Pilgrim's Progress (2003)

The Pilgrim's Progress has inspired readers for over three centuries. It is one of the best-loved and most widely read books in English literature and is a classic of the heroic Puritan tradition and a founding text in the development of the English novel. The story of Christian, whose pilgrimage takes him through the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair, and the Delectable Mountains, is full of danger and adventure. Together with his trusty companions, Faithful and Hopeful, he encounters many enemies--the foul fiend Apollyon, Judge Hategood, Giant Despair of Doubting Castle--before finally arriving at the Celestial City.
Bunyan's own experience of religious persecution informs his story, and its qualities of psychological realism, and the beauty and simplicity of his prose combine to create a book whose appeal is universal. This edition includes the illustrations that appeared with the book in Bunyan's lifetime, giving a sense of its impact on contemporary readers.

W. R. Owens's publications include two volumes in the Oxford edition of The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan (1994) and a co-edited collection of essays, John Bunyan and his England 1628-88 (1990). He is co-editor, with P. N. Furbank, of The Canonisation of Daniel Defoe (1988), Defoe De-Attributions(1994), and A Critical Bibliography of Daniel Defoe(1998). They are joint editors of The Works of Daniel Defoe (44 vols., in progress).