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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
This is a great retelling of the original Pilgrim's Progress! Very clear, very nice writing. =]
I have perhaps been spoiled on the superb allegories of Spenser, because I found this--the second most-read book in the English language and also considered the "best" allegory ever written--to be wholly unsatisfying. The allegory was simultaneously too transparent and too obscured.
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
This is a great book, should be read by everyone.
I absolutely love this book. It's one that I love reading through for devotions and I try to read a little bit of it every day. My copy has Bible references in the margins that correspond to the words written by Bunyan and I love going through to those references for devotion time. It's a great way to look at God's promises as they are laid out in John Bunyan's book and how they are backed up by God's words in the Bible.
I should have read this in high school. I think it's just not the right timing in my life for this book right now. Too many stereotypes and judgements from the 17th century. I just had to check it off my list. Maybe I'll pick it up again at a different time.
Audio.
Lots of allegory! This is a touchstone for many books about spiritual journeys, and I can see why it’s on the 1001 list. At times it was hard to pay attention, and audio, while a good medium for this, wasn’t a great one. There were so many bible verses referenced, and the speaker had to note them all, which detracted from the story.
Lots of allegory! This is a touchstone for many books about spiritual journeys, and I can see why it’s on the 1001 list. At times it was hard to pay attention, and audio, while a good medium for this, wasn’t a great one. There were so many bible verses referenced, and the speaker had to note them all, which detracted from the story.
This one came across my path as part of the 1001 books to read collection (which I am working my way through at excruciating slowness, lol), and is ultimately not for me.
Despite its age, I found it easy to read and understand, and recognised a great many of the stories and phrases referenced from my childhood singing in our local church choir.
But it just doesn't resonate with me.
Despite its age, I found it easy to read and understand, and recognised a great many of the stories and phrases referenced from my childhood singing in our local church choir.
But it just doesn't resonate with me.
What a fantastic look at the Christian journey, from start to finish. I truly felt like I was reading my own as it went on in my mind. The way that this book was written was, I believe, the way that we need to think about our walks with Christ. We need to imagine ourselves going on a journey, with enemies we fight against, other pilgrims who struggle and excel at different things, and guides who help us along the way. I absolutely love how Bunyan addresses every issue I could imagine that we encounter, whether it be the slothful, the doubting, the arrogant, or whatever we encounter. Everything in this book is so relevant today, and I thought it was wonderful. Highly recommended.
Although not Christian myself, I’m not adverse to Christian texts at all – I quite enjoyed Bede’s Ecclesiastical History earlier this summer – but I couldn’t see the appeal of this text at all. It’s baffling to me that this was such a ubiquitous book in its day, even if people generally don’t read it now. I didn’t find it particularly entertaining or enlightening in theological terms: the story’s mostly comprised of episodes of various trials Christian (the eponymous pilgrim’s name) and some other characters encounter that teach them religious and moral lessons, but the things they learn seem like pretty entry-level stuff to me, so I can’t see how adult believers in the past would have got much insight into their religion from it either. It's so plain that its existence almost seems unnecessary.
The Librivox recording I listened to actually had a full cast, which certainly made it more entertaining to listen to as a performance, but that merit can’t be credited to the text itself. The singing and speaking in unison added some variety and made it more bearable, and some of the more malevolent characters (i.e. Apollyon) enlivened it a bit too, but neither plays a major part in the story overall. The antagonistic forces added some conflict for the characters to overcome, but never played a particularly major role in the book either, and the lessons in and of themselves are never particularly earth-shattering.
The dilemma here is that, a bit like [b:Robinson Crusoe|2932|Robinson Crusoe|Daniel Defoe|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1403180114s/2932.jpg|604666], there’s no getting around how important and influential this text has been in the past, and it’s certainly a stepping stone on one’s journey to reading the whole literary Canon, but it doesn’t hold much interest or appeal for the modern reader. I’m not sure if it’s worth people reading it just so that they’ve covered one more base, or if we should retire some of these texts now and only refer to them for academic purposes, rather than putting them on lists and the like for a general audience.
I will say that I like the hymn ‘To Be a Pilgrim’, so I’m grateful to this book for the song. I was tempted to give this 1.5 stars, but it earned an extra star since I discovered towards the end that this book is the original source for the hymn (I think it comes up around Part 2, Chapter 8). That song improves the work for me, as it’s a higher quality work than this book as a whole.
The Librivox recording I listened to actually had a full cast, which certainly made it more entertaining to listen to as a performance, but that merit can’t be credited to the text itself. The singing and speaking in unison added some variety and made it more bearable, and some of the more malevolent characters (i.e. Apollyon) enlivened it a bit too, but neither plays a major part in the story overall. The antagonistic forces added some conflict for the characters to overcome, but never played a particularly major role in the book either, and the lessons in and of themselves are never particularly earth-shattering.
The dilemma here is that, a bit like [b:Robinson Crusoe|2932|Robinson Crusoe|Daniel Defoe|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1403180114s/2932.jpg|604666], there’s no getting around how important and influential this text has been in the past, and it’s certainly a stepping stone on one’s journey to reading the whole literary Canon, but it doesn’t hold much interest or appeal for the modern reader. I’m not sure if it’s worth people reading it just so that they’ve covered one more base, or if we should retire some of these texts now and only refer to them for academic purposes, rather than putting them on lists and the like for a general audience.
I will say that I like the hymn ‘To Be a Pilgrim’, so I’m grateful to this book for the song. I was tempted to give this 1.5 stars, but it earned an extra star since I discovered towards the end that this book is the original source for the hymn (I think it comes up around Part 2, Chapter 8). That song improves the work for me, as it’s a higher quality work than this book as a whole.