- allegory told by a dreamer (similar to medieval poetry, closest example is "Pearl")
- dreamer sees a man, Christian, clothed in rags, with a burden on his back, leaving his house behind in the knowledge that it will burn down
- Christian has to flee his family who thinks he has gone mad and escape the City of Destruction
- on the advice of Evangelist he begins a journey through a series of allegorical places
- the Slough of Despond
- the House Beautiful
- the Valley of Humiliation
- the Valley of the Shadow of Death
- Vanity Fair
- Doubting Castle
- Celestial City
- each character and place in the dream is given an appropriate name
- Hopeful
- Faithful
- Mr. Legality
- Giant Despair
- the second part concerns Christiana, Christian's wife, who is inspired to follow on a similar pilgrimage
- The Pilgrim's Progress is the source for the name of Thackeray's Vanity Fair
The Author's Apology for his Book
"When at the first I took my pen in hand
Thus for to write, I did not understand
That I at all should make a little book
In such a mode; nay, I had undertook
To make another; which, when almost done,
Before I was aware, I this begun."
Beginning:
"As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the book, and read therein; and, as he read, he wept, and trembled; and, not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, What shall I do?"
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