John Bunyan

The Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress is John Bunyan's immortal allegory of the Christian life, written while Bunyan was imprisoned for preaching without a license and published in 1678. Its hero, Christian, flees the City of Destruction and journeys toward the Celestial City, passing through the Slough of Despond, the Hill Difficulty, Vanity Fair, Doubting Castle, the Delectable Mountains, and the River of Death — each landscape a vivid picture of the soul's experience of sin, temptation, doubt, suffering, fellowship, and hope. Every character Christian meets — Obstinate, Pliable, Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Faithful, Talkative, By-ends, Hopeful, Giant Despair, Ignorance — is not merely a person but a spiritual condition. To read the book carefully is to read yourself.