Planet Friendly Publishing Made in the United States Printed on Recycled Paper Text: 30 % Cover: 10% Learn more: www.greenedition.org At Dover Publications we’re committed to producing books in an earth-friendly manner and to helping our customers make greener choices. Manufacturing books in the United States ensures compliance with strict environmental laws and eliminates the need for international freight shipping, a major contributor to global air pollution. And printing on recycled paper helps minimize our consumption of trees, water and fossil fuels. The text of The Pilgrim’s Progress was printed on paper made with 30% post-consumer waste, and the cover was printed on paper made with 10% post-consumer waste. According to Environmental Defense’s Paper Calculator, by using this innovative paper instead of conventional papers, we achieved the following environmental benefits: Trees Saved: 23 • Air Emissions Eliminated: 4,693 pounds Water Saved: 3,578 gallons • Solid Waste Eliminated: 1,766 pounds For more information on our environmental practices, please visit us online at www.doverpublications.com/green DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS GENERAL EDITOR: PAUL NEGRI EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: SUSAN L. RATTINER Bibliographical Note This Dover edition, first published in 2003, is an unabridged republication of the text of The Pilgrim’s Progress (originally published in 1678), as printed in Volume 15 of “The Harvard Classics Series” by P. F. Collier & Son Company, New York, in 1909. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bunyan, John, 1628-1688. The pilgrim’s progress / John Bunyan. p. cm. — (Dover thrift editions) 9780486115054 1. Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages—Fiction. I. Title II. Series. PR3330. At 2003 828’.407 — dc21 2002035936 Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation 42675005 Table of Contents Title Page Bibliographical Note Copyright Page INTRODUCTORY NOTE THE FIRST PART THE AUTHOR’S APOLOGY THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS - IN THE SIMILITUDE OF A DREAM. THE CONCLUSION THE AUTHOR’S WAY OF SENDING FORTH HIS THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS THE AUTHOR’S VINDICATION INTRODUCTORY NOTE JOHN BUNYAN was born at Elstow, Bedfordshire, England, in November, 1628. His father was a maker and mender of pots and kettles, and the son followed the same trade. Though he is usually called a tinker, Bunyan had a settled home and place of business. He had little schooling, and he describes his early surroundings as poor and mean. When he was not yet sixteen his mother died; in two months his father married again; and the son enlisted as a soldier in the Civil War in November, 1644, though whether on the Parliamentary or Royalist side is not certain. The armies were disbanded in 1646, and about two years later Bunyan married a wife whose piety redeemed him from his delight in rural sport and the habit of profane swearing. He became much interested in religion, but it was only after a tremendous spiritual conflict, lasting three or four years, that he found peace. His struggles are related with extraordinary vividness and intensity in his “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.” In 1655, the year in which he lost his wife, he began to exhort, and two years later he became a regular Non-conformist preacher, continuing, however, to practise his trade. His success as a preacher roused opposition among the regular clergy, and in 1658 he was indicted at the assizes. His writing began with a controversy against the Quakers, and shows from the first the command of a homely but vigorous style. With the reenactment of the laws against non-conformity at the Restoration, Bunyan became subject to more severe persecution, and with a short intermission he was confined to prison from 1660 till 1672. Again and again he might have been released, but he refused to promise to desist from preaching, and there was no alternative for the justices but to keep him in confinement. Sometimes lax jailers permitted him to preach at church meetings; he frequently ministered to his fellow-prisoners; and he supported his family, now looked after by a second wife, by making laces. He had apparently abundant leisure, for he wrote in prison a large number of books, the first one of importance being that already mentioned, “Grace Abounding” (1666). “The Pilgrim’s Progress” was also written in jail, but probably during a later confinement of six months in 1675. In 1672 Charles II suspended the laws against Non-conformists and Roman Catholics, and Bunyan was released. He was called to be minister to a Non-conformist congregation in Bedford, and preached in the barn which served them as a church. But his ministrations were not confined to Bedford. He made preaching tours over a wide district, and even to London, and attracted great crowds of listeners. Meanwhile he continued to write. The first edition of “The Pilgrim’s Progress” in 1678 was followed by others with additions, and in 1684 by the second part. “The Life and Death of Mr. Badman” appeared in 1680; “The Holy War made by Shaddai upon Diabolus” in 1682. If the works left in manuscript at his death be included, the total of his books amounts to nearly sixty. He died in 1688, leaving a widow and six children, and a personal estate of less than £100. “The Pilgrim’s Progress” became at once popular, and has continued to be by far the most widely read of all his works, and one of the most universally known of English books. Though in the form of an allegory, the narrative interest is so powerful, the drawing of permanent types of human character is so vigorous, and the style is so simple and direct that it takes rank as a great work of fiction. The best sides of English Puritanism have here their most adequate and characteristic expression, while the intensity of Bunyan’s religious fervor and the universality of the spiritual problems with which
