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The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come by John Bunyan (published 1678) is an allegorical novel.
Bunyan wrote this book while imprisoned in 1675 for violations of the Conventicle Act which punished people for conducting unauthorised religious
services outside of the Church of England.
The allegory tells of Christian, an Everyman character who must make his way
from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City of Zion. During his travel, he must make his way past hazards such as the
Slough of Despond, temptations like Vanity Fair, and foes
like the Giant Despair. In a second book, his wife and children, which once denounced his ideas, follow his path to the
Celestial City. Due to the long popularity of this devotional book, many of these phrases have become proverbial in English.
The book was the basis of an opera by Ralph Vaughan Williams, premiered in 1951; see The
Pilgrim's Progress (opera).
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