Narrative
The Pilgrim's Progress
John Bunyan · 1678
Opening lines
As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream.
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
The narrator recounts a dream. A man in rags, with a heavy burden on his back, reads a book and bursts into tears: his city will be burned by fire from heaven, and his family thinks he is ill. In the fields, a man named Evangelist points out to him in the distance a narrow gate and a light. He runs; when his wife and children call him back, he stops his ears and cries out “Life, life, eternal life”. With a companion, he sinks into a slough where the burden drags him down, then a smooth talker advises him to take a shortcut through the village of Morality.
Context
The book was written in prison, and its author served two terms there for preaching without authorisation: twelve years first, then six months from December 1676 to June 1677; scholars do not agree on which of the two saw its birth. Its language is that of preaching and conversation, without learned ornament, and it long caused it to be despised by the literati. He showed the manuscript to his friends, who were divided, some judging it obscure or too inventive; he went ahead anyway and had it printed in February 1678. The book then travelled with the Protestant missions.
Who it is for
An allegorical narrative in plain English, translated into French; the names of places and characters say what they are.
Prizes and reception
Translated into some two hundred languages, it is one of the most published books in English after the Bible.
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