The Pilgrim's Progress (1678)

I listened to this on Audible.

This was a great book, a great narration, and a great allegory. I'm more familiar with the modern abridged versions so it was good to go back to Bunyan's original.

There were a couple things I found wanting though:
1. as a story, it could use some editing to tighten up the pacing. Particularly at the end, there was a lot of "discoursing" back and forth.
2. some of the discourses the pilgrims had, especially with the misguided/evil individuals they met, felt very preachy. I don't know if that's because it was how people back then told each other they were wrong, or whether as a minister, he felt it was better to get straight to the point to care for someone's soul. But it felt as if they didn't really "love" these people, possibly because Bunyan knew they were destined for Hell anyway. There could have been more friendliness in the disputes.

Besides that, I'd recommend reading it. Bunyan sprinkles in relevant biblical allusions all through it, from passing sentences to characters and places. And though occasionally his allegory falls back down to earth in a few places and uses our experiences without translating them, most of the time it depicts real things in the Christian life in a very graphic, useful way. ( )

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Part 1 and Part 2 provide an interesting contrast.

I am often amazed to find major works written from a prison cell.
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This edition by Barnes and Noble includes an introduction and notes by David Hawkes. Side notes include Bible verses for easy reference. Lovely pictures are found throughout the book. ( )

Classic Christain Allegory from a contemporary of Milton? Or an upbeat adventure fantasy with monster slaying, epic quests, moral quandaries, and much deceit?

It's very easy to fall back on this as a tool for moral teaching especially since the lessons being learned are all in the names of the characters, but I am forced to remember that this kind of everyman allegory has a long, long tradition in literature.

I'd rather see this as an easy to read upbeat fantasy adventure featuring first The Christian who goes on without his family to have adventures and his death AND THEN to have the second half be the rest of his family following down the same path, albeit somewhat differently.

The fact is... it's fun. Ignore all the religion stuff for a moment. Read it as a story. It's STILL FUN. Epic quest time!

It's also a pretty decent antidote to your normal GrimDark fantasy binge. :) ( )