The Most Popular Book in History You’ve Never Heard Of: The Story of Pilgrim’s Progress

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Pilgrim’s Progress is the second most popular book in world history, after the Bible. Its author, John Bunyan, was a preacher in Bedford, England, who wrote the book in 1676 while imprisoned for “preaching without a license.” The book quickly made its way onto ships bound for the New World. In America, it became so popular that familiarity with it was said to be “the mark of being a good American.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
And we continue with our American stories. John Bunyan was
a preacher in Bedford, England. He's the author of The
Pilgrim's Progress, which he wrote in sixteen seventy six while.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
In prison for preaching.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Without a license. This book quickly found its way onto
ships that carried it.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
To the New World in America.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
The book was so popular that it was said familiarity
with the book was considered the mark of.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Being a good American.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Louisa May Alcott's famous novel Little Women mentions that the sisters.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Often read the book.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Harriet Beecher Stowe considered it to be her favorite book
apart from the Bible, and often read and taught it
to her children. With that, let's take a listen to
the story of The Pilgrim's Progress.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
In the year sixteen seventy six, a poor tinker named
John Bunyan was imprisoned in Bedford Jail.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
While he was there, he.

Speaker 5 (01:13):
Started to write one of the most famous books in
the English language. And everything is told as if it
happened in a dream.

Speaker 6 (01:22):
I dreamed, he says, that I saw a man with
a book in his hand and a great burden on
his back as he read the book.

Speaker 5 (01:33):
He began to weep. Then, in a lamentable voice, he
cried out.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
What shall I do to be saved?

Speaker 5 (01:43):
For he lived in the City of Destruction, which he
learnt from his book, was doomed to be burnt with
fire from heaven, and everyone who lived there would perish
in the flames.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
The Pilgrim's Progress is a spiritual, trul allegory that follows
the path of Christian and every man. Character weighed down
by his burden of sin, he leaves the City of
Destruction and learns that nothing can remove his burden other
than the cross of Christ. Be Over three centuries old,
novel begins behind bars. Its author John Bunyan opens with

(02:22):
a sentence of luminous simplicity that has the haunting compulsion
of the hook in a great melody.

Speaker 7 (02:29):
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.

Speaker 5 (02:40):
And as I slept, I dreamed agreed.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
A den is a prison. You see Charles the Second,
the King of England passed the law forbidding people to
preach unless they had a license from the state. But
you couldn't get a license unless you agreed with the
tax supported Anglican Church. Bunyan certainly didn't. On one such occasion,
he was asked to stop preaching and he would be

(03:06):
set free. He replied, if you release me today, I
will preach tomorrow. Those now famous words led to a
nearly twelve year imprisonment for unlawful preaching. It was during
this time that he began to pen his classic work.
Published in February of sixteen seventy eight, it quickly became

(03:30):
one of the most popular stories of all time. Over
one hundred thousand copies were sold within his lifetime alone,
and today, with two hundred fifty million copies sold, it
is one of the most widespread books in existence. It
is a book every American had been exposed to until
the last few decades. It has been translated into over

(03:54):
two hundred languages, and it has never been out of print.
As with everything in the story, there is no hiding
the truth about who the characters are and what they
want with the protagonist. For example, Christian encounters people named piety, simple, sloth, presumption, faithful, talkative, crafty,

(04:16):
or little faith, and the readers see each character live
up to its name, and throughout the story, Christian is
being overcome by his burden of sin, which is literally
a massive santicized pack on his back that he is
incapable of delivering himself from.

Speaker 7 (04:33):
Pilgrim continued upon his way as the enemy of his
soul increased his efforts against the traveler.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
On his way to the celestial city, Christian is diverted
by the secular ethics of mister worldly wise man.

Speaker 8 (04:48):
How rude of me? My name is wise man, worldly
wise man. You of course will have heard of my family.
We are high stuck. We are if I do say so, Oh, yes, yes,
Ask us anything, anything you like, and you will find
the answer.

Speaker 4 (05:06):
Who urges him to lead a practical, happy existence Apart from.

Speaker 5 (05:10):
Christ, Evangelist.

Speaker 8 (05:14):
Dullergs the whole lot of them they are Pilgrim. Dullerg's
dullrds his way out of foolishness.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
He instead encourages Christian. I want to help you to
seek deliverance from his burden through law and rule keeping.
I perceive you are.

Speaker 8 (05:32):
A religious man, which is good, good, very good. The
world needs more religious people, it does, Pilgrim he does.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
With the help of mister Legality and his son's civility
from the village of Morality.

Speaker 8 (05:47):
Mister Legality, will show you how to be rid of
that burden of yours.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
Evangelist meets the wayward Christian and shows him that mister
worldly wise Man, mister le Galley, and his son's civility
are false guides, descended from slaves who look to enslave
other would be pilgrims.

Speaker 7 (06:10):
When Christians, unto carnal men give ear out of their way,
they go and pay for it. Dear, for master worldly
wise man can but show as saint the way to
bondage and to woe.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
Then, as Christian walks along the Wall of Salvation, he
sees Christ's tomb and cross. At this vision, his burden
falls to the ground. The journey continues along a road
filled with monsters and spiritual terrors. Christian confronts such emblematic
characters as Giant Despair, ignorance, and the demons of the

(06:49):
Valley of the Shadow of Death, often disguised as something
that would help him. Evil continues to accompany Christian on
his journey, but friends hopeful and faithful also join him.
The two enter the wicked town of Vanity and visit
its famous fair called Vanity Fair, which lasts year round.

Speaker 5 (07:12):
Indeed, there are stores where every foolish.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Trifle in the world is up for sale. In addition,
you could buy time cloths, and honors and preferment to
high office, and vain pleasures and emptied delights of every kind.

(07:37):
It is an institution of long standing, art fully set
up by the Prince of the Demons, beels above himself
in a place through which all who are pilgrims and
strangers in this world must pass when going to the
celestial City, many, it is feared, get no further on

(08:00):
their way.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
They resist temptation and are mocked by the townspeople.

Speaker 6 (08:05):
Why aren't you buying our merchandise by by by?

Speaker 4 (08:14):
Eventually, the citizens of Vanity imprison Christian and Faithful for
mocking their local religion. Faithful defends himself at his trial
and is executed, rising to heaven after death. But Christian
escapes and continues his journey with his new companion, Hopeful.
They vanquish many enemies before arriving at the celestial city.

(08:37):
With the line that still reverberates through the English literary tradition,
So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him.
On the other side, there's no book in English apart
from the Bible too equal Bunyan's masterpiece for the range
of its readership or its influence on writers as divers

(08:59):
as William Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Nathaniel Hawthorne, E. E. Cummings,
Mark Twain, C. S. Lewis, John Steinbeck, and even Enid Blyton.
Huckleberry Finn speaks for many readers when recalling his Mississippi education,
he says.

Speaker 9 (09:18):
There were some books too, piled up perfectly exact on
each corner of the table. One was a big family
Bible full of pictures. One was Pilgrim's Progress, about a
man that left his family. It didn't say why. I
read considerable in it now and then the statements was interesting,
but tough.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
In Hollywood terms. The novel has a perfect arc. While
Pilgrim's Progress charts the arc of the Christian journey, it's
not limited to the Christian experience. Truly, the brilliance of
John Bunyan is realized in his astute understanding and the
following portrayal of the human journey and condition as seen
through Christian's eyes. Bunyan had a wonderful ear for them.

(10:00):
The rhythms of colloquial speech and his allegorical characters come
to life in dialogue that never fails to advance. The
narrative story is one thing. The simple clarity and beauty
of Bunyan's prose is something else. Braided together, style and
content unite to make The Pilgrim's Progress a timeless classic.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And what a story you
heard about Pilgrim's Progress. Until thirty years or so ago,
this was a staple in every American home.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
I leave it to you to judge why that might
be so.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
The story of Pilgrim's Progress here on our American Stories