The Pilgrim's Progress: An Illustrated Christian Classic

By John Bunyan

The Pilgrim’s Progress has inspired readers across the centuries to persevere in their faith. For longstanding fans of Bunyan’s tale, or for those encountering it for the first time, this illustrated edition offers new beauty and insight with striking hand-painted illustrations and enlightening commentary for all ages.

Inside you’ll find:

• 15 chapters, accompanied by gorgeous hand-painted scenes at the beginning of each chapter
• annotations embedded across every chapter to help readers gain a deeper understanding of the allegory
• a presentation page for thoughtful gifting and a notes section to write down your thoughts
• a ribbon marker for easy referencing
• colorful artwork throughout the entire book

Originally written for the everyman, John Bunyan's Christian classic has since found its way into the libraries of scholars and universities as well—a true masterpiece for the ages. Its historical richness, eloquent symbolism, and stunning prose have withstood the test of time, and this new edition helps readers appreciate the timeless beauty found in Bunyan’s words.

The Pilgrim’s Progress is perfect for:

• homeschooling families or an addition to your family library
• men, women, and children who enjoy learning about history

Since its publication in 1678, The Pilgrim’s Progress has been translated into more than 200 languages. It's a worldwide bestseller, second only to the Bible, and it has become a hallmark among scholars and theologians around the globe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Nov 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781400216529

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

[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.

[thesilverofhisfining · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is my copy, a gift from my mother.I had read the child's version, never the real thing. This was my first reading of it. It is excellent.The Second Part is easier to read than the first. The vernacular of the day is very "modern" (not much change in 400 years). I'd like to try reading just the narrative without reading the notes. Wait a few years, then read again.

[knightlight777 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Early chrisitan brain washing and gobbledy-gook.

[devandecicco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There is a reason why this is the most widely published Christian book outside of the Bible. Bunyan, with seriousness and at times with humor, dissects the human condition. I recommend this both to Christians and non-Christians, as it reveals the subtle deceit of many paradigms that we encounter in our lifetime.

[edmundane · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Honestly, I love Christian Allegory, but I felt this was a diluted rip off of the Everyman moral play. I was looking forward to a provocative tale but this came up short with blatant imagery pulled together with the smallest bit of finesse. Sorry to be so scathing Mr. Bunyan. I get that it was to be accessible to the common man, but this is more a pamphlet than a serious piece of literature.The only reason I think I'll keep reading it is so that I know the references and allusions people take from it. It's an easy enough read.

[sfm13 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I first read this as a young girl; inspired by the March sisters in "Little Women." I remember the quest Christian was on as full of dangers and temptations. I don't remember reading part two of the story when Christiana and the boys takes centerstage. I remembered Christian’s trouble of staying on the straight and narrow and falling into the mire ... the sloth of despond. I've been there myself over the years, but I keep pressing on. This time I listened to the story on audiobook. I loved the spoken language .. the "thus said," "where for," "whence come you " ... Bunyan's poetic measures were apologized for, but I found them to be quaint and enjoyed hearing them. Here's a favorite: "Apples were they with which we were beguiled, Yet sin, not apples, hath our soul defiled ...." When Christian and Hopeful approach the beautiful "By-path" meadow full of lilies, and they lay down to sleep, for some reason I began to think about the yellow-brick road and Dorothy lieing down in the field of poppies. Pilgrim’s Progress the second time around,years later,was good. Now I have more knowledge now of the allegories made to the Biblical word. I recognized Christ’s temptation in the wilderness, Lot’s wife turned to a pillar of salt, and Jacob’s ladder. Now I want to read Bunyan’s “twin” to this book: The Life and Death of Mr. Badman

[jchancel_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have heard horror stories about this book my whole life from people who were required to read this in school and subsequently forced to write tedious and life-draining essays about it. However, out of sheer tenacity I decided to read this book of my own free will. And then I couldn't put it down. It took me about five pages to acclimate to Bunyan's voice, but once I got used to the book's style I was intrigued. Following Christian through his battles, and meeting his various acquaintances was interesting enough. Plus, I found myself comparing different characters to different people in my life. I challenge anyone to be unable to relate to at least one of the characters in the book. A lot of atheists will berate this book simply because it is Christian and they are not, but they are too clouded by their own convictions to see the beauty of the book by itself. The book's similarities to mythological works should make it interesting to people of all beliefs or lack thereof.

[kerygma_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If there is any one theological fiction that Christians should read today, this book would be it! Classic, powerful, imaginative, and provocative. Well worth reading, and not full of theological blunders like books that currently line many peoples shelves.

[greatrakes · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I've hated this book for as long as I can remember, even though I'd never read it. For five years, every school day, my Headmaster would take his reading for assembly from this one book. Bored rigid by the smug tedious Christian, wishing just once that Apollyon or Giant Despair would win, I swore eternal enmity to John Bunyan, his book and the plodding hymns it inspired.Well I've now read it (I have a very nice Folio Edition) and I'm pleased to say I haven't changed my mind. What a priggish, self-satisfied, pile of tosh it really is. I see now that is as much a political treatise as a religious work, but that simply makes it cynical as well as dull, in my view

[libbug_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

love every minute. Names are so poignant!

[quoddy_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first was a whole heap of fun, but the second was a little tedious. I'm sure it's a perfectly good book if you are a puritan Christian, but as I am neither of the two, I found it quite mediocre.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[aethercowboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pilgrim's Progress is one of the most influential Christian allegories. Long before Narnia, Bunyan put pen to parchment to record his dream while being held in prison. The end result was Pilgrim's Progress.PP takes us on a journey through the life of a Christian, that is, the allegorical life of a Christian. The trials faced by a Christian are all anthropomorphisms here. The main character must navigate away from the City of Destruction, and eventually arrive at his final destination, The Celestial City.Definitely an enjoyable read for those who appreciate renowned and well-written religious allegories.

[endersreads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I know exactly how Christian feels. His non-conformity has estranged him not only from the world, but from his wife and children, who laugh at him and his philosophy with the others. Why would Christian choose this lonely path? It is because he has had revelation of the future, which brings realization of the present and past. He simply does not find his lifestyle appealing anymore. It was not a fondness of isolation that brought Christian to his pilgrimage, it was Divine Providence--the Revealer. He did not ignore it and go back to his life of illusion. He asked "What shall I do?", and he was given answer. As we come to learn, setting forth on the pilgrimage is only a first step. Bunyan was not only allegory, Bunyan was life, truth, experience. Spending much of his time in prison, Bunyan related to us why his choices were right. He brought to Christianity something no one had. He brought simple truth, logical reasoning, a map to a map. As our protangonist, Christian, comes to his last step, the world and his family take note of his accomplishments. They become open to the Holy Spirit's whispers. They follow, as Christian showed them how, as Christian learned from Christ. They go from this world, to that which is to come. All Faiths will enjoy this read, as all Faiths have. The book's age is a testament to the wisdoms within. You will recognize all of the characters here--their names reveal them.

[mommywithlittles · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hard to actually read but the audio dramatizations are WONDERFUL! We tried it as a "read aloud" with one person reading but always had to say who is speaking. Maybe good for a family to read like a play (have multiple copies) and discuss as you go along. Wonderful alleghory! For younger readers, there are children's versions available to help with understanding.

[estellen_4 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'll be brutally honest. I didn't understand this book at all. It seems to be the symbolic journey of a Christian, who meets various challenges and emotions in human form. A lot of people loved it, I didn't get it. The language put me off - it's written in a sort of King James English, which I didn't have the energy to follow.

[jdmerth_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an amazingly helpful book for Christians. It's a reminder that we are on a constant journey which only began at the wicket gate and continues until our death. I'll be reading this again and again!

[readingrat_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I throughly enjoyed this book. There are so many references to this work throughout modern and classic literature that it was interesting to finally hear the original work. Furthermore, I highly recommend listening to the public domain audio recording of this book found at librivox.com. Although these audio files are not professionally done, the English woman who reads this work for Librivox has a wonderful voice that really compliments the work and brings the book to life.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A book of many layers, you can read it over and over and still find new treasures in it.

[whicker_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A true classic for both the Christian and the non-Christian world. Excellent example of allegory.

[theologicaldan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a classic for good reason. While it was written three hundred years ago, the characters come to life and shed light on the struggle of living as a Christian. This is a must read.

[taterzngravy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

We read this together as a family during our family time after dinner. The story itself is a classic that everyone should be familiar with. This edition adds color plates and drawings that add to the enjoyment of the book.

[pepys_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Yes, I liked this book. Although I am not normally interested in this kind of Christian literature, I own that it is cleverly written, with plain and simple words which make you feel in peace. Perhaps the best way to enjoy this book would be to read it aloud for the musicality of the sentences.

[grinningdwarf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Classic allegory about the Christian journey thorugh life. Belongs in every Christian library.

[ex_ottoyuhr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bunyan has very clearly read his Spenser, and that's a good thing. He creates an admirably readable allegory of what is actually, not the Puritan progress to salvation, but the Catholic one. I lost count of the times when Christian backslides or comes close, only to return penitiently to the proper path; it's rather awkward for the allegory _qua_ Puritan allegory that sin and repentance, so amply provided for in Catholicism, don't even _appear_ in the Calvinist model. Chesterton was right, and I think it was Bunyan who inspired him to say it: the Catholic faith is the only human faith, and is mirrored endlessly by reality and story alike -- even when the story is by one who would be a little bit... _chagrined_ to discover just what Church he was writing for.