''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christian

allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...

written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of

theological fiction Theological fiction is fictional writing which shapes people's attitudes towards theological beliefs. It is typically ''instructional'' or ''exploratory'' rather than descriptive, and it engages specifically with the theoretical ideas which underl ...

in English literature and a progenitor of the narrative aspect of

Christian media Christian media, sometimes referred to as inspirational, faith and family, or simply Christian, is a cross-media genre that features a Christian message or moral. Several creative studios and mass media formats are considered to be aspects of ...

. It has been translated into more than 200 languages and never been out of print. It appeared in Dutch in 1681, in German in 1703 and in Swedish in 1727. The first North American edition was issued in 1681.Lyons, M. (2011). Books: A Living History. Getty Publications. It has also been cited as the first novel written in English. According to literary editor Robert McCrum, "there's no book in English, apart from the Bible, to equal Bunyan's masterpiece for the range of its readership, or its influence on writers as diverse as

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univer ...

, Nathaniel Hawthorne,

Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a r ...

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

, Louisa May Alcott,

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

, William Thackeray,

Charlotte Bronte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populou ...

, Mark Twain,

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

and

Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English List of children's literature writers, children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books a ...

.Forrest and Greaves 1982: xii The words on which the hymn "

To be a Pilgrim "To Be a Pilgrim" (also known as "He Who Would Valiant Be") is an English Christian hymn using words of John Bunyan in The Pilgrim's Progress. It first appeared in Part 2 of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', written in 1684. The hymn recalls the words o ...

" is based come from the novel. Bunyan began his work while in the

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council was ...

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 ''Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, or a Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ to his Poor Servant John Bunyan'' is a Puritan spiritual autobiography written by John Bunyan. It was composed while Bunyan was serving a twelv ...

''.John Bunyan, ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', edited with an introduction by Roger Sharrock, (Harmondsworth: Penguins Books, Ltd., 1965), 10, 59, 94, 326–27, 375. 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 The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including prin ...

on 22 December 1677. It was licensed and entered in the "

Term Catalogue A Term Catalogue (German: ''Messkatalog'') is a serial publication compiled to inform customers—most importantly book traders from other cities—of the book production as available on the book fairs. The first such catalogue was issued by Geor ...

" 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.

Plot summary

First Part

The entire book is presented as a dream sequence narrated by an

omniscient narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...

. The allegory's protagonist, Christian, is an

everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin The term ''everyman'' was used as early a ...

character, and the plot centres on his journey from his hometown, the "City of Destruction" ("this world"), to the "Celestial City" ("that which is to come":

Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

) atop Mount Zion. Christian is weighed down by a great burden—the knowledge of his sin—which he believed came from his reading "the book in his hand" (the Bible). This burden, which would cause him to sink into Hell, is so unbearable that Christian must seek deliverance. He meets Evangelist as he is walking out in the fields, who directs him to the "

Wicket Gate A wicket gate, or simply a wicket, is a pedestrian door or gate, particularly one built into a larger door or into a wall or fence. Use in fortifications Wickets are typically small, narrow doors either alongside or within a larger castle or ...

" for deliverance. Since Christian cannot see the "Wicket Gate" in the distance, Evangelist directs him to go to a "shining light", which Christian thinks he sees. Christian leaves his home, his wife, and children to save himself: he cannot persuade them to accompany him. Obstinate and Pliable go after Christian to bring him back, but Christian refuses. Obstinate returns disgusted, but Pliable is persuaded to go with Christian, hoping to take advantage of the Paradise that Christian claims lies at the end of his journey. Pliable's journey with Christian is cut short when the two of them fall into the

Slough of Despond The Slough of Despond ( or ; "swamp of despair") is a fictional, deep bog in John Bunyan's allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', into which the protagonist Christian sinks under the weight of his sins and his sense of guilt for them. It is describ ...

, a boggy mire-like swamp where pilgrims' doubts, fears, temptations, lusts, shames, guilts, and sins of their present condition of being a sinner are used to sink them into the mud of the swamp. It is there in that bog where Pliable abandons Christian after getting himself out. After struggling to the other side of the slough, Christian is pulled out by Help, who has heard his cries and tells him the swamp is made out of the decadence, scum, and filth of sin, but the ground is good at the narrow Wicket Gate. Christian in Pilgrim's Progress

On his way to the Wicket Gate, Christian is diverted by the

secular ethics Secular ethics is a branch of moral philosophy in which ethics is based solely on human faculties such as logic, empathy, reason or moral intuition, and not derived from belief in supernatural revelation or guidance—the source of ethics in man ...

of Mr. Worldly Wiseman into seeking deliverance from his burden through the Law, supposedly with the help of a Mr. Legality and his son Civility in the village of Morality, rather than through Christ, allegorically by way of the Wicket Gate. Evangelist meets the wayward Christian as he stops before

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai ( he , הר סיני ''Har Sinai''; Aramaic: ܛܘܪܐ ܕܣܝܢܝ ''Ṭūrāʾ Dsyny''), traditionally known as Jabal Musa ( ar, جَبَل مُوسَىٰ, translation: Mount Moses), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is ...

on the way to Mr. Legality's home. It hangs over the road and threatens to crush any who would pass it; also the mountain flashes with fire. Evangelist exposes Worldly Wiseman, Legality, and Civility for the frauds they are: they would have the pilgrim leave the true path by trusting in his own good deeds to remove his burden. Evangelist directs Christian to return to the way to the Wicket Gate, and Christian complies. At the Wicket Gate begins the "straight and narrow" King's Highway, and Christian is directed onto it by the gatekeeper Goodwill who saves him from Beelzebub's archers at Beelzebub's castle near the Wicket Gate and shows him the heavenly way he must go. In the Second Part, Goodwill is shown to be Jesus Himself. To Christian's query about relief from his burden, Goodwill directs him forward to "the place of deliverance". Christian makes his way from there to the House of the Interpreter, where he is shown pictures and tableaux that portray or dramatize aspects of the Christian faith and life. Roger Sharrock denotes them " emblems". From the House of the Interpreter, Christian finally reaches the "place of deliverance" (allegorically, the cross of

Calvary Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...

and the open sepulchre of Christ), where the "straps" that bound Christian's burden to him break, and it rolls away into the open sepulchre. This event happens relatively early in the narrative: the immediate need of Christian at the beginning of the story is quickly remedied. After Christian is relieved of his burden, he is greeted by three angels, who give him the greeting of peace, new garments, and a scroll as a passport into the Celestial City. Encouraged by all this, Christian happily continues his journey until he comes upon three men named Simple, Sloth, and Presumption. Christian tries to help them, but they disregard his advice. Before coming to the Hill of Difficulty, Christian meets two well-dressed men named Formality and Hypocrisy who prove to be false Christians that perish in the two dangerous bypasses near the hill, named Danger and Destruction. Christian falls asleep at the arbour above the hill and loses his scroll, forcing him to go back and get it. Near the top of the Hill of Difficulty, he meets two weak pilgrims named Mistrust and Timorous who tell him of the great lions of the Palace Beautiful. Christian fearfully avoids the lions through Watchful the porter who tells them that they are chained and put there to test the faith of pilgrims. Atop the Hill of Difficulty, Christian makes his first stop for the night at the House of the Palace Beautiful, which is a place built by God for the refreshment of pilgrims and godly travellers. Christian spends three days here, and leaves clothed with the Armour of God (Eph. 6:11–18), which stands him in good stead in his battle against the demonic dragon-like

Apollyon The Hebrew term Abaddon ( he, אֲבַדּוֹן ''’Ăḇaddōn'', meaning "destruction", "doom"), and its Greek equivalent Apollyon ( grc-koi, Ἀπολλύων, ''Apollúōn'' meaning "Destroyer") appear in the Bible as both a place of d ...

(the lord and god of the City of Destruction) in the Valley of Humiliation. This battle lasts "over half a day" until Christian manages to wound and stab Apollyon with his two-edged sword (a reference to the Bible, Heb. 4:12). "And with that Apollyon spread his dragon wings and sped away." William Blake - John Bunyan - Cristian Reading in His Book - Frick Collection New York

William Blake - John Bunyan - Cristian Reading in His Book - Frick Collection New York

As night falls, Christian enters the fearful Valley of the Shadow of Death. When he is in the middle of the Valley amidst the gloom, terror, and demons, he hears the words of the Twenty-third Psalm, spoken possibly by his friend Faithful:

Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. ( Psalm 23:4.)

As he leaves this valley the sun rises on a new day. Just outside the Valley of the Shadow of Death he meets Faithful, also a former resident of the City of Destruction, who accompanies him to Vanity Fair, a place built by Beelzebub where every thing to a human's taste, delight, and lust is sold daily, where both are arrested and detained because of their disdain for the wares and business of the Fair. Faithful is put on trial and executed by burning at the stake as a martyr. A celestial chariot then takes Faithful to the Celestial City, martyrdom being a shortcut there. Hopeful, a resident of Vanity Fair, takes Faithful's place to be Christian's companion for the rest of the way. Christian and Hopeful then come to a mining hill called Lucre. Its owner named Demas offers them all the silver of the mine but Christian sees through Demas's trickery and they avoid the mine. Afterward, a false pilgrim named By-Ends and his friends, who followed Christian and Hopeful only to take advantage of them, perish at the Hill Lucre, never to be seen or heard from again. On a rough, stony stretch of road, Christian and Hopeful leave the highway to travel on the easier By-Path Meadow, where a rainstorm forces them to spend the night. In the morning they are captured by Giant Despair, who is known for his savage cruelty, and his wife Diffidence; the pilgrims are taken to the Giant's Doubting Castle, where they are imprisoned, beaten and starved. The Giant and the Giantess want them to commit suicide, but they endure the ordeal until Christian realizes that a key he has, called Promise, will open all the doors and gates of Doubting Castle. Using the key and the Giant's weakness to sunlight, they escape. The Delectable Mountains form the next stage of Christian and Hopeful's journey, where the shepherds show them some of the wonders of the place also known as "Immanuel's Land". The pilgrims are shown sights that strengthen their faith and warn them against sinning, like the Hill Error or the Mountain Caution. On Mount Clear, they are able to see the Celestial City through the shepherd's "perspective glass", which serves as a telescope. (This device is given to Mercy in the Second Part at her request.) The shepherds tell the pilgrims to beware of the Flatterer and to avoid the Enchanted Ground. Soon they come to a crossroad and a man dressed in white comes to help them. Thinking he is a "shining one" (angel), the pilgrims follow the man, but soon get stuck in a net and realize their so-called angelic guide was the Flatterer. A true shining one comes and frees them from the net. The Angel punishes them for following the Flatterer and then puts them back on the right path. The pilgrims meet an Atheist, who tells them Heaven and God do not exist, but Christian and Hopeful remember the shepherds and pay no attention to the man. Christian and Hopeful come to a place where a man named Wanton Professor is chained by the ropes of seven demons who take him to a shortcut to the Lake of Fire (Hell). This reminds them of a man named Little Faith, who had been mugged by thieves that stole his spending money and resulted in him having a hard life, although the thieves did not take Little Faith's scroll or his jewels, which he kept safe through his journey. On the way, Christian and Hopeful meet a lad named Ignorance, who believes that he will be allowed into the Celestial City through his own good deeds rather than as a gift of God's grace. Christian and Hopeful meet up with him twice and try to persuade him to journey to the Celestial City in the right way. Ignorance persists in his own way that he thinks will lead him into Heaven. After getting over the River of Death on the ferry boat of Vain Hope without overcoming the hazards of wading across it, Ignorance appears before the gates of Celestial City without a passport, which he would have acquired had he gone into the King's Highway through the Wicket Gate. The Lord of the Celestial City orders the shining ones (angels) to take Ignorance to one of the byways of Hell and throw him in. Christian and Hopeful, with deep discourse about the truth of their glorious salvation, manage to make it through the dangerous Enchanted Ground (a place where the air makes them sleepy and if they fall asleep, they never wake up) into the Land of Beulah, where they ready themselves to cross the dreaded River of Death on foot to Mount Zion and the Celestial City. Christian has a rough time of it because of his past sins wearing him down, but Hopeful helps him over, and they are welcomed into the Celestial City.

Second Part

The Second Part of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' presents the pilgrimage of Christian's wife, Christiana, and their sons, and the maiden, Mercy. They visit the same stopping places that Christian visited, with the addition of Gaius' Inn between the Valley of the Shadow of Death and Vanity Fair, but they take a longer time in order to accommodate marriage and childbirth for the four sons and their wives. The hero of the story is Greatheart, a servant of the Interpreter, who is the pilgrims' guide to the Celestial City. He kills four giants called Giant Grim, Giant Maul, Giant Slay-Good, and Giant Despair and participates in the slaying of a monster called Legion that terrorizes the city of Vanity Fair. When Christiana's party leaves Gaius's Inn and Mr. Feeble-Mind lingers in order to be left behind, he is encouraged to accompany the party by Greatheart. Christiana, Matthew, Samuel, Joseph, James, Mercy, Greatheart, Old Mr. Honest, Mr. Feeble-Mind, Mr. Ready-To-Halt, Phoebe, Grace, and Martha come to Bypath-Meadow and, after much fight and difficulty, slay the cruel Giant Despair and the wicked Giantess Diffidence, and demolish Doubting Castle for Christian and Hopeful who were oppressed there. They free a pale man named Mr. Despondency and his daughter named Much-Afraid from the castle's dungeons. When the pilgrims end up in the Land of Beulah, they cross over the River of Death by appointment. As a matter of importance to Christians of Bunyan's persuasion reflected in the narrative of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', the last words of the pilgrims as they cross over the River of Death are recorded. The four sons of Christian and their families do not cross but remain for the support of the church in that place.

Characters

First Part

* Christian, who was born with the name Graceless, the protagonist in the First Part, whose journey to the Celestial City is the plot of the story. * Evangelist, the religious man who puts Christian on the path to the Celestial City. He also shows Christian a book, which readers assume to be the Bible. * Obstinate, one of the two residents of the City of Destruction, who run after Christian when he first sets out, in order to bring him back. Like his name, he is stubborn and is disgusted with Christian and with Pliable for making a journey that he thinks is nonsense. * Pliable, the other of the two, who goes with Christian until both of them fall into the Slough of Despond, a boggy mire composed of the decadence and filthiness of sin and a swamp that makes the fears and doubts of a present and past sinner real. Pliable escapes from the slough and returns home. Like his name, he is insecure and goes along with some things for a little while but quickly gives up on them. * Help, Christian's rescuer from the Slough of Despond. * Mr. Worldly Wiseman, a resident of a place called Carnal Policy, who persuades Christian to go out of his way to being helped by a friend named Mr. Legality and then move to the City of Morality (which focuses salvation on the Law and good deeds instead of faith and love in Jesus Christ). His real advice is from the world and not from God, meaning his advice is flawed and consists of three objectives: getting Christian off the right path, making the cross of Jesus Christ offensive to him, and binding him to the Law so he would die with his sins. Worldly Wiseman has brought down many innocent pilgrims and there will be many more to come. * Goodwill, the keeper of the

through which one enters the "straight and narrow way" (also referred to as "the King's Highway") to the Celestial City. In the Second Part, we find that this character is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. *

Beelzebub Beelzebub ( ; he, ''Baʿal-zəḇūḇ'') or Beelzebul is a name derived from a Philistine god, formerly worshipped in Ekron, and later adopted by some Abrahamic religions as a major demon. The name ''Beelzebub'' is associated with the Cana ...

, literally "Lord of the Flies," is one of Satan's companion archdemons, who has erected a fort near the Wicket Gate from which he and his soldiers can shoot arrows of fire at those about to enter the Wicket Gate so they will never enter it. He is also the lord, god, king, master, and prince of Vanity Fair. Christian calls him "captain" of the Foul Fiend Apollyon, who he later met in the Valley of Humiliation. * The Interpreter, the one who has his House along the way as a rest stop for travellers to check in to see pictures and dioramas to teach them the right way to live the Christian life. He has been identified in the Second Part as the Holy Spirit. * Shining Ones, the messengers and servants of "the Lord of the Hill,"

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

. They are obviously the holy

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

s. * Formalist, one of two travelers and false pilgrims on the King's Highway, who do not come in by the Wicket Gate, but climb over the wall that encloses it, at least from the hill and sepulchres up to the Hill Difficulty. He and his companion Hypocrisy come from the land of Vainglory. He takes one of the two bypaths that avoid the Hill Difficulty but is lost. *

Hypocrisy Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the ...

, the companion of Formalist and the other false pilgrim. He takes the other of the two bypaths and is also lost. * Timorous, one of two men who try to persuade Christian to go back for fear of the chained lions near the House Beautiful. He is a relative of Mrs. Timorous of the Second Part. His companion is Mistrust. * Watchful, the porter of the House Beautiful. He also appears in the Second Part and receives "a gold angel" coin from Christiana for his kindness and service to her and her companions. "Watchful" is also the name of one of the Delectable Mountains' shepherds. * Discretion, one of the beautiful maids of the house, who decides to allow Christian to stay there. * Prudence, another of the House Beautiful maidens. She appears in the Second Part. * Piety, another of the House Beautiful maidens. She appears in the Second Part. * Charity, another of the House Beautiful maidens. She appears in the Second Part. *

, literally "Destroyer;" the king, lord, god, master, prince, owner, landlord, ruler, governor, and leader of the City of Destruction where Christian was born. He is an image of Satan, who tries to force Christian to return to his domain and service. His battle with Christian takes place in the Valley of Humiliation, just below the House Beautiful. He appears as a huge demonic creature with fish's scales, the mouth of a lion, feet of a bear, second mouth on his belly, and dragon's wings. He takes fiery darts from his body to throw at his opponents. Apollyon is finally defeated when Christian uses the Sword of the Spirit to wound him two times. * "Pope" and "Pagan," giants living in a cave at the end of the fearsome Valley of the Shadow of Death. They are allegories of Roman Catholicism and paganism as persecutors of Protestant Christians. "Pagan" is dead, indicating the end of pagan persecution with Antiquity, and "Pope" is alive but decrepit, indicating the then-diminished power and influence of the Roman Catholic pope. In the Second Part, Pagan is resurrected by a demon from the bottomless pit of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, representing the new age of pagan persecution, and Pope is revived of his deadly wounds and is no longer stiff and unable to move, representing the beginning of the Christian's troubles with Roman Catholic popes. * Faithful, Christian's friend from the City of Destruction, who is also going on pilgrimage. Christian meets Faithful just after getting through the Valley of The Shadow of Death. He dies later in Vanity Fair for his strong faith and first reaches the Celestial City. * Wanton, a temptress who tries to get Faithful to leave his journey to the Celestial City. She may be the popular resident of the City of Destruction, Madam Wanton, who hosted a house party for friends of Mrs. Timorous. * Adam the First, "the old man" (representing carnality and deceit) who tries to persuade Faithful to leave his journey and come live with his three daughters: the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life. * Moses, the severe, violent avenger (representing the Law, which knows no mercy) who tries to kill Faithful for his momentary weakness in wanting to go with Adam the First out of the way. Moses is sent away by Jesus Christ. * Talkative, a pilgrim that Faithful and Christian meet after going through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He is known to Christian as a fellow resident of the City of Destruction, living on Prating Row. He is the son of Say-Well and Mrs. Talk-About-The-Right Things. He is said to be better-looking from a distance than close up. His enthusiasm for talking about his faith to Faithful deceives him into thinking that he is a sincere man. Christian lets Faithful know about his unsavoury past, and in a conversation that Faithful strikes up with him, he is exposed as shallow and hypocritical in his Christianity. * Lord Hate-Good, the evil judge who tries Faithful in Vanity Fair. Lord Hate-Good is the opposite of a judge, he hates right and loves wrong because he does wrong himself. His jury is twelve vicious rogue men. * Envy, the first witness against Faithful who falsely accuses that Faithful shows no respect for their prince, Lord Beelzebub. * Superstition, the second witness against Faithful who falsely accuses Faithful of saying that their religion is vain. * Pick-Thank, the third witness against Faithful who falsely accuses Faithful of going against their prince, their people, their laws, their "honourable" friends, and the judge himself. * Hopeful, the resident of Vanity Fair, who takes Faithful's place as Christian's fellow traveller. The character Hopeful poses an inconsistency in that there is a necessity imposed on the pilgrims that they enter the "King's Highway" by the Wicket Gate. Hopeful, did not; however, of him, we read "... one died to bear testimony to the truth, and another rises out of his ashes to be a companion with Christian in his pilgrimage." Hopeful assumes Faithful's place by God's design. Theologically and allegorically it would follow in that "faith" is trust in God as far as things present are concerned, and "

hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...

," biblically the same as " faith," is

trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another * Trust (bus ...

in God as far as things of the future are concerned. Hopeful would follow Faithful. The other factor is that Vanity Fair is right on the straight and narrow way. Ignorance, in contrast to Hopeful, was unconcerned about the end times of God, unconcerned with true faith in Jesus Christ, and gave false hope about the future. Ignorance was told by Christian and Hopeful that he should have entered the highway through the Wicket Gate. * Mr. By-Ends, a false pilgrim met by Christian and Hopeful after they leave Vanity Fair. He makes it his aim to avoid any hardship or persecution that Christians may have to undergo. He supposedly perishes in the Hill Lucre (a dangerous silver mine) with three of his friends, Hold-the-World, Money-Love, and Save-All, at the behest of Demas, who invites passersby to come and see the mine. A "by-end" is a pursuit that is achieved indirectly. For By-Ends and his companions it is the pursuit of financial gain, indirectly through religion. * Demas, a deceiver, who beckons to pilgrims at the Hill Lucre to come and join in the supposed silver mining going on in it. He is first mentioned in the Book of Second Timothy by the disciple Paul when he said, "Demas has deserted us because he loved the world". Demas tries two ways to trick Christian and Hopeful: first, he claims that the mine is safe and they will be rich, and then he claims that he is a pilgrim and will join them on their journey. Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit, is able to rebuke Demas and expose his lies. * Giant Despair, the savage owner of Doubting Castle, where pilgrims are imprisoned and tortured. He is slain by Greatheart in the Second Part. * Giantess Diffidence, Despair's wife, known to be cruel, savage, violent, and evil like her husband. She is slain by Old Honest in the Second Part. * Knowledge, one of the shepherds of the Delectable Mountains. * Experience, another of the Delectable Mountains shepherds. * Watchful, another of the Delectable Mountains shepherds. * Sincere, another of the Delectable Mountains shepherds. * Ignorance, "the brisk young lad", (representing foolishness and conceit) who joins the "King's Highway" by way of the "crooked lane" that comes from his native country, called "Conceit." He follows Christian and Hopeful and on two occasions talks with them. He believes that he will be received into the Celestial City because of his doing good works in accordance with God's will. For him, Jesus Christ is only an example, not a Saviour. Christian and Hopeful try to set him right, but they fail. He gets a ferryman, Vain-Hope, to ferry him across the River of Death rather than cross it on foot as one is supposed to do. When he gets to the gates of the Celestial City, he is asked for a "certificate" needed for entry, which he does not have. The King upon hearing this, then, orders that he be bound and cast into Hell. * The Flatterer, a deceiver dressed as an angel who leads Christian and Hopeful out of their way, when they fail to look at the road map given them by the Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains. * Atheist, a mocker of Christian and Hopeful, who goes the opposite way on the "King's Highway" because he boasts that he knows that God and the Celestial City do not exist.

Second Part

* Mr. Sagacity, a guest narrator who meets Bunyan himself in his new dream and recounts the events of the Second Part up to the arrival at the Wicket Gate. * Christiana, wife of Christian, who leads her four sons and neighbour Mercy on pilgrimage. * Matthew, Christian and Christiana's eldest son, who marries Mercy. * Samuel, the second son, who marries Grace, Mr. Mnason's daughter. * Joseph, the third son, who marries Martha, Mr. Mnason's daughter. * James, fourth and youngest son, who marries Phoebe, Gaius's daughter. * Mercy, Christiana's neighbour, who goes with her on pilgrimage and marries Matthew. * Mrs. Timorous, a relative of the Timorous of the First Part, who comes with Mercy to see Christiana before she sets out on pilgrimage. * Mrs. Bat's-Eyes, a resident of The City of Destruction and friend of Mrs. Timorous. Since she has a bat's eyes, she would be blind or nearly blind, so her characterization of Christiana as blind in her desire to go on pilgrimage is hypocritical. * Mrs. Inconsiderate, a resident of The City of Destruction and friend of Mrs. Timorous. She characterizes Christiana's departure "a good riddance" as an inconsiderate person would. * Mrs. Light-Mind, a resident of The City of Destruction and friend of Mrs. Timorous. She changes the subject from Christiana to gossip about being at a bawdy party at Madam Wanton's home. * Mrs. Know-Nothing, a resident of The City of Destruction and friend of Mrs. Timorous. She wonders if Christiana will actually go on pilgrimage. * Ill-favoured Ones, two evil characters Christiana sees in her dream, whom she and Mercy actually encounter when they leave the Wicket Gate. The two Ill Ones are driven off by Great-Heart himself. * Innocent, a young serving maid of the Interpreter, who answers the door of the house when Christiana and her companions arrive; and who conducts them to the garden bath, which signifies Christian

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

. * Mr. Greatheart, the guide and bodyguard sent by the Interpreter with Christiana and her companions from his house to their journey's end. He proves to be one of the main protagonists in the Second Part. * Giant Grim, a Giant who "backs the hainedlions" near the House Beautiful, slain by Great-Heart. He is also known as "Bloody-Man" because he has killed many pilgrims or sent them on mazes of detours, where they were lost forever. * Humble-Mind, one of the maidens of the House Beautiful, who makes her appearance in the Second Part. She questions Matthew, James, Samuel, and Joseph about their godly faith and their hearts to the Lord God. * Mr. Brisk, a suitor of Mercy's, who gives up courting her when he finds out that she makes clothing only to give away to the poor. He is shown to be a foppish, worldly-minded person who is double-minded about his beliefs. * Mr. Skill, the godly physician called to the House Beautiful to cure Matthew of his illness, which is caused by eating the forbidden apples and fruits of Beelzebub which his mother told him not to, but he did it anyway. * Giant Maul, a Giant whom Greatheart kills as the pilgrims leave the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He holds a grudge against Greatheart for doing his duty of saving pilgrims from damnation and bringing them from darkness to light, from evil to good, and from Satan, the Devil to Jesus Christ, the Saviour. * Old Honest, a pilgrim from the frozen town of Stupidity who joins them, a welcome companion to Greatheart. Old Honest tells the stories of Mr. Fearing and a prideful villain named Mr. Self-Will. * Mr. Fearing, a fearful pilgrim from the City of Destruction whom Greatheart had "conducted" to the Celestial City in an earlier pilgrimage. Noted for his timidness of Godly Fears such as temptations and doubts. He is Mr. Feeble-Mind's uncle. * Gaius, an innkeeper with whom the pilgrims stay for some years after they leave the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He gives his daughter Phoebe to James in marriage. The lodging fee for his inn is paid by the Good Samaritan. Gaius tells them of the wicked Giant Slay-Good. * Giant Slay-Good, a Giant who enlists the help of evildoers on the King's Highway to abduct, murder, and consume pilgrims before they get to Vanity Fair. He is killed by Greatheart. * Mr. Feeble-Mind, rescued from Slay-Good by Mr. Greatheart, who joins Christiana's company of pilgrims. He is the nephew of Mr. Fearing. * Phoebe, Gaius's daughter, who marries James. * Mr. Ready-to-Halt, a pilgrim who meets Christiana's train of pilgrims at Gaius's door, and becomes the companion of Mr. Feeble-Mind, to whom he gives one of his crutches. * Mr. Mnason, a resident of the town of Vanity, who puts up the pilgrims for a time, and gives his daughters Grace and Martha in marriage to Samuel and Joseph respectively. * Grace, Mnason's daughter, who marries Samuel. * Martha, Mnason's daughter, who marries Joseph. * Christian and Christian's Grandchildren, the children of Matthew, Samuel, Joseph, James and their respective wives(Mercy, Grace, Martha, and Phoebe). Born in Vanity Fair, they are left in the care of other pilgrims in a place where the children of pilgrims are raised for a time, due to being at a very tender age. They rejoin their parents by the time the pilgrims reach the Enchanted Ground. The exact number of children per couple, as well as their names and sexes is never disclosed. * Mr. Despondency, a rescued prisoner from Doubting Castle owned by the miserable Giant Despair. * Much-Afraid, his daughter. * Mr. Valiant-For-Truth, a pilgrim they find all bloody, with his sword in his hand, after leaving the Delectable Mountains. He fought and defeated three robbers called Faint-Heart, Mistrust, and Guilt. * Mr. Stand-Fast, a pilgrim found while praying for deliverance from Madame Bubble. * Madame Bubble, a witch whose enchantments made the Enchanted Ground enchanted with an air that makes foolish pilgrims sleepy and never wake up again. She is the adulterous woman mentioned in the Biblical ''Book of Proverbs''. Mr. Self-Will went over a bridge to meet her and never came back again.

Places in ''The Pilgrim's Progress''

* City of Destruction, Christian's home, representative of the world (cf. Isaiah 19:18) *

, the miry swamp on the way to the Wicket Gate; one of the hazards of the journey to the Celestial City. In the First Part, Christian falling into it, sank further under the weight of his sins (his burden) and his sense of their guilt. * Mount Sinai, a frightening mountain near the Village of Morality that threatens all who would go there. * Wicket Gate, the entry point of the straight and narrow way to the Celestial City. Pilgrims are required to enter by way of the Wicket Gate. Beelzebub's castle was built not very far from the Gate. * House of the Interpreter, a type of spiritual museum to guide the pilgrims to the Celestial City, emblematic of Calvary and the tomb of Christ. * Hill Difficulty, both the hill and the road up is called "Difficulty"; it is flanked by two treacherous byways "Danger" and "Destruction." There are three choices: Christian takes "Difficulty" (the right way), and Formalist and Hypocrisy take the two other ways, which prove to be fatal dead ends. * House Beautiful, a palace that serves as a rest stop for pilgrims to the Celestial City. It apparently sits atop the Hill Difficulty. From the House Beautiful one can see forward to the Delectable Mountains. It represents the Christian congregation, and Bunyan takes its name from a gate of the Jerusalem temple (Acts 3:2, 10). * Valley of Humiliation, the Valley on the other side of the Hill Difficulty, going down into which is said to be extremely slippery by the House Beautiful's damsel Prudence. It is where Christian, protected by God's Armor, meets Apollyon and they had that dreadful, long fight where Christian was victorious over his enemy by impaling Apollyon on his Sword of the Spirit (Word of God) which caused the Foul Fiend to fly away. Apollyon met Christian in the place known as "Forgetful Green." This Valley had been a delight to the "Lord of the Hill", Jesus Christ, in his "state of humiliation". * Valley of the Shadow of Death, a treacherous, devilish Valley filled with demons, dragons, fiends, satyrs, goblins, hobgoblins, monsters, creatures from the bottomless pit, beasts from the mouth of Hell, darkness, terror, and horror with a quicksand bog on one side and a deep chasm/ditch on the other side of the King's Highway going through it (cf. Psalm 23:4). * Gaius' Inn, a rest stop in the Second Part of the Pilgrim's Progress. * Vanity Fair, a city through which the King's Highway passes and the yearlong Fair that is held there. * Plain Ease, a pleasant area traversed by the pilgrims. * Hill Lucre, location of a reputed silver mine that proves to be the place where By-Ends and his companions are lost. * The Pillar of Salt, which was Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. The pilgrim's note that its location near the Hill Lucre is a fitting warning to those who are tempted by Demas to go into the Lucre silver mine. * River of God or River of the Water of Life, a place of solace for the pilgrims. It flows through a meadow, green all year long and filled with lush fruit trees. In the Second Part the Good Shepherd is found there to whom Christiana's grandchildren are entrusted. * By-Path Meadow, the place leading to the grounds of Doubting Castle. * Doubting Castle, the home of Giant Despair and his Giantess wife, Diffidence; only one key could open its doors and gates, the key Promise. * The Delectable Mountains, known as "Immanuel's Land." Lush country from whose heights one can see many delights and curiosities. It is inhabited by sheep and their shepherds, and from Mount Clear one can see the Celestial City. * The Enchanted Ground, an area through which the King's Highway passes that has air that makes pilgrims want to stop to sleep. If one goes to sleep in this place, one never wakes up. The shepherds of the Delectable Mountains warn pilgrims about this. * The Land of Beulah, a lush garden area just this side of the River of Death. * The River of Death, the dreadful river that surrounds Mount Zion, deeper or shallower depending on the faith of the one traversing it. * The Celestial City, the "Desired Country" of pilgrims, heaven, the dwelling place of the "Lord of the Hill", God. It is situated on Mount Zion.

Geographical and topographical features behind the fictional places

Scholars have pointed out that Bunyan may have been influenced in the creation of places in ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' by his own surrounding environment. Albert Foster describes the natural features of Bedfordshire that apparently turn up in ''The Pilgrim's Progress''.

Vera Brittain Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir '' Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the Firs ...

in her thoroughly researched biography of Bunyan, identifies seven locations that appear in the

. Other connections are suggested in books not directly associated with either John Bunyan or ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. At least twenty-one natural or man-made geographical or topographical features from ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' have been identified—places and structures John Bunyan regularly would have seen as a child and, later, in his travels on foot or horseback. The entire journey from The City of Destruction to the Celestial City may have been based on Bunyan's own usual journey from

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst t ...

, on the main road that runs less than a mile behind his cottage in

Elstow Elstow is a village and civil parish in the English county of Bedfordshire. John Bunyan was born here at Bunyan's End, which lay approximately halfway between the hamlet of Harrowden and Elstow's High Street. History Countess Judith, niece of ...

, through

Ampthill Ampthill () is a town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, between Bedford and Luton, with a population estimate of 8,100 (Mid year estimate 2017 from the ONS). It is administered bAmpthill Town Council The ward of Ampthill which also ...

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is t ...

and St Albans, to London. In the same sequence as these subjects appear in ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', the geographical realities are as follows: # The plain (across which Christian fled) is

Plain, which is fifteen miles (about 24 km) wide with the town of

in the middle and the river

Ouse Ouse may refer to: Places Rivers in England * River Ouse, Yorkshire * River Ouse, Sussex * River Great Ouse, Northamptonshire and East Anglia ** River Little Ouse, a tributary of the River Great Ouse Other places * Ouse, Tasmania, a town in Aus ...

meandering through the northern half; # The "Slough of Despond" (a major obstacle for Christian and Pliable: "a very miry slough") is the large deposits of gray clay, which supplied London Brick's works in

Stewartby Stewartby is a model village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, originally built for the workers of the London Brick Company. The village was designed and built to the plans of the company's architect Mr F W Walker, laid out on ‘Garden City� ...

, which was closed in 2008. On either side of the

road these deposits match Bunyan's description exactly. Presumably, the road was built on the "twenty thousand cart loads" of fill mentioned in ''The Pilgrim's Progress''; However, the area beside Elstow brook, where John grew up, may also have been an early inspiration – on the north side of this brook, either side of the path to Elstow was (and still is) boggy and John would have known to avoid straying off the main path. # "Mount Sinai", the high hill on the way to the village of Morality, whose side "that was next the wayside, did hang so much over", is the red sandy cliffs just north of

Ridgmont Ridgmont is a small village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England. It is located beside junction 13 of the M1 motorway, and close to Milton Keynes and Woburn Abbey. The 2001 census states the total population to be 418,Elstow Elstow is a village and civil parish in the English county of Bedfordshire. John Bunyan was born here at Bunyan's End, which lay approximately halfway between the hamlet of Harrowden and Elstow's High Street. History Countess Judith, niece of ...

parish church or the

wicket gate A wicket gate, or simply a wicket, is a pedestrian door or gate, particularly one built into a larger door or into a wall or fence. Use in fortifications Wickets are typically small, narrow doors either alongside or within a larger castle or ...

(small door) in the northern wooden entrance door at the west end of

Elstow Abbey Elstow Abbey was a monastery for Benedictine nuns in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England. It was founded c.1075 by Judith, Countess of Huntingdon, a niece of William the Conqueror, and therefore is classed as a royal foundation. History The modern ...

Church. # The castle, from which arrows were shot at those who would enter the Wicket Gate, could be the stand-alone belltower, beside Elstow Abbey church. # The "House of the Interpreter" is the rectory of St John's church in the south side of

, where Bunyan was mentored by the pastor John Gifford; # The wall "Salvation" that fenced in the King's Highway coming after the House of the InterpreterJohn Bunyan, ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', W.R. Owens, ed., (Oxford: University Press, 2003), 37. is the red brick wall, over four miles long, beside the

Duke of Bedford Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third ...

's estate; # The "place somewhat ascending ...

ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediate ...

a cross ... and a sepulchre" is the village cross and well that stands by the church at opposite ends of the sloping main street of

Stevington Stevington is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in northern Bedfordshire, England. It is on the River Great Ouse four to five miles northwest of Bedford. Nearby villages include Bromham, Oakley, Pavenham and Turvey. Wes ...

, a small village five miles west of

. Bunyan would often preach in a wood by the River

just outside the village. # The "Hill Difficulty" is

Hill, on the main

road, the steepest hill in the county. A sandy range of hills stretches across Bedfordshire from Woburn through

Potton Potton is a town and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England, about east of the county town Bedford. Its population in 2011 was 4,870. In 1783 the Great Fire of Potton destroyed a large part of the town. The ...

. These hills are characterized by dark, dense and dismal woods reminiscent of the byways "Danger" and "Destruction", the alternatives to the way "Difficulty" that goes up the hill; # The pleasant arbour on the way up the Hill Difficulty is a small "lay-by", part way up

Hill, on the east side. A photo, taken in 1908, shows a cyclist resting there; # The "very narrow passage" to the "Palace Beautiful" is an entrance cut into the high bank by the roadside to the east at the top of

Hill; # The "Palace Beautiful" is Houghton (formerly

) House, built in 1621 but a ruin since 1800. The house faced north; and, because of the dramatic view over the

plain, it was a popular picnic site during the first half of the twentieth century when many families could not travel far afield; The entrance on the south side looks out over the town of

and towards the Chilterns, the model of "The Delectable Mountains". There was another source of inspiration; as a young boy, Bunyan would have seen, and been impressed by, Elstow Place — a grand mansion behind

Church, built for Sir Thomas Hillersden from the cloister buildings of

. # The "Valley of the Shadow of Death" is Millbrook gorge to the west of

; # "Vanity Fair" is probably also drawn from a number of sources. Some argue that local fairs in Elstow, Bedford and Ampthill were too small to fit Bunyan's description but

's May fairs are known to have been large and rowdy and would certainly have made a big impression on the young Bunyan. Stourbridge Fair, held in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...

during late August and early September fits John Bunyan's account of the fair's antiquity and its vast variety of goods sold and sermons were preached each Sunday during Stourbridge Fair in an area called the "Dodderey." John Bunyan preached often in Toft, just four miles west of

, and there is a place known as "Bunyan's Barn" in Toft, so it is surmised that Bunyan visited the notable Stourbridge Fair; # The "pillar of salt", Lot's wife, is a weather-beaten statue that looks much like a person-sized salt pillar. It is on small island in the River Ouse just north of Turvey bridge, eight miles west of Bedford near Stevington; # The "River of the Water of Life", with trees along each bank is the River Ouse east of Bedford, where John Bunyan as a boy would fish with his sister Margaret. It might also be the valley of river Flit, flowing through Flitton and Flitwick south of Ampthill; # "Doubting Castle" is Ampthill Castle, built in the early 15th century and often visited by King Henry VIII as a hunting lodge. Henry, corpulent and dour, may have been considered by Bunyan to be a model for Giant Despair. Amphill Castle was used for the "house arrest" of Queen

Catherine of Aragon Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previousl ...

and her retinue in 1535–36 before she was taken to Kimbolton. The castle was dismantled soon after 1660, so Bunyan could have seen its towers in the 1650s and known of the empty castle plateau in the 1670s. Giant Despair was killed and Doubting Castle was demolished in the second part of ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. # The "Delectable Mountains" are the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. ...

that can be seen from the second floor of Houghton House. "Chalk hills, stretching fifty miles from the Thames to Dunstable Downs, have beautiful blue flowers and butterflies, with glorious beech trees." Reminiscent of the possibility of seeing the Celestial City from Mount Clear, on a clear day one can see London's buildings from Dunstable Downs near

Whipsnade Zoo ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, formerly known as Whipsnade Wild Animal Park, is a zoo and safari park located at Whipsnade, near Dunstable in Bedfordshire, England. It is one of two zoos (the other being ZSL London Zoo in Regent's Park, London) that are ...

; # The "Land of Beulah" is Middlesex county north and west of London, which then (over 150 years before modern suburban sprawl started) had pretty villages, market gardens, and estates containing beautiful parks and gardens): "woods of Islington to the green hills of Hampstead & Highgate"; # The "very deep river" is the River Thames, one thousand feet wide at high tide; however, here Bunyan varied from geographical reality and put the city south of the river, and without a bridge. # The "Celestial City" is London, the physical centre of John Bunyan's world—most of his neighbours never travelled that far. In the 1670s, after the

Great Fire of 1666 The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past th ...

, London sported a new gleaming city centre with forty

Wren churches Sir Christopher Wren was 33 years old and near the beginning of his career as an architect when the Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed many of the city's public buildings, including 88 of its parish churches. Wren's office was commissioned to ...

. In the last decade of Bunyan's life (1678–1688) some of his best Christian friends lived in London, including a Lord Mayor.

Cultural influence

Context in Christendom

''The Pilgrim's Progress'' was much more popular than its predecessors. Bunyan's plain style breathes life into the abstractions of the

anthropomorphized Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

temptations and abstractions that Christian encounters and with whom he converses on his course to Heaven.

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...

said that "this is the great merit of the book, that the most cultivated man cannot find anything to praise more highly, and the child knows nothing more amusing". Three years after its publication (1681), it was reprinted in

colonial America The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the ...

, and was widely read in the Puritan colonies. The book was often divided into smaller parts or individual episodes that could be made into individual sermons, postcards, or wall charts. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Religious Tract Society produced the book into Sunday School prize editions and cheap abridgments. There were also Bunyan inspired jigsaw puzzles, and some followers crafted their landscapes in Bunyan theme parks. Because of its English Protestant theology, ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' shares the then-popular English antipathy toward the Catholic Church. It was published over the years of the Popish Plot (1678–1681) and ten years before the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and it shows the influence of John Foxe's ''

Acts and Monuments The ''Actes and Monuments'' (full title: ''Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church''), popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, is a work of Protestant history and martyrology by Protestant Engli ...

''. Bunyan presents a decrepit and harmless giant to confront Christian at the end of the Valley of the Shadow of Death that is explicitly named "Pope":

Now I saw in my Dream, that at the end of this Valley lay blood, bones, ashes, and mangled bodies of men, even of Pilgrims that had gone this way formerly: And while I was musing what should be the reason, I espied a little before me a Cave, where two Giants, ''Pope'' and ''Pagan'', dwelt in old times, by whose Power and Tyranny the Men whose bones, blood ashes, &c. lay there, were cruelly put to death. But by this place ''Christian'' went without much danger, whereat I somewhat wondered; but I have learnt since, that ''Pagan'' has been dead many a day; and as for the other, though he be yet alive, he is by reason of age, and also of the many shrewd brushes that he met with in his younger dayes, grown so crazy and stiff in his joynts, that he can now do little more than sit in his Caves mouth, grinning at Pilgrims as they go by, and biting his nails, because he cannot come at them.

When Christian and Faithful travel through Vanity Fair, Bunyan adds the editorial comment:

But as in other ''fairs'', some one Commodity is as the chief of all the ''fair'', so the Ware of '' Rome'' and her Merchandize is greatly promoted in ''this fair'': Only our ''English'' Nation, with some others, have taken a dislike thereat.

In the Second Part, while Christiana and her group of pilgrims led by Greatheart stay for some time in Vanity, the city is terrorized by a seven-headed beast which is driven away by Greatheart and other stalwarts. In his endnotes W.R. Owens notes about the woman that governs the beast: "This woman was believed by Protestants to represent Antichrist, the Church of Rome. In a posthumously published treatise, ''Of Antichrist, and his Ruine'' (1692), Bunyan gave an extended account of the rise and (shortly expected) fall of Antichrist."

Foreign-language versions

"''The Pilgrim's Progress'' has been translated into 200 languages," including Dutch in 1681, German in 1703, and Swedish in 1727, as well as over eighty African languages. In 1681, the first North American edition was issued. In addition, there were nine translations in Southeast Asia, twenty four translations in South Asia, and another eleven in Australasia and the Pacific. Beginning in the 1850s, illustrated versions of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' in Chinese were printed in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Fuzhou and widely distributed by Protestant missionaries. Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Christianity-inspired

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It lasted ...

, declared that the book was his favorite reading.

Henry Alfred Krishnapillai Henry Alfred Krishnapillai (1827–1900) was a well-known poet in Tamil language. He was born in a Hindu family, but later converted to Christianity. He was an accomplished Tamil teacher and hence after his conversion sought to work on Tamil lite ...

's magnum opus, ''Ratchanya Yaathrigam'' (The Journey of Salvation) is an adaptation of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' in the Tamil language and is considered one of the finest Tamil literary works of the 19th century. ''Paradeshi Mokshayathra'' by Rev. K. Koshy/Rev. Joseph Peet (1844), and ''Sanchariyude Prayanam'' (1846) by Rev. C. Muller/Rev. P. Chandran are allegorical translations in

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

and are one of the earliest prose works in the language. In Turkish, translations of the book appeared in Greek script in 1879, and in Armenian script in 1881. The literal textual meaning of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' was also adapted by young converts and missionaries to make sense in different cultural contexts. "For example, Kele Protestants in the Congo omitted the sections that explained original sin" since "this idea was incompatible with their cultural assumptions." ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' was also adapted to be relevant for non-Europeans, by tailoring the story to make sense of their own experiences. Heaven was often a place designed to resemble what they had gone through in life. For example, in the American Southern Black culture, Bunyan was changed to be a black protagonist who "was redeemed not only from sin but also slavery." Similarly, a version was written where the injustices which took place in South Africa were reformulated. There are collections of old foreign language versions of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' at both

's Moot Hall museum, and at the John Bunyan Museum in Mill Street Bedford.

The "Third Part"

'' The Third Part of the Pilgrim's Progress'' was written by an anonymous author; beginning in 1693, it was published with Bunyan's authentic two parts. It continued to be republished with Bunyan's work until 1852. This third part presented the pilgrimage of Tender-Conscience and his companions.

Dramatic and musical settings

The book was the basis of a condensed radio adaptation, originally presented in 1942 and starring

John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Briti ...

, which included, as background music, several excerpts from Ralph Vaughan Williams' orchestral works. The book was the basis of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' (opera) by Vaughan Williams, premiered in 1951. The radio version was newly recorded by Hyperion Records in 1990, in a performance conducted by Matthew Best. It again starred Gielgud, and featured Richard Pasco and Ursula Howells. English composer

Ernest Austin Ernest John Austin (31 December 1874 – 24 July 1947) was an English composer, music arranger and editor. Although little-remembered today (he does not even have an entry in the comprehensive '' New Grove'' dictionary), Austin's orchestral musi ...

set the whole story as a huge narrative tone poem for solo organ, with optional 6-part

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which s ...

and

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...

, lasting approximately hours. Under the name ''

The Similitude of a Dream ''The Similitude of a Dream'' is the second studio album by progressive rock supergroup The Neal Morse Band, released on November 11, 2016. It is a concept album, loosely based on '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' by John Bunyan and follows Christian ...

'', the progressive rock band of

Neal Morse Neal Morse (born August 2, 1960) is an American singer, musician and composer based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1992, he formed the progressive rock band Spock's Beard with his brother Alan and released an album which was moderately successful. ...

released a concept album based on ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' in November 2016. A sequel, entitled The Great Adventure, focusing on Christian's son Joseph, was released in January 2019. Both albums received critical acclaim.

Art and poetry

A number of illustrations created by Henry Melville appear in the Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Books under the editorship of Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Each is accompanied by a poem, either by

Bernard Barton Bernard Barton (31 January 1784 – 19 February 1849), was known as the Quaker poet. His main works included ''The Convict's Appeal'' (1818), in which he protested against the death penalty and the severity of the criminal code. Family Bernard ...

or by Miss Landon herself. These plates are as follows: * 1835 ** (L. E. L.) ** Christian and Hopeful Escaping from the Doubting Castle (Bernard Barton) ** Christian Got up at the Gate (Bernard Barton) ** The Shepherd Boy in the Valley of Humiliation as (L. E. L.) * 1836 ** The Pilgrims (Bernard Barton) ** The Land of Beulah (Bernard Barton) ** Destruction of the Doubting Castle (Bernard Barton) ** (L. E. L.) * 1837 ** (L. E. L.) ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' was a favourite subject among painters in 1840s America, including major figures of the Hudson River School and others associated with the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote th ...

. Daniel Huntington,

Jasper Cropsey Jasper Francis Cropsey (February 18, 1823 – June 22, 1900) was an important American landscape artist of the Hudson River School. Early years Cropsey was born on his father Jacob Rezeau Cropsey's farm in Rossville on Staten Island, New York ...

, Frederic Edwin Church, Jesse Talbot,

Edward Harrison May Edward Harrison May Jr. (1824 – May 17, 1887) was an English-American painter who spent much of his career in Paris. The son of Edward Harrison May Sr., a Dutch Reformed clergyman, May was born in Croydon, England, and brought to America in 18 ...

, and others completed canvases based on the work. Thomas Cole's ''

The Voyage of Life ''The Voyage of Life'' is a series of four paintings created by the American artist Thomas Cole in 1840 and reproduced with minor alterations in 1842, representing an allegory of the four stages of human life. The paintings, ''Childhood'', ''Youth ...

'' was inspired by ''The Pilgrim's Progress.'' In 1850, Huntington, Cropsey, and Church contributed designs to a

moving panorama The moving panorama was an innovation on panoramic painting in the mid-nineteenth century. It was among the most popular forms of entertainment in the world, with hundreds of panoramas constantly on tour in the United Kingdom, the United States, a ...

based on ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', conceptualized by May and fellow artist Joseph Kyle, which debuted in New York and travelled all over the country. A second version of the panorama, organized by Kyle and artist Jacob Dallas, premiered in 1851. The second version exists today in the collections of the Saco Museum.

References in literature

Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka ( Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded ...

's novel '' Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth'' (2021), the third chapter is entitled 'Pilgrim's Progress'. In describes the travels of the character Dennis Tibidje. He encounters John Bunyan's book ''Pilgrim's Progress'' while detained as an illegal immigrant in New Jersey.

' book '' Oliver Twist'' (1838) is subtitled 'The Parish Boy's Progress'. The titular character of ''

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby ''Nicholas Nickleby'' or ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (or also ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the ...

'' (1839) and his companion Smike start to read it but are interrupted. The title of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847–48 novel ''

Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...

'' alludes to the location in Bunyan's work. Mark Twain gave his 1869 travelogue, '' The Innocents Abroad'', the alternative title ''The New Pilgrims' Progress''. In Twain's later work ''

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or as it is known in more recent editions, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United S ...

'', the titular character mentions ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' as he describes the works of literature in the Grangerfords' library. Twain uses this to satirize the Protestant Southern aristocracy. E. E. Cummings makes numerous references to it in his prose work, '' The Enormous Room''. Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "

The Celestial Railroad "The Celestial Railroad" is short story by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the allegorical tale, Hawthorne adopts the style and content of the seventeenth-century allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' by John Bunyan. Where Bunyan's tale portr ...

", recreates Christian's journey in Hawthorne's time. Progressive thinkers have replaced the footpath by a railroad, and pilgrims may now travel under steam power. The journey is considerably faster, but somewhat more questionable. Hawthorne's novel ''

The Scarlet Letter ''The Scarlet Letter: A Romance'' is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne ...

'' also makes reference to it, by way of the author John Bunyan with a metaphor comparing a main character's eyes with the fire depicted in the entrance to Hell in ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. John Buchan was an admirer of Bunyan's, and ''Pilgrim's Progress'' features significantly in his third

Richard Hannay Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and further made popular by the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film '' The 39 Steps'' (and other later film adaptations), very loosely ba ...

novel, '' Mr. Standfast'', which also takes its title from one of Bunyan's characters.

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and ''From Hell' ...

, in his ''

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

'', enlists ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' protagonist, Christian, as a member of the earliest version of this group, ''Prospero's Men'', having become wayward on his journey during his visit in Vanity Fair, stepping down an alleyway and found himself in London in the 1670s, and unable to return to his homeland. This group disbanded in 1690 after Prospero vanished into the Blazing World; however, some parts of the text seem to imply that Christian resigned from Prospero's League before its disbanding and that Christian travelled to the Blazing World before Prospero himself. The apparent implication is that; within the context of the League stories; the Celestial City Christian seeks and the Blazing World may in fact be one and the same. In Louisa May Alcott's ''

Little Women ''Little Women'' is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). Alcott wrote the book, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869, at the request of her publisher. The story follows the lives ...

'', the protagonist Jo and her sisters read it at the outset of the novel, and try to follow the good example of Bunyan's Christian. Throughout the novel, the main characters refer many times to ''Pilgrim's Progress'' and liken the events in their own lives to the experiences of the pilgrims. A number of chapter titles directly reference characters and places from ''Pilgrim's Progress''. The cartoonist Winsor McCay drew an allegorical comic strip, entitled ''A Pilgrim's Progress'', in the ''

New York Evening Telegram ''The New York Evening Telegram'' was a New York City daily newspaper. It was established in 1867. The newspaper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., and it was said to be considered to be an evening edition of the ''New York Herald''. ...

''. The strip ran from 26 June 1905 to 18 December 1910. In it, the protagonist Mr. Bunion is constantly frustrated in his attempts to improve his life by ridding himself of his burdensome valise, "Dull Care".

wrote a book inspired by ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', called ''

The Pilgrim's Regress ''The Pilgrim's Regress'' is a book of allegorical fiction by C. S. Lewis. This 1933 novel was Lewis's first published work of prose fiction, and his third piece of work to be published and first after he converted to Christianity. It charts t ...

'', in which a character named John follows a vision to escape from The Landlord, a less friendly version of The Owner in ''The Pilgrim's Regress''. It is an allegory of C. S. Lewis' own journey from a religious childhood to a pagan adulthood in which he rediscovers his Christian God. Henry Williamson's '' The Patriot's Progress'' references the title of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' and the symbolic nature of John Bunyan's work. The protagonist of the

semi-autobiographical An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. B ...

novel is John Bullock, the quintessential English soldier during World War I. The character of

Billy Pilgrim ''Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death'' is a 1969 semi-autobiographic science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It follows the life and experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to ...

in Kurt Vonnegut's novel '' Slaughterhouse-5: The Children's Crusade'' is a clear homage to a similar journey to enlightenment experienced by Christian, although Billy's journey leads him to an

existential Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...

acceptance of life and of a fatalist

human condition The human condition is all of the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and analyzed ...

. Vonnegut's parallel to ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' is deliberate and evident in Billy's surname.

Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She enlisted i ...

refers to ''Pilgrim's Progress'' in most of her novels, including ''

Jane Eyre ''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...

'', '' Shirley'', and '' Villette''. Her alterations to the quest-narrative have led to much critical interest, particular with the ending of ''Jane Eyre''.

Walt Willis Walter Alexander Willis (1919–1999) was a well-known Irish science fiction fan, resident in Belfast. Work Willis was awarded a 1958 Hugo Award as "Outstanding Actifan" (active fan), which replaced the Best Fanzine category that year. He was nom ...

and

Bob Shaw Robert Shaw (31 December 1931 – 11 February 1996) was a science fiction writer and fan from Northern Ireland, noted for his originality and wit. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1979 and 1980. His short story " Light of Other Days" ...

's classic

science fiction fan Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...

novelette, '' The Enchanted Duplicator'', is explicitly modeled on ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' and has been repeatedly reprinted over the decades since its first appearance in 1954: in professional publications, in

fanzines A fanzine (blend of '' fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share t ...

, and as a monograph.

wrote ''The Land of Far Beyond'' (1942) as a children's version of ''The Pilgrim's Progress''.

's novel '' The Grapes of Wrath'' mentions ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' as one of an (anonymous) character's favorite books. Steinbeck's novel was itself an allegorical spiritual journey by Tom Joad through America during the Great Depression, and often made Christian allusions to sacrifice and redemption in a world of social injustice. The book was commonly referenced in African American

slave narratives The slave narrative is a type of literary genre involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of enslaved Africans, particularly in the Americas. Over six thousand such narratives are estimated to exist; about 150 narratives were published as ...

, such as "Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom" by Ellen and William Craft, to emphasize the moral and religious implications of slavery. Hannah Hurnard's novel ''

Hinds' Feet on High Places ''Hinds' Feet on High Places'' is an allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or po ...

'' (1955) uses a similar allegorical structure to ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' and takes Bunyan's character Much-Afraid as its protagonist. In

Lois McMaster Bujold Lois McMaster Bujold ( ; born November 2, 1949) is an American speculative fiction writer. She is an acclaimed writer, having won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record (not counting his Retro Hugos). Her no ...

's '' The Borders of Infinity'' (1989),

Miles Vorkosigan Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is a protagonist of a series of science fiction novels and short stories, known as the Vorkosigan Saga, written by American author Lois McMaster Bujold. Personality Traits Miles is both brilliant (especially in militar ...

uses half a page torn from ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' as a coded message to his fleet to rescue him and 9,000 others from a POW camp. Sir Walter Scott uses Bunyan's tale in chapter 32 of his novel ''

The Heart of Midlothian ''The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' is the seventh of Sir Walter Scott's Waverley Novels. It was originally published in four volumes on 25 July 1818, under the title of '' Tales of My Landlord, 2nd series'', and the author was given as " Jedediah Cl ...

'' (1818) to illustrate the relationship between Madge Wildfire and

Jeanie Deans Jeanie Deans is a fictional character in Sir Walter Scott's novel '' The Heart of Midlothian'' first published in 1818. She was one of Scott's most celebrated characters during the 19th century; she was renowned as an example of an honest, uprig ...

. Madge explains: "But it is all over now.—But we'll knock at the gate and then the keeper will admit Christiana, but Mercy will be left out—and then I'll stand at the door trembling and crying, and then Christiana—that's you, Jeanie,—will intercede for me. And then Mercy,—that's me, ye ken,—will faint In Marguerite Young's novel, '' Miss MacIntosh, My Darling'', the titular character always carries a copy of ''Pilgrim's Progress'' with her. The structure of the novel is inspired by ''Pilgrim's Progress'' too, being composed largely of the narrator's seemingly omniscient reminiscences about other characters' inner lives and dreams. In George Eliot's novel '' Middlemarch'', a lengthy quotation from the conclusion of the trial of Faithful in Vanity Fair serves as the epigraph to Chapter 85.

Dramatizations, music, and film

* In 1850, a moving panorama of ''Pilgrim's Progress'', known as the ''Bunyan Tableuax'' or the ''Grand Moving Panorama of Pilgrim's Progress'' was painted by Joseph Kyle and

and displayed in New York; an early copy of this panorama survives and is at the Saco Museum in Maine. * The novel was made into a film, ''Pilgrim's Progress'', in 1912. * In 1950 an hour-long animated version was made by Baptista Films. This version was edited down to 35 minutes and re-released with new music in 1978. As of 2007 the original version is difficult to find, but the 1978 version has been released on both VHS and DVD. * In 1951 the first performance of the opera ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, was presented at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. * In 1978, another film version was made by Ken Anderson, in which

Liam Neeson William John Neeson (born 7 June 1952) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He has received several accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Tony Awards. In 2020, he was placed 7th on ''The ...

, in his film debut, played the role of the Evangelist and also appeared as the crucified Christ. Maurice O'Callaghan played Appolyon and Worldly Wiseman, and Peter Thomas played The Pilgrim/Christian. A sequel, ''Christiana'', followed later. * In 1978 a musical based loosely on Bunyan's characters and the story was written by Nick Taylor and Alex Learmont. The musical riginally titled ''Pilgrim''was produced for the Natal Performing Arts Council under the title ''"Christian!"'' or ''Follow the Man with the Big Bass Drum in the Holy Glory Band'', and ran to capacity houses for the 1979/80 summer season in Durban's Old Alhambra Theatre. The show moved to Johannesburg in March 1980 and ran for a further three months at His Majesty's Theatre. After a substantial re-write ''Christian!'' was again mounted at the new Playhouse in Durban for the 1984 Christmas season. The musical has been performed many times since by schools and amateur theatrical groups in South Africa. After 30 years the show is again attracting attention both locally and abroad and the score and libretto are being updated and made more flexible for large and small productions. * In 1985

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

produced a 129-minute nine-part serial presentation of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' with animated stills by Alan Parry and narrated by

Paul Copley Paul Mackriell Copley (born 25 November 1944) is an English actor and voiceover artist. From 2011 to 2015 he appeared as Mr. Mason, father of William Mason, in 16 episodes of ''Downton Abbey'', and from 2020 to 2021, he appeared in the ITV s ...

entitled ''Dangerous Journey''. * In 1988,

Glenn Danzig Glenn Allen Anzalone (born June 23, 1955), better known by his stage name Glenn Danzig, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, film director, and record producer. He is the founder of the rock bands Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig. He owns ...

and

Danzig (band) Danzig is an American heavy metal band led by former Samhain and Misfits singer Glenn Danzig. Formed in 1987 in Lodi, New Jersey, the group early on became a unique voice in the rock scene, playing a bluesy, doom-laden metal with Glenn Danz ...

released their controversial music video from their song

Mother (Danzig song) "Mother" is a song by American heavy metal band Danzig. It was originally released in August 1988 as the lead single from their debut album, '' Danzig''. In 1993–1994, almost six years after its original release, a remixed version of the son ...

which included the quote "Then I saw there was a way to Hell from the gates of Heaven" in the beginning of the music video from ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. * In 1989, Orion's Gate, a producer of Biblical / Spiritual audio dramas produced ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' as a six-hour audio dramatization. This production was followed several years later by ''Christiana: Pilgrim's Progress, Part II'', another 8 hour audio dramatization. * In 1989, The Ocean Blue released '' The Ocean Blue'' which includes the song "Vanity Fair" which includes lyrics that reference ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. * In 1993, the popular Christian radio drama, ''

Adventures in Odyssey ''Adventures in Odyssey'' (AIO), or simply ''Odyssey'', is an Evangelical Christian radio drama and comedy series created and produced by Focus on the Family. Aimed at families with children age 12 and younger, the series first aired in 1987 as ...

'' (produced by Focus on the Family), featured a two-part story, titled "Pilgrim's Progress: Revisited." This two-parter was written and directed by

Phil Lollar Phil Lollar (born August 6, 1959) is an American voice actor, director, producer and writer for the Focus on the Family-created radio drama, ''Adventures in Odyssey''. He is credited as being one of the show's creators. He also provided the voic ...

. * The 1993 video game ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher * ...

'' features a map called "Slough of Despair" (E3M2: episode 3, map 2). * In the 1990s Kurt and Keith Landaas, composed, directed and performed a compelling stage two-act modern rock opera adaptation of ''Pilgrims Progress''. It involved five principal characters and a cast choral of about 20 members. It was performed in the Lambs theatre in NYC in 1994 and other tri-state venues. A studio recording was also produced and distributed. * In 1994, ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' and the imprisonment of John Bunyan were the subject of the musical ''Celestial City'' by David MacAdam, with John Curtis, and an album was released in 1997. * In 2003 the game ''Heaven Bound'' was released by Emerald Studios. The 3D adventure-style game, based on the novel, was only released for the PC. * ''

Five Nights at Freddy's ''Five Nights at Freddy's'' (''FNaF'') is a media franchise created by Scott Cawthon. The first video game of the same name was released on August 8, 2014, and the resultant series has since gained worldwide popularity. The main series cons ...

'' developer

Scott Cawthon Scott Braden Cawthon (born June 4, 1978) is an American former video game developer and writer. He came to prominence as the creator of the ''Five Nights at Freddy's'' media franchise, which began with the development of the eponymous surviva ...

directed and narrated a 2005

computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refer ...

version of the book, and also produced a video game adaptation. * In 2008, a film version by Danny Carrales, '' Pilgrim's Progress: Journey to Heaven'', was produced. It received one nomination for best feature length independent film and one nomination for best music score at the 2009

San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival (SAICFF) was a film festival located in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded and organized by Doug Phillips. The ''Best of Festival'' or ''Jubilee Award'' carried a $101,000 cash prize. The festival ...

. * British music band

Kula Shaker Kula Shaker are an English psychedelic rock band. Led by frontman Crispian Mills, the band came to prominence during the Post-Britpop era of the late 1990s. The band enjoyed commercial success in the UK between 1996 and 1999, notching up a num ...

released an album called ''

Pilgrim's Progress ''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 ...

'' on 28 June 2010. * In 2003 Michael W. Smith wrote a song, called "Signs", which he says on his ''A 20 Year Celebration'' live DVD to be inspired by ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. * Jim Winder (www.Jim-Winder.com) performs a live telling of ''Pilgrim's Progress'' (the first part) with contemporary Christian songs based on the story line and Biblical content. * Season 7, episode 16 of '' Family Guy'' (17 May 2009) is a parody of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' called "

Peter's Progress "Peter's Progress" is the 16th and final episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series ''Family Guy''. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on May 17, 2009. In the episode, a psychic reads Peter's palms and di ...

." * In 2010, FishFlix.com released ''A Pilgrim's Progress – The Story of John Bunyan'', a DVD documentary about Bunyan's life narrated by Derick Bingham, filmed on location in England. * In 2010, writer / director Andrew Wiest directed ''The Adventures of Chris Fable'' (aka ''The Wylds'') bringing John Bunyan's novel ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' to life on the screen with this family friendly fantasy adventure about a young runaway on a quest to find his long lost father. The movie was released on video and streaming in 2012. * In 2013, Puritan Productions company announced the premiere of its dramatization with ballet & chorus accompaniment in Fort Worth, Texas at the W.E. Scott Theatre on 18–19 October 2013. Subsequent productions by the same company in Garland, Texas at the Granville Arts Center on 24–26 October 2014, and in Austin, Texas, accompanied by ballet & chorus, at Park Hills Baptist Church on 4–5 November 2016. * In 2014, a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

-supported novel called ''The Narrow Road'' was published. It is based on ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', and was written by Erik Yeager and illustrated by Dave dela Gardelle. * The 2015

Terrence Malick Terrence Frederick Malick (born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. His films include ''Days of Heaven'' (1978), '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), for which he received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay ...

film '' Knight of Cups'' was inspired by ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. * In March 2015, director Darren Wilson announced a

campaign to produce a full-length feature film based on ''The Pilgrims Progress'' called ''Heaven Quest: A Pilgrim's Progress Movie''. * The

Band released their 2nd album titled ''

'' on 11 November 2016, a 2 CD concept album based on the book ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. On 25 January 2019, a follow-up 2 CD album, The Great Adventure, was released to continue re-telling the story from the perspective of Christian's son. * In 2019 a computer animated film adaptation titled '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' was released and featured the voice of

John Rhys-Davies John Rhys-Davies (born 5 May 1944) is a Welsh actor best known for portraying Sallah in the ''Indiana Jones'' franchise and Gimli in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy. His other roles include Michael Malone in the 1993 series ''The Untouch ...

. *The album '' Odyssey to the West'' by progressive metal deathcore band Slice the Cake is loosely inspired by The Pilgrim's Progress, and includes a track named after the novel.

Editions

* Bunyan, John ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. Edited by Roger Sharrock and J. B. Wharey. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975) . The standard critical edition, originally published in 1928 and revised in 1960 by Sharrock. * Bunyan, John ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. Edited with an introduction and notes by Roger Sharrrock. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987) . The text is based on the 1975 Clarendon edition (see above), but with modernised spelling and punctuation "to meet the needs of the general reader". * Bunyan, John ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) .

Abridged editions

* ''The Children's Pilgrim's Progress''. The story taken from the work by John Bunyan. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1866. *''Dangerous'' ''Journey'': ''The'' ''Story'' ''of'' ''Pilgrim''s'' ''Progress'' - abridged by Oliver Hunkin and illustrated by Alan Parry, 1985.

Retellings

*''Pilgrim's Progress retold and shortened for modern readers'' by Mary Godolphin (1884). Drawings by Robert Lawson. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1939. newly illustrated edition of the retelling by Mary Godolphin*''The Pilgrim's Progress in Words of One Syllable'' by Mary Godolphin. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1869. *''The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read''. Edited by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co., 1909. *''John Bunyan's Dream Story: the Pilgrim's Progress retold for children and adapted to school reading'' by James Baldwin. New York: American Book Co., 1913. *'' The Land of Far-Beyond'' by

. Methuen, 1942. * The story is set in a 20th-century America, concerned about the threat of World War Three, where the hero turns to Christ as there is a crisis involving China and the places he goes to are more futuristic. * *''Pilgrim's Progress, from This World to That Which Is to Come''. Rev., 2nd ed., in modern English – Christian Literature Crusade, Fort Washington, Penn., 1981. *''Little Pilgrim's Progress'' – Helen L. Taylor simplifies the vocabulary and concepts for younger readers, while keeping the storyline intact. Published by Moody Press, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, Illinois, 1992, 1993. *''John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress as retold by Gary D. Schmidt & illustrated by Barry Moser'' published by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Copyright 1994. *''The Evergreen Wood: An Adaptation of the "Pilgrim's Progress" for Children'' written by Linda Perry, illustrated by Alan Perry. Published by Hunt & Thorpe, 1997. *
The New Amplified Pilgrim's Progress
' (both book and dramatized audio) – as retold by James Pappas. Published by Orion's Gate (1999). A slightly expanded and highly dramatized version of John Bunyan's original. Large samples of the text are available * "The Aussie Pilgrim's Progress" by

Kel Richards Kelvin Barry "Kel" Richards (born 8 February 1946) is an Australian author, journalist, radio personality and lay Christian. Richards has written a series of crime novels and thrillers for adult readers which includes ''The Case of the Vanishi ...

. Ballarat: Strand Publishing, 2005. *"Quest for Celestia: A Reimagining of ''The Pilgrim's Progress''" by Steven James, 2006 *'' The Pilgrim's Progress – A 21st Century Re-telling of the John Bunyan Classic'' – Dry Ice Publishing, 2008 directed by Danny Carrales

Graphic novels

*''Pilgrim's Progress'' – a

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

by Marvel Comics. Thomas Nelson, 1993. * * A manga version of ''Pilgrim's Progress''. *''Pilgrim's Progress the Graphic Novel, written and illustrated by Ralph Sanders, 2018, Whistle Key Books, ''
RUN: The Pilgrim's Progress (ピルグリムのプログレス）
2018, illustrated by Alpha Yu
Shonen Bag Studio
. A webmanga retelling the basic framework of the book with contemporary character designs heavily influenced by popular anime, as well as retooling the story to wrap it around manga tropes and conventions. (The creator has gone on record stating that the character of the Interpreter was designed to resemble a pre-pubescant version of Rei Ayanami. He has also gone on record saying that the character of Faithful is "best waifu" multiple times.) Drastic changes were made to the underlying puritan philosophy of the original text.https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/run-the-pilgrims-progress-ピルグリムのプログレス/list?title_no=187097

References

External links

* *
''The Pilgrim's Progress''
(Project Gutenberg etext) * �
''High & Silver Presents: The Pilgrim's Progress''
Dramatized podcast of the Pilgrim's Progress.
''The Pilgrim's Progress'': parts I & II
(Ebook, PDF layout and fonts inspired by 18th century publications
''Voyage du pèlerin''
PDF Ebook – French translation of ''The Pilgrim's Progress''
''The Pilgrim's Progress – graphic novel''

"Piilgrim's Progress the Graphic Novel"
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