The Pilgrim’s Progress
John Bunyan's allegory of Christian's journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, by way of the Slough of Despond and Vanity Fair.
Written by the Puritan preacher John Bunyan and first published in 1678, The Pilgrim’s Progress follows Christian as he leaves the City of Destruction for the Celestial City, meeting figures such as Evangelist, Faithful and Giant Despair on the way. Its places, among them the Slough of Despond and Vanity Fair, passed into the English language. It has been translated into more than 200 languages, has never been out of print, and is sometimes called the first novel in English.
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Michael Palin
Christian's journey toward the Celestial City via the Slough of Despond is a classic 17th-century account of the search for a better world. In the godless 1960s, books like this fell out of fashion, but on recently re-reading it I could see why its imagery once gripped me so firmly.
Article · September 2013
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