The Pilgrim's Progress Explained

Italic Title:The Pilgrim's Progress -->
The Pilgrim's Progress
Author:John Bunyan
Title Orig:The Pilgrim's Progreſs from This World, to That Which Is to Come
Orig Lang Code:en
Country:England
Language:English
Genre:Religious allegory
Pub Date:1678 (first volume)
1684 (second volume)
Wikisource:The Pilgrim's Progress
Dewey:828.407
Congress:PR3330.A2 K43

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 the narrative aspect of Christian media.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] It has been translated into more than 200 languages and has never been out of print.[7] [8] It appeared in Dutch in 1681, in German in 1703 and in Swedish in 1727. The first North American edition was issued in 1681.[9] It has also been cited as the first novel written in English.[10] 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 William Hogarth, C. S. Lewis, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, George Bernard Shaw, William Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Enid Blyton."[11] [12] The words on which the hymn "To be a Pilgrim" is based come from the novel.

Bunyan began his work while in the Bedfordshire county prison for violations of the Conventicle Act 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,[13] 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.[14]

The English text comprises 108,260 words and is divided into two parts, each reading as a continuous narrative with no chapter divisions. The first part was completed in 1677 and entered into the Stationers' Register on 22 December 1677. It was licensed and entered in the "Term Catalogue" on 18 February 1678, which is looked upon as the date of first publication.[15] 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. The allegory's protagonist, Christian, is an everyman 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) 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" 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.[16] 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, 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.

On his way to the Wicket Gate, Christian is diverted by the secular ethics 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 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.[17] To Christian's query about relief from his burden, Goodwill directs him forward to "the place of deliverance".[18]

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".[19]

From the House of the Interpreter, Christian finally reaches the "place of deliverance" (allegorically, the cross of Calvary 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),[20] which stands him in good stead in his battle against the demonic dragon-like Apollyon (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).[21] "And with that Apollyon spread his dragon wings and sped away."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 hill called Lucre where there is a silver mine. A man called Demas urges them to join in the mining going on, 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 vulnerability 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

Second Part

Places in The Pilgrim's Progress

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[22] describes the natural features of Bedfordshire that apparently turn up in The Pilgrim's Progress. Vera Brittain in her thoroughly researched biography of Bunyan,[23] identifies seven locations that appear in the allegory. 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, on the main road that runs less than a mile behind his cottage in Elstow, through Ampthill, Dunstable and St Albans, to London.

In the same sequence as these subjects appear in The Pilgrim's Progress, the geographical realities are as follows:

  1. The plain (across which Christian fled) is Bedford Plain, which is 15 miles (about 24 km) wide, with the town of Bedford in the middle and the River Great Ouse meandering through the northern half;
  2. 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, which was closed in 2008. On either side of the Bedford to Ampthill 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;[24] 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.
  3. "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",[25] is the red sandy cliffs just north of Ridgmont (i.e. "Rouge Mont");
  4. The "Wicket Gate" could be the wooden gate at the entrance to the Elstow parish church[26] or the wicket gate (small door) in the northern wooden entrance door at the west end of Elstow Abbey Church.
  5. 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.
  6. The "House of the Interpreter" is the rectory of St John's church in the south side of Bedford, where Bunyan was mentored by the pastor John Gifford;
  7. The wall "Salvation" that fenced in the King's Highway coming after the House of the Interpreter[27] is the red brick wall, over four miles long, beside the Ridgmont to Woburn road, marking the boundary of the Duke of Bedford's estate;
  8. The "place somewhat ascending ... [with] 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, a small village five miles west of Bedford. Bunyan would often preach in a wood by the River Ouse just outside the village.
  9. The "Hill Difficulty" is Ampthill Hill, on the main Bedford road, the steepest hill in the county. A sandy range of hills stretches across Bedfordshire from Woburn through Ampthill to Potton. 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;[28]
  10. The pleasant arbour on the way up the Hill Difficulty is a small "lay-by", part way up Ampthill Hill, on the east side. A photo, taken in 1908, shows a cyclist resting there;[29]
  11. The "very narrow passage" to the "Palace Beautiful"[30] is an entrance cut into the high bank by the roadside to the east at the top of Ampthill Hill;
  12. The "Palace Beautiful" is Houghton (formerly Ampthill) House, built in 1621 but a ruin since 1800. The house faced north; and, because of the dramatic view over the Bedford 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 Ampthill 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 Elstow Church, built for Sir Thomas Hillersden from the cloister buildings of Elstow Abbey.
  13. The "Valley of the Shadow of Death" is Millbrook gorge to the west of Ampthill;
  14. "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[31] but Elstow'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 during late August and early September fits John Bunyan's account of the fair's antiquity and its vast variety of goods sold[32] 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 Cambridge, and there is a place known as "Bunyan's Barn" in Toft,[33] so it is surmised that Bunyan visited the notable Stourbridge Fair;
  15. The "pillar of salt", Lot's wife,[34] 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;
  16. The "River of the Water of Life", with trees along each bank[35] 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 the river Flit, flowing through Flitton and Flitwick south of Ampthill;
  17. "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 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.[36] Giant Despair was killed and Doubting Castle was demolished in the second part of The Pilgrim's Progress.[37]
  18. The "Delectable Mountains" are the Chiltern Hills 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."[38] Reminiscent of the possibility of seeing the Celestial City from Mount Clear,[39] on a clear day one can see London's buildings from Dunstable Downs near Whipsnade Zoo;
  19. 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";[40]
  20. The "very deep river"[41] is the Thames, one thousand feet (300 m) wide at high tide; however, here Bunyan varied from geographical reality and put the city south of the river, and without a bridge.
  21. The "Celestial City" is the City of 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, London sported a new gleaming city centre with forty Wren churches.[42] In the last decade of Bunyan's life (1678–88), 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 temptations and abstractions that Christian encounters and with whom he converses on his course to Heaven. Samuel Johnson 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, 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. 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.[43]

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.[44]

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[45] which is driven away by Greatheart and other stalwarts.[46] 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."[47]

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.[48] 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.[49] 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, declared that the book was his favorite reading.[50]

Henry Alfred Krishnapillai'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 and are one of the earliest prose works in the language.[51]

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.[52]

There are collections of old foreign language versions of The Pilgrim's Progress at both the Moot Hall Museum in Elstow, and at the John Bunyan Museum in Mill Street in 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.[53] 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, 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 set the whole story as a huge narrative tone poem for solo organ, with optional 6-part choir and narrator, lasting approximately hours.

Under the name The Similitude of a Dream, the progressive rock band of Neal Morse 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 or by Miss Landon herself. These plates are as follows:

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. Daniel Huntington, Jasper Cropsey, Frederic Edwin Church, Jesse Talbot, Edward Harrison May, and others completed canvases based on the work. Thomas Cole's The Voyage of Life was inspired by The Pilgrim's Progress.[63]

In 1850, Huntington, Cropsey, and Church contributed designs to a moving panorama 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.[64] A second version of the panorama, organized by Kyle and artist Jacob Dallas, premiered in 1851.[65] The second version exists today in the collections of the Saco Museum.

References in literature

In Wole Soyinka'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. Charles Dickens' book Oliver Twist (1838) is subtitled 'The Parish Boy's Progress'. The titular character of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1839) and his companion Smike start to read it but are interrupted.

The title of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847–1848 novel Vanity Fair 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, 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", 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 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 novel, Mr. Standfast, which also takes its title from one of Bunyan's characters.

Alan Moore, in his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 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, 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 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".[66]

C. S. Lewis wrote a book inspired by The Pilgrim's Progress, called The Pilgrim's Regress, 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 novel is John Bullock, the quintessential English soldier during World War I.

The character of Billy Pilgrim 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 acceptance of life and of a fatalist human condition. Vonnegut's parallel to The Pilgrim's Progress is deliberate and evident in Billy's surname.

Charlotte Brontë refers to Pilgrim's Progress in most of her novels, including Jane Eyre,[67] Shirley,[68] and Villette.[69] Her alterations to the quest-narrative have led to much critical interest, particular with the ending of Jane Eyre.[70]

Walt Willis and Bob Shaw's classic science fiction fan 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, and as a monograph.

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

John Steinbeck'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, such as "Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom" by Ellen and William Craft, to emphasize the moral and religious implications of slavery.[71]

Hannah Hurnard's novel Hinds' Feet on High Places (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's The Borders of Infinity (1989), Miles Vorkosigan 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 (1818) to illustrate the relationship between Madge Wildfire and Jeanie Deans. 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

Editions

Abridged editions

Retellings

Graphic novels

External links

Notes and References

  1. "The two parts of The Pilgrim's Progress in reality constitute a whole, and the whole is, without doubt, the most influential religious book ever written in the English language" (Alexander M. Witherspoon in his introduction, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (New York: Pocket Books, 1957), vi.
  2. Bunyan, John, The Pilgrim's Progress, W. R. Owens, ed., Oxford World's Classics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), xiii.
  3. Richardson, Abby Sage, Familiar Talks on English Literature: A Manual (Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1892), 221.
  4. "For two hundred years or more no other English book was so generally known and read" (James Baldwin, Foreword, John Bunyan's Dream Story (New York: American Book Co., 1913), 6.
  5. Web site: Pilgrim's Progress – new impact for a new generation . AFA Journal . February 1, 2022.
  6. Book: Sullivan, W.F. . Prison Religion: Faith-Based Reform and the Constitution . Princeton University Press . 2011 . 978-0-691-15253-0 . February 1, 2022 . 164.
  7. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), xiii: "...the book has never been out of print. It has been published in innumerable editions, and has been translated into over two hundred languages."
  8. [F. L. Cross|Cross, F. L.]
  9. Lyons, M. (2011). Books: A Living History. Getty Publications.
  10. Chapman, J. (1892). The Westminster Review, Volume 138. p. 610.
  11. News: McCrum . Robert . 2013-09-23 . The 100 best novels: No 1 – The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1678) . en . The Guardian . 2021-12-17.
  12. Forrest and Greaves 1982: xii
  13. Brown, John, John Bunyan: His Life, Times and Work (1885, revised edition 1928).
  14. Bunyan, John, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. with an introduction by Roger Sharrock (Harmondsworth: Penguins Books, 1965), pp. 10, 59, 94, 326–27, 375.
  15. "The copy for the first edition of the First Part of The Pilgrim's Progress was entered in the Stationers' Register on 22 December 1677 ... The book was licensed and entered in the Term Catalogue for the following Hilary Term, 18 February 1678; this date would customarily indicate the time of publication, or only slightly precede it" [John Bunyan, ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', James Blanton Wharey and Roger Sharrock, eds, Second Edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), xxi].
  16. [s:Bible (American Standard)/2 Peter|2 Peter 1:19: "a lamp shining in a dark place"]
  17. [s:The Pilgrim's Progress/Part II/Section 1|Go to section 1.2.3.1 Mr. Sagacity leaves the author]
  18. A marginal note indicates, "There is no deliverance from the guilt and burden of sin, but by the death and blood of Christ" cf. Sharrock, p. 59.
  19. "Many of the pictures in the House of the Interpreter seem to be derived from emblem books or to be created in the manner and spirit of the emblem. ... Usually, each emblem occupied a page and consisted of an allegorical picture at the top with underneath it a device or motto, a short Latin verse, and a poem explaining the allegory. Bunyan himself wrote an emblem book, A Book for Boys and Girls (1688) ...", cf. Sharrock, p. 375.
  20. "the whole armour (panoply) of God"
  21. "the whole armor (panoply) of God"
  22. Albert J. Foster, Bunyan's Country: Studies in the Topography of Pilgrim's Progress (London: H. Virtue, 1911).
  23. Web site: Vera . Brittain. In the Steps of John Bunyan. London: Rich & Cowan, 1949. 2012-10-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20121108050317/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jbrittain.htm. 8 November 2012. dead.
  24. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 17.
  25. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 20.
  26. See article on John Bunyan
  27. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 37.
  28. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 41–42.
  29. Underwood, A., Ampthill in Old Picture Postcards (Zaltbommel, Netherlands: European Library, 1989).
  30. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 45.
  31. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 85–86.
  32. E. South and O. Cook, Prospect of Cambridge (London: Batsford, 1985).
  33. Brittain, In the Steps of John Bunyan (London: Rich & Cowan, 1949).
  34. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 105.
  35. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 107.
  36. Foster, A. J., Ampthill Towers (London: Thomas Nelson, 1910).
  37. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 262–64.
  38. Hadfield, J., The Shell Guide to England (London: Michael Joseph, 1970).
  39. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 119.
  40. E. Rutherfurd, London: The Novel (New York: Crown Publishers, 1997).
  41. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 147.
  42. [H. V. Morton]
  43. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 66, 299.
  44. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), pp. 86, 301.
  45. [s:Bible (American Standard)/Revelation#Chapter 17|Revelation 17:1–18]
  46. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), pp. 258–259.
  47. Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (2003), 318: See Misc. Works, xiii. 421–504.
  48. Book: Martyn., Lyons. Books : a living history. 2011. J. Paul Getty Museum. 978-1606060834. Los Angeles. 707023033.
  49. Book: Books A Living History. Thames & Hudson. 2013. 9780500291153. 118–120. English.
  50. [Jonathan D. Spence]
  51. Book: Guptan Nair, S. . S. Guptan Nair

    . Gadyam Pinnitta Vazhikal . 2001 . D. C. Books . 9788126403332 . Kottayam . 41–42 . S. Guptan Nair.

  52. Hofmeyr, I. (2002). Dreams, Documents and 'Fetishes': African Christian Interpretations of The Pilgrim's Progress. Journal of Religion in Africa, 32(4), pp. 440–455.
  53. "A third part falsely attributed to Bunyan appeared in 1693, and was reprinted as late as 1852," (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, vol. 2 under "John Bunyan")
  54. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835. picture and poetical illustration. 1834. Fisher, Son & Co..
  55. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835. poetical illustration and picture. 1834. Fisher, Son & Co..
  56. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835. poetical illustration and picture. 1834. Fisher, Son & Co..
  57. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835. poetical illustration and picture. 1834. Fisher, Son & Co..
  58. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836. picture. 1835. Fisher, Son & Co.. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836. poetical illustration. 1835. Fisher, Son & Co..
  59. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836. poetical illustration. 1835. Fisher, Son & Co.. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836. picture. 1835. Fisher, Son & Co..
  60. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836. picture. 1835. Fisher, Son & Co.. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836. poetical illustration. 1835. Fisher, Son & Co..
  61. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836. poetical illustration. 1835. Fisher, Son & Co.. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836. picture. 1835. Fisher, Son & Co..
  62. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837. picture. 1836. Fisher, Son & Co.. Book: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837. poetical illustration. 1836. Fisher, Son & Co..
  63. Cole was reading The Pilgrim's Progress as he worked on this series. Paul D. Schweizer, "The Voyage of Life: A Chronology" in Thomas Cole's Voyage of Life (Utica, New York: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1985).
  64. Jessica Skwire Routhier, Kevin J. Avery, and Thomas Hardiman Jr., The Painters' Panorama: Narrative, Art, and Faith in the Moving Panorama of Pilgrim's Progress (Hanover: University Press of New England, 2015).
  65. Routhier et al, The Painters' Panorama.
  66. Canemaker, John (1987), Winsor McCay: His Life and Art, Cross River Press, New York
  67. Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Richard J. Dunn. WW Norton: 2001. p. 385.
  68. Brontë, Charlotte. Shirley. Oxford University Press: 2008. pp. 48, 236.
  69. Brontë, Charlotte. Villette. Ed. Tim Dolin. Oxford University Press: 2008, pp. 6, 44.
  70. Beaty, Jerome. "St. John's Way and the Wayward Reader". Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Richard J. Dunn. WW Norton: 2001. 491–503 [501]
  71. Book: Gould, Philip. The Cambridge Companion to the African American Slave Narrative. 2007. Cambridge University Press. New York. 978-0-521-85019-3. 20–21. The rise, development, and circulation of the slave narrative. Audrey Fisch.
  72. Web site: A Brief History of Christian Film: 1918–2002 . Avgeeks.com . 2012-10-28 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090603135856/http://avgeeks.com/bhess/christian_film_history.html#_ftn2 . 3 June 2009.
  73. Web site: Conversations of Faith with Liam Neeson . Movieguide.org . 21 December 2018. 21 January 2017 .
  74. Web site: Pilgrims Progress (1979) Review . Dove.org . 21 December 2018.
  75. Web site: The Mystical Movie Guide . Astralresearch.org . 2012-10-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120425133301/http://www.astralresearch.org/mysticalmovieguide/mmlist.pl?exact=Pilgrim:27s%20Progress&year=1979&findwhere=allsyn&index=1 . 25 April 2012 . dead .
  76. Web site: Pilgrim's Progress . IMDb.
  77. Web site: Christiana . IMDb.
  78. Nick Taylor [singer/songwriter] & Alex Learmont [film maker and lyricist]
  79. Web site: Orion's Gate . Orionsgate.org . 2007-11-06 . 2012-10-28.
  80. Web site: Celestial City . New Life Fine Arts . 2012-10-07 . 2012-10-28 . 3 September 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120903164818/http://newlifefinearts.org/celestialcity . dead .
  81. Web site: Heaven Bound Video Game Information, Trailers, Screenshots . CEGAnMo.com . 2012-10-28.
  82. Web site: Home | Jim Winder and The Race. Jim Winder.
  83. Web site: Pilgrim's Progress: A Journey to Heaven. FishFlix.com Faith and Family Movies.
  84. Web site: Puritan Productions. www.puritanproductions.org.
  85. Web site: Fort Worth Community Arts Center . 3 October 2013 . 5 October 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131005013053/http://www.fwcac.com/?calendar%2F2844 . dead .
  86. Web site: HeavenQuest: A Pilgrim's Progress Movie . Kickstarter.
  87. Web site: Howard. Courtney. Film Review: 'The Pilgrim's Progress'. 17 April 2019. Variety. 29 February 2020.
  88. Book: Bunyan. John. Sharrock. Roger. The Pilgrim's Progress. 1987. Penguin. Harmondsworth. 0-14-043004-0. 29. 3.
  89. Web site: Pilgrim's Progress (2008). Imdb.bom. 2012-10-28.
  90. Web site: Interpreter Chan 11 . RUN: The Pilgrim's Progress (ピルグリムのプログレス）. www.webtoons.com.
  91. Web site: Faithful's progress 19 . RUN: The Pilgrim's Progress (ピルグリムのプログレス）. www.webtoons.com.
  92. Web site: RUN: The Pilgrim's Progress (ピルグリムのプログレス）. 2018. Alpha Yu, illustration. www.webtoons.com.

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