The
Pilgrim's Progress
from This World to
That Which Is to
Come; Delivered
under the Similitude
of a Dream
is a
1678
Christian
allegory written
by
John Bunyan. It
is regarded as one
of the most
significant works of
religious
English literature,[1][2][3][4]
has been translated
into more than 200
languages, and has
never been out of
print.[5][6]
Bunyan began his
work while in the
Bedfordshire
county
prison for
violations of the
Conventicle Act,
which prohibited the
holding of religious
services outside the
auspices of the
established
Church of England.
Early Bunyan
scholars such as
John Brown
believed The
Pilgrim's Progress
was begun in
Bunyan's second,
shorter imprisonment
for six months in
1675,[7]
but more recent
scholars such as
Roger Sharrock
believe that it was
begun during
Bunyan's initial,
more lengthy
imprisonment from
1660 to 1672 right
after he had written
his spiritual
autobiography,
Grace Abounding to
the Chief of Sinners.[8]
The
English text
comprises 108,260
words and is divided
into two parts, each
reading as a
continuous narrative
with no chapter
divisions. The first
part was completed
in 1677 and entered
into the
Stationers' Register
on 22 December 1677.
It was licensed and
entered in the "Term
Catalogue" on 18
February 1678, which
is looked upon as
the date of first
publication.[9]
After the first
edition of the first
part in 1678, an
expanded edition,
with additions
written after Bunyan
was freed, appeared
in 1679. The Second
Part appeared in
1684. There were
eleven editions of
the first part in
John Bunyan's
lifetime, published
in successive years
from 1678 to 1685
and in 1688, and
there were two
editions of the
second part,
published in 1684
and 1686.
