The Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress was a book for men and women; and it was aimed to teach the great truths of the gospel...!

eBook DESCRIPTION

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of theological fiction in English literature and a progenitor of the narrative aspect of Christian media.

eBook TAGS

Christian Fiction, Christian Pilgrims, Pilgrimages, English Literature, Theological Fiction, Christian Allegory, Religious Stories

eBook EXCERPT or SYNOPSIS

This famous story of man's progress through life in search of salvation remains one of the most entertaining allegories of faith ever written. Set against realistic backdrops of town and country, the powerful drama of the pilgrim's trials and temptations follows him in his harrowing journey to the Celestial City.
Along a road filled with monsters and spiritual terrors, Christian confronts such emblematic characters as Worldly Wiseman, Giant Despair, Talkative, Ignorance, and the demons of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. But he is also joined by Hopeful and Faithful.
An enormously influential 17th-century classic, universally known for its simplicity, vigor, and beauty of language, The Pilgrim's Progress remains one of the most widely read books in the English language.
The work is a symbolic vision of the good man?s pilgrimage through life. At one time second only to the Bible in popularity, The Pilgrim?s Progress is the most famous Christian allegory still in print. It was first published in the reign of Charles II and was largely written while its Puritan author was imprisoned for offenses against the Conventicle Act of 1593 (which prohibited the conducting of religious services outside the bailiwick of the Church of England).
he book is a Puritan conversion narrative, of which there are predecessors in Bunyan?s own work (Grace Abounding, 1666), John Foxe?s The Book of Martyrs (1563), as well as other emblem books and chapbooks from the Renaissance. The Pilgrim?s Progress, written in homely yet dignified biblical prose, has some of the qualities of a folktale, and in its humour and realistic portrayals of minor characters, it anticipates the 18th-century novel. The book was immediately popular and went through several editions within a few years of initial publication. It was translated into some 200 languages and remained a favourite for the following two centuries. Notable adaptations included a 1951 opera composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams.