When I was in my early high school, I read Little Pilgrim's Progress and thought it was a quite a fun story with swords and battles and adventures. Reading the 'adult' version of the book has brought back memories as I try and align the two.
This version was still quite readable and the first part of the book followed Christian as he journeyed to the wicket gate to start walking on the narrow path. He struggled with or fought of or was almost misled by various characters and trials. Each of the people was given a name that reflected their character, such as Faithful, Hopeful, Ignorance, Evangelist and Pliable.
However, after passing through Vanity Fair and the Celestial Mountains, the story started to slow down with several lengthy theological explanations as they walked along. The end of the journey appeared suddenly and the characters walked a pretty easy path near the end, with not many challenges.
And of course, in the end, they successfully reach heaven and are allowed to enter in.
One thing that concerned me as I read was that the book was running out of pages to cover his wife's story. From what I recall, Little Pilgrim's Progress covers both Christian and Christiana's stories. According to Wikipedia, there is a second book that covers her story, although it is possible the edition I read was slightly abridged and did not include it. ( )

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
127 Pages
3 Stars

A Christian allegory for man's journey to heaven, The Pilgrim's Progress follows Christian on his journey from the City of Destruction to Mount Zion and the Celestial City. Along the way he encounters many who will mislead him or do him harm as well as many terrors, such as the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He also meets friends along the way, chief of whom are Faithful and Hopeful.

Though I do not share the religious beliefs of the author, this was an interesting tale. Much of it is filled with the dangers a good Christian can expect to encounter in his walk with God and the text is liberally sprinkled with Biblical verses, parables, and sermons. Yet, despite that it was not difficult to read from that aspect. I actually had a harder time with the old fashioned language. As this was written in 1678, it was written in the language of the time and as such to a modern reader this slows down the narrative. I think that a person who is strong in their Christian faith would have much to gain from reading this tale, and it wouldn't do anyone else much harm either as it's a useful tool in learning about Christianity in the 1700s, during which time there was a lot of upheaval in the religious ranks.

Apparently there is a second half, which gives the details of the journey of Christian's wife and children, which had stayed behind in the City of Destruction, thinking him mad. My edition only included Christian's journey. If I can get a hold of the second half of the narrative I will update my review to include that portion. ( )

Bunyan begins his allegory with an interesting argument that fiction can be used to strengthen Christian faith. By giving examples from the Bible he demonstrates a need to silence critics of fiction who apparently would limit spiritual training to reading the Bible. He also inoculates the reader by stating that the book was written primarily for the author's own spiritual development.
Beginning the story in the wilderness brings Dante to mind at the start of the allegory. Christian seems to learn various things in the course of his pilgrimage, but throughout it he hardly appears to change at all. This was just one aspect that disappointed me. I did not find the book as impressive an argument for spiritual growth as other more personal memoirs from writers like Augustine or Thomas Merton. Perhaps this classic may be best appreciated by those who are true believers rather than those who are truly seeking wisdom. ( )

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