Pilgrim’s ProgressArticle Free Pass Pilgrim’s Progress,
religious allegory by the English writer John Bunyan, a symbolic
vision of the good man’s pilgrimage through life, at one time
second only to the Bible in popularity. Part I (1678), in which
Christian travels toward the Celestial City, is presented as the
author’s dream. He has fled the City of Destruction on the
advice of Evangelist but has failed to persuade his family to
accompany him. His journey takes him through dangers and
distractions that have become proverbial, including the Slough
of Despond, Vanity Fair, and Doubting Castle. His anguished
struggle toward salvation, though it dominates Part I, does not
totally eclipse other, contrasting, qualities. Written in
homely, yet dignified biblical prose, the work has some of the
qualities of a folktale; and in its humour and realistic
portrayals of Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Faithful, Hopeful, Pliant,
and Obstinate, it anticipates the 18th-century novel. In Part II
(1684), which deals with the effort of Chr