The Pilgrim’s Progress

The Pilgrim’s Progress
John Bunyan

John Bunyan’s much-loved allegory, telling the story of Christian and his journey to the Celestial City.THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, John Bunyan’s masterful religious allegory, narrates the journey of an everyman hero, Christian, as he attempts to navigate the trials and tribulations of this world, the City of Destruction, on the path towards paradise, the Celestial City. Though weighed down by the burden of original sin, Christian overcomes the distractions of the world, moving past the Slough of Despond, the Hill of Difficulty and the Valley of the Shadow of Death, while simultaneously resisting the temptations of the Worldy Wise, the Vain and the Ignorant. The product of a lifetime of religious work and thought, Bunyan’s virtuosic narrative fundamentally altered Protestant belief, and remains one of the most important and influential works in the English language.

THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS

John Bunyan

Table of Contents

Title Page (#u2a91e978-08c6-5922-916a-d1ee972f17dd)

History of Collins (#ubb57f437-d185-557f-9aa8-034995a4e1da)

Life & Times (#ueab8ca9e-b154-57d8-aec8-f9e63b4901bf)

Preface (#ud4fd3fd8-ceb2-5d61-be8a-deba4d93ee5a)

Part I (#ua8c91e10-ccd6-5a6e-87c3-fe1ca25952ad)

Chapter 1 (#u49266dc5-1148-595f-b54f-296d4fc70f80)

Chapter 2 (#uce1e9d46-c073-56a9-ba29-aa9bde052cb7)

Chapter 3 (#u45e4cd82-cb90-5fec-906c-5d3795d4c058)

Chapter 4 (#u70c6711d-06cd-5066-b6de-1987a7f7c0ed)

Chapter 5 (#u9b9dfd82-98fc-584a-847b-a99cfe5d2c5c)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Conclusion (#litres_trial_promo)

Part II (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 1: Courteous Companions,— (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 2: The Wicket-Gate (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 3: The Interpreter’s House (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 4: The Cross and the Consequences (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5: The Palace Beautiful (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6: The Valley of Humiliation (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7: Entertained by Gaius (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8: The Delectable Mountains and the Shepherds (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9: The Enchanted Ground (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10: The Pilgrims at Home (#litres_trial_promo)

The Little Pilgrim: The Story of a Little Girl Who Tried to Go on Pilgrimage (#litres_trial_promo)

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from the Collins English Dictionary (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

History of Collins (#ulink_38e14bc1-67a2-52e5-9415-38e2962e8ec9)

In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books and prayer books. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary William published in 1824, Greek and English Lexicon. Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.

Soon after, William published the first Collins novel, Ready Reckoner, however it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices were high, potato crops had failed and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result, many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.

Aged 30, William’s son, William II took over the business. A keen humanitarian with a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly ‘Victorian’ in his outlook. He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s works and The Pilgrim’s Progress, making them available to the masses for the first time. A new demand for educational books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books, encyclopaedias and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication of atlases and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.

In the 1860s Collins began to expand and diversify and the idea of ‘books for the millions’ was developed. Affordable editions of classical literature were published and in 1903 Collins introduced 10 titles in their Collins Handy Illustrated Pocket Novels. These proved so popular that a few years later this had increased to an output of 50 volumes, selling nearly half a million in their year of publication. In the same year, The Everyman’s Library was also instituted, with the idea of publishing an affordable library of the most important classical works, biographies, religious and philosophical treatments, plays, poems, travel and adventure. This series eclipsed all competition at the time and the introduction of paperback books in the 1950s helped to open that market and marked a high point in the industry.

HarperCollins is and has always been a champion of the classics and the current Collins Classics series follows in this tradition – publishing classical literature that is affordable and available to all. Beautifully packaged, highly collectible and intended to be reread and enjoyed at every opportunity.

Life & Times (#ulink_f9524e0f-f814-58a8-91b6-b7b699282d26)

This is one of those works where it is essential to understand the historical context to gain insight into the author’s motivation. The Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan, was written in two parts – the first in 1678, the second in 1684. Bunyan was born in 1628, so he was already 50 years old when the first part was published. Those 50 years had seen a great deal of history played out in Britain, which goes a long way to explaining Bunyan’s intent.

He was born a couple of years into the reign of King Charles I, which proved to be the beginning of a period of great turmoil. Due to the King’s ill-judged actions, the English Civil War broke out in 1642 and would last until 1651, during which time hundreds of thousands died, either in the name of the monarchy or parliament. Charles was executed in 1649 and Oliver Cromwell took the role of Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658. England then decided a monarchy was better than a republic and instated Charles II as the new king. The authorities even tried to erase the Protectorate from history by recording the start of Charles II’s reign from 1649. To this day, England is the only nation to have rid itself of monarchy and then brought it back again.

By the time Bunyan was 30 years old he had witnessed the horrors of warfare, which had only served to exchange the selfishness of Charles I for the piousness of Cromwell. He was now witnessing the frivolity and excesses of Charles II. Understandably, he felt that English society had become so confused that it was slipping into moral and ethical bankruptcy. People wanted to put the past behind them at the expense of their religious fortitude. They had the Christian Bible for guidance, but they appeared no longer to heed its message. Bunyan set about putting things right by means of an allegorical tale that would make the reader think about the consequences of their behaviour. It would be a kind of practical guide or companion to the Bible, so that the layperson had a straightforward point of reference, instead of having to read and interpret the metaphorical words of the good book. In effect, The Pilgrim’s Progress is a fable about what to expect in the afterlife if one chooses to act in one way or another during life.

Bunyan was a Protestant Christian. Following the restoration of the English monarchy, the nation became Anglican (Church of England) Christian under Charles II. Protestants had a puritanical approach to Christianity, while Anglicans were more progressive and open-minded. In 1664, the Conventicle Act was passed, which meant that it became illegal for anyone outside the Church of England to attend religious assemblies of more than five people. Bunyan found himself arrested for preaching and was subjected to two periods of imprisonment. It was his incarceration for his beliefs that inspired him to write The Pilgrim’s Progress, because it was a way of preaching his message regardless of his own circumstances. Once published, his words would be a meme in society. The authorities could imprison the man, but not his thoughts.

During this period in history people were generally obsessed with death. It was, after all, never far away due to warfare and disease, and Christianity had indoctrinated populations with the concept that their conduct in life would determine whether they went to heaven or hell. This pre-occupation with the afterlife pervaded all levels of society, so Bunyan’s writings had a potentially wide readership. Bunyan had been exposed to the uncertainty of life in 1644 when both his mother and sister died. Shortly after this he had signed up with the parliamentary army, otherwise known as the Roundheads.

In his early twenties Bunyan began to reflect on his misspent youth and claimed that he had a calling to Christianity. He struggled for a number of years to come to terms with reforming his own character, but eventually emerged with a clear understanding of his mission. It was the acknowledgement of his own lack of moral fibre in youth that prompted him to guide others in their own journey to redemption. He was a converted sinner surrounded by scores of other sinners, all wishing to be led to salvation.