Other editions of book Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come by John Bunyan is a bright example of the new Christian allegory of XVII century. The author, son of an ordinary sheet metal worker (rather despised job that had to done by the people with the lowest social status in England), John Bunyan used to be a sinner and ribald before marriage. Only after marrying an orphan Marry, whose only heritage was two books: Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven by Arthur Dent and Practice of Piety by Lewis Bayly, he started his uneasy way to moral recovery. Considerably soon, Bunyan became a preacher. He was numerously chased by the authorities as well as English Church for his Christian views, baptistic in particular. He began writing The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come in prison. The book is questionable and contradictive but written very sincerely and persuasively. This work is probably one of the most famous allegories ever written. The book is translated into many languages. Protestants translated often the book into different languages as the second one after the Bible.

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 religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print. It has also been cited as the first novel written in English.Bunyan began his work while in the Bedfordshire county prison for violations of the Conventicle Act of 1664, which prohibited the holding of religious services outside the auspices of the established Church of England. Early Bunyan scholars such as John Brown believed The Pilgrim's Progress was begun in Bunyan's second, shorter imprisonment for six months in 1675, but more recent scholars such as Roger Sharrock believe that it was begun during Bunyan's initial, more lengthy imprisonment from 1660 to 1672 right after he had written his spiritual autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.The English text comprises 108,260 words and is divided into two parts, each reading as a continuous narrative with no chapter divisions. The first part was completed in 1677 and entered into the Stationers' Register on 22 December 1677. It was licensed and entered in the "Term Catalogue" on 18 February 1678, which is looked upon as the date of first publication. After the first edition of the first part in 1678, an expanded edition, with additions written after Bunyan was freed, appeared in 1679. The Second Part appeared in 1684. There were eleven editions of the first part in John Bunyan's lifetime, published in successive years from 1678 to 1685 and in 1688, and there were two editions of the second part, published in 1684 and 1686.

With its vivid characterizations, direct and colorful style, and beauty of language, Pilgrim’s Progress has long been one of the most popular books in the English language. The story opens with the author claiming to have had a dream in which he sees the figure of Christian weeping and wondering what to do to avoid the destruction of himself, his family and his town. The rest of the narrative follows Christian on his journey from the City of Destruction via the Slough of Despond, the Hill of Difficulty, the Valley of the Shadow of Death and Vanity Fair over the River of the Water of Life and into the Celestial City.

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This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format. Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship.