'This fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the heart' In John Bunyan's classic allegory, Christian abandons his family and the City of Destruction and sets off for salvation. His path is straight but not easy, and he is beset by trials, including the terrible violence of 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, The Pilgrim's Progress is a spiritual as well as a literary classic. In his introduction, Roger Pooley discusses Bunyan's life and theology, as well as the text's biblical and historial backdrop, its success and critial history. This edition also includes accompanying seventeenth-century illustrations, a chronology, suggested further reading, notes and an index.