The Pilgrim's Progress

"Follow your heart..."

The Pilgrim's Progress* is the ultimate English classic, a book that has been continuously in print from its first publication in 1678 to the present day.

It recounts the story of Christian, who appears to the author in a dream, and his journey to Heaven through the trials and tribulations of life.

He meets many like-minded pilgrims on his way, such as Faithful and Hopeful, but before they attain their objective, they encounter the Giant Despair and the River of Death itself.

The procession that crosses The Pilgrim's Progress is as full of life and richly textured as a medieval tapestry.

Often regarded as important as the Bible as a Christian document, this timeless story of man's progress through life in search of salvation remains one of the most entertaining allegories of faith ever written.

As author Robert McCrum has written, there is 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 Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, CS Lewis, and John Steinbeck. The clarity and beauty of Bunyan's prose is like no other.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688) was an English writer and Baptist preacher best remembered as the author some sixty titles, of which the most famous is the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, first published in London in 1678. It has never been out of print, and has been translated into more than 200 languages.

* #1 on The Guardian's list of the 100-best novels ever written in English.