John Bunyan - The Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress holds a unique place in the history of English literature. No other seventeenth-century work except the King James Bible, nothing from the pen of a writer of Bunyan's social class in any period, and no other Christian work, has enjoyed such an extensive readership. The pilgrim Christian, Mr Worldly Wiseman, Giant Despair, Hopeful, and Ignorance are engaged in a powerful drama set against a solidly realistic background of town and country. Bunyan captures the speech of ordinary people as accurately as he depicts their behaviour and appearance and as firmly as he realizes their inner emotional and spiritual life. The tale is related in language remarkable for its beauty and simplicity, and is spiced with Bunyan's acute and satirical perceptions of the vanity and hypocrisy of his own society.

Comment: I was lent this book recently and while I wasn't very eager about it, it wasn't a long one and the font wasn't too small either, so I managed to read it all in one afternoon.

This is a classic by a known Christian preacher from the 17th century, and in this book he tells the allegory of a man who must go through many obstacles in order to find the true meaning of what it means to be a Christian. On the physical road, the pilgrim faces an inner path as well, trying to think about what is wrong and what is good so that his mind and heart are worthy of salvation.

The person who lent me the book is religious and we sometimes talk about the subject. We are actually both Catholic and sometimes we do talk about religion but I must say my vision is probably a bit less strict then hers. If not for her initiative, I probably would not pick this book on my own, not only because I admit I had not heard of it - despite the accolades of it being the book people read the most in the world after the Bible - but also because it had to be extremely dated for certain.

If one isn't fundamentalist or whatever denomination one prefers, some things can be read as allegories without it having to be taken as granted, or one can simply read for the style of narrative. I don't mind classics and sometimes some can be real gems, but it definitely wasn't the case here. I've found this book to be boring, moralist and condescending.

Now, I can understand that this was written in a specific moment in time, when people saw things differently, lived by different "rules" so to speak, but unlike so many other similar books I would now label more as if they were "self help" than just preaching, where each reader can grasp whatever lesson or meaning wanted, in relation to this one, the narrative wasn't that vague that anyone could read whatever. This text was purposely moralist, preaching and looking at what we now know, unfair and racist.

The pilgrim is the personification of Man, who must have a correct life, make the right decisions and defend the right ideas for his soul to be saved or for his character to be worthy. All right, but sadly the rules for being a good Christian in the 17th century aren't as simple as "be a good person and help others". The rules and the things people had to know in order to be considered so, are very unfair and unbalanced and even understanding who wrote this and for whom this was written does not make it less bad.

I won't go any further, I've found this to be a less than worthwhile text, I could see where the author went with his allegory and I can certainly understand the intention. However, the execution and details don't mean anything to me nor do I think, unlike what so many others might defend, that this is one of those texts that reads now as it did back then. The main idea might not change, the same way the base of most religions has a source of goodness and reliable faith, but the hearts of Men most certainly are affected by what they see and live through.

Grade: 3/10