Written by Reformed Baptist preacher John Bunyan in the late seventeenth century, Pilgrim's Progress is, as the author tells us, 'Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream, wherein is discovered the manner of his setting out, his dangerous journey, and safe arrival at the desired country.'  Here we find Christian, the Pilgrim, beset by numerous dangers, trials, and temptations on his journey to the Celestial City. In Part Two we follow Christian's wife, Christiana, and their children as they themselves journey towards the Celestial City, facing many of the same perils and obstacles.

Having served as a cornerstone of Protestant spiritual writings ever since its publication, Pilgrim's Progress embodies much of the Protestant theological ethos. Bunyan even goes so far as to have the Pope lend his title to an enfeebled elderly giant who was once a prolific murderer of Pilgrims.

Pilgrim's Progress also stands as a prime example of religious allegory and has lent so much of itself to our common imagination and parlance that a familiarity with it is necessary in order to truly appreciate many subsequent literary allusions. Without it, how would we make sense of Jo's burden tumbling off her back in Little Women, understand with Anne of Green Gables what it is to be in the depths of (the slough of) despair, or why a certain magazine styles itself Vanity Fair?

Bunyan crafts a world where the struggle between virtue and vice is vividly brought to life in his characters and the places they inhabit. In Christian, he has given us a chance to discover the best and worst in ourselves, to fight our own battles, and to aspire to journey to the Celestial City.  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."

— Written by Johanna Bittle