Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan was one of the first modern novels when it was published in 1679 and 1685 because it uses dialogue as a main tool to drive the story. As an allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress plainly tells the story of each Christian’s lifelong quest from a sinful life to eternal life using the example of a physical quest of a pilgrim named, appropriately, Christian.

I certainly appreciate the impact of Pilgrim’s Progress on the history of literature and I am very glad I read it. It is a pillar in Christian history and a milestone in western literature. Yet, reading Pilgrim’s Progress was challenging. Since it was written in the 1600s, it was a difficult writing style that didn’t “flow” as modern writing does. I would not have been so frustrated with this unfamiliar writing style had not the allegory been so poorly “veiled.” Pilgrim’s Progress was painfully didactic and instructional. In the end, it may have met the needs for the times in which it was written but it doesn’t touch me today. (more…)