The Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come is a 1678
Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most
significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into
more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print.It has also been
cited as the first novel written in English. Bunyan began his work while in
the Bedfordshire county prison for violations of the Conventicle Act of 1664,
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, 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. 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.[10] 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.