The Pilgrim's Progress

Jan 29, 2026 2:32 AM

Author:John Bunyan,Roger Pooley

'The ultimate English classic ... The story of a man in search of truth' Observer

In John Bunyan's timeless allegory, Christian sets off on a journey to find salvation. His path is not easy, and he is beset by trials, including the destructive Apollyon and the Giant Despair, as he pursues his pilgrimage through the Slough of Despond, the Delectable Mountains and Vanity Fair towards the Celestial City. In the second part of the narrative his wife, Christiana, is escorted by Great-Heart through the same difficult terrain. Written with the urgency of persecuted faith and a fiery imagination while its author was in prison, The Pilgrim's Progress is a spiritual as well as a literary classic.

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Roger Pooley

Reviews

A brilliant symphony... Exceptional... One of Rushdie's best novels yet

—— Independent

Extraordinary... Worth engaging with at every level; a thrilling story told in thrilling language

—— The Times

Shalimar the Clown is Rushdie's most engaging book since Midnight's Children. It is a lament. It is a revenge story. it is a love story. And it is a warning

—— Observer

Deeply disturbing and immensely moving... An exquisite, broken thing of pain and beauty

—— Independent

Excellent... A characteristically daring walk along the tightrope of fiction

—— Sunday Telegraph

This is an important book... Wonderful

—— The Times

I'd say it's his best novel yet

—— Daily Telegraph

There are some breathtakingly eloquent passages

—— Spectator

Passionate, well-informed

—— London Review of Books

The story is exciting and memorably analyses the way in which fanaticism can wreck the most inoffensive lives

—— Mail on Sunday

I've recorded all the Jeeves books, and I can tell you this: it's like singing Mozart. The perfection of the phrasing is a physical pleasure. I doubt if any writer in the English language has more perfect music

—— Simon Callow

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

Wodehouse was quite simply the Bee's Knees. And then some

—— Joseph Connolly

I constantly find myself drooling with admiration at the sublime way Wodehouse plays with the English language

—— Simon Brett

Quite simply, the master of comic writing at work

—— Jane Moore

To pick up a Wodehouse novel is to find oneself in the presence of genius - no writer has ever given me so much pure enjoyment

—— John Julius Norwich

Compulsory reading for anyone who has a pig, an aunt - or a sense of humour!

—— Lindsey Davis

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

—— Hugh Laurie

P.G. Wodehouse should be prescribed to treat depression. Cheaper, more effective than valium and far, far more addictive

—— Olivia Williams

My only problem with Wodehouse is deciding which of his enchanting books to take to my desert island

—— Ruth Dudley Edwards

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

—— Kathy Lette

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

—— Arabella Weir

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton

Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in

—— Evelyn Waugh

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