought in Daytona Beach in 1968 for $80.00. Heaven knows how much it goes for now. This story gets better in quality as our lives get more spiritless in quantity.

[schmerguls · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

869 The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan (read 28 Sep 1966) Every literate person has to read this book so I did. I kind of looked on it as a duty, and when I was finished I felt "now, I've read it."

[wynnemrabbits · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A Must Read...sure to entertain and enlighten, read slowly, savor every word. A true life study guide...the perfect heirloom gift for parents to give to their children...as they graduate in life. *Plus in the back there is included, a fold out Color Historical Time-line and a chapter on The Life of John Bunyan...what an insightful. timeless dream!I want this book with me everywhere and always...wish it was hardcover. ... thank you so much Mr Hazelbaker!