The Pilgrim's Progress in Modern English (Pure Gold Classic) (Pure Gold Classics)

Customer Reviews:

A great read!.......2007-03-12

I remember seeing this book in my grandparents' home back in the '50's. Always thought it was about Plymouth Rock until I started attending church and found out it was an allegory on the Christian's walk with Christ. I really like the language of this particular book as it makes clear the different stages of the Christian walk. I was not aware of the second part about Christiana, which was thoroughly enjoyable as well. Definitely a keeper.

Please read Bunyan's version, not this one.......2007-03-09

John Bunyan's language is really not in the least bit difficult to understand. His The Pilgrim's Progress IS in "Moden English," so it very misleading to say that you can translate them into "Modern English"; they can only be paraphrased. It's bad enough when people read re-written Shakespeare (ok, awful, in my opinion), but at least they have the excuse that Shakespeare can be difficult. If you're going to take the time to read the whole thing, and not simply a summary, why not read what Bunyan actually wrote? Look at his opening, for example:

"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: And as I slept I dreamed a Dream. I dreamed, and behold I saw a Man clothed with Rags, standing in a certain place..."

As you can see already, his style is unique, but not at all difficult to understand, and certainly easier than the King James Bible for example. Anyone capable of reading the whole length of the Pilgrim's Progress should have very little trouble with it, so what need is there for a substitute? Please read the real thing, preferably with the original spelling and punctuation (though you can surely find modernized versions that still preserve the original diction, if you prefer)! I promise you'll thank me for it later.

My English Teacher's Attempt to Force Christianity Upon Us.......2007-02-12

This is one of the worst books I've ever read in my life. The plot is boring and horribly predictable, the characters are flat, and the story is wholy uninspiring. I've read much better devotional books than this so-called "literature." If you want to be inspired, go read the actual Bible; don't settle for an imitation.

Great Bible Tool.......2007-01-04

Great to use as a supplement to the Bible. It helps to amplify God's Word in a real world practical way.

Not what is depicted with the cover view.......2006-08-17

In searching for this title I found there were 60+ versions out there so I had to rely on both editor and cover pictorials to determine the one I was seeking (which was modern English, full page pictorials, and covering both Christian's and Christiana's journeys). Since I had the one I wanted in hand, I put a lot of faith in the cover visual. What I got was as version without full page pictures, small print and in the older dialect. From what other pilgrims have told me, the modern English version is essential in understanding this work. I donated it to the local library in hopes it will still do good.

The Pilgrim's Progress (Dover Thrift Editions)

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Free SF Reader
timeless
A buried treasure
Classic Tale of the Christian Life
support for your faith

The Pilgrim's Progress (Dover Thrift Editions)
John Bunyan
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486426750

Book Description

One of the most powerful dramas of Christian faith ever written, this captivating allegory of man's religious journey in search of salvation follows the pilgrim as he travels an obstacle-filled road to the Celestial City. An enormously influential 17th-century classic, universally known for its simplicity, vigor, and beauty of language.

Customer Reviews:

Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03

You could possibly write something more boring than this, but you would have to try really, really, really hard. Subtlety and sledgehammer are certainly two words you could string together in a sentence when describing how this comes across when slogging through it. Definitely in that order, as well.

timeless.......2007-08-14

The Pilgrim's Progress is a book that I found delightful to read. I remember reading through a "modern retelling" of this story in graphic novel form when I was a kid, but had never gotten around to reading the real thing until now. This book is an allegory for the life of a christian, including the struggles, temptations, enemies, victories, joys, and friends. The ideas expressed here resonate as strongly with me as any book I have read from this current christian culture, and the beauty of the language and style is in a league of its own. Today we hear that there is a desperate need for the contextualization of the message of the gospel. Accordingly, this book, written 330 years ago, should be hopelessly outdated by now, and yet the messages, even the very form in which those messages are conveyed, speak as powerfully and clearly today as (I must imagine) they did back then. In fact, most all of the issues that I see confronting the church today from within and without were addressed in this book. I definitely see the need to have some awareness of what is going on around me in culture, but it is books like these that show me that the truth transcends any such superficial differences and speaks to the core of man and his experiences. Here's a quote from the book that especially fits today:

"You did well to talk so plainly to him as you did. There is but little of this faithful dealing with men now a days, and that makes Religion to stink so in the nostrils of many, as it doth; for they are these Talkative Fools whose Religion is only in word, and are debauched and vain in their Conversation, that (being so much admitted into the fellowship of the godly) do puzzle the World, blemish Christianity, and grieve the sincere. I wish that all men would deal with such as you have done: then should they either be made more conformable to Religion, or the company of Saints would be too hot for them." (90)

A buried treasure.......2007-05-07

This book has been around almost as long as the King James Bible but it still holds tremendous potential for helping one understand the Bible. It is a delight to read because of the clever way biblical content is woven into the story. The author was considered relatively undeducated in his day but his vocabulary and content make one marvel at what passes for education in our day. If you were brought up reading the King James Bible, you'll love this work in it's 17th century language. There were several places where I chuckled at the author's deft manner.

Classic Tale of the Christian Life.......2007-03-28

This book is often overlooked as it can be a hard read in the original language. We read this with a group of people and work and followed along with the audio. The message is profound and transcends time as it metaphorically links the struggles of all believers to the saving grace of God. GREAT BOOK TO READ with a group and then have discussion - would also be good to listen to audio of the book to get the full effect of the time it was written in and not have to worry about miss pronouncing something.

support for your faith.......2007-01-09

This book is one of the most important extra-biblical works ever published, a work of ennormous value to your walk of faith. Though written to a congregation in the 17th century, it is still pertinent to today's believers....highly recommended!!

Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim's Progress

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Wonderful Book
Dangerous Journey
Kids Loved It
Excellent book
A marvelous, illustrious book

Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim's Progress
Oliver Hunkin
Manufacturer: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0802836194

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful Book.......2007-10-04

I have been read and read this book since I was a small child. It is one of the best books I have ever read. I would recommend this book to anyone. I bought a book for myself as well as a friend to have to read to my children when I have them. This book brings back wonderful memories of my childhood.

Dangerous Journey.......2007-08-07

I bought this to read to my 5 year old. The story is a good pared down version of Pilgrim's Progress, but the illustrations are a little too graphic and scary for a 5 year old. I like the book, but will put it away for a few years until my child is a little older.

Kids Loved It.......2007-04-18

The "4 Stars" are based on the enthusiasm of my kids for this book, discounted to avoid grade inflation. I read this aloud to them, and they looked forward to each installment. As you probably know, this is an adaptation of the classic "The Pilgrim's Progress." What you have here is the basic storyline, heavily abridged for brevity and clarity but with some retention of original text. Bright vivid pictures help to tell the tale. The jacket information leads me to believe that the images are actually taken from a cartoon version (for lack of a better term) of this story, and the images do have that look. The backgrounds are obviously still images that the moving characters were superimposed upon - I have never seen this production on the screen but it looks like it followed the Scooby Doo school of animation. Anyway, my kids are not art critics and the pictures were very helpful in visualizing the story.
I am not an expert on "The Pilgrim's Progress." I know the basic outline of the story. I have tried to read the book but gave up in frustration, and I think I recall watching a grainy film version in high school literature class. The theological message of the whole thing is not real clear to me. Some of the symbols are quite obvious - the burden on Pilgrim's back, the names of his various companions, the ultimate end-game (sort of) - but it's hard to make sense of the order of Pilgrim's various adventures and the parallels in our own lives. Do we always encounter the "Slough of Despair" so early in our journeys, never to return to it? And is that always before the "Wicket Gate" or not (and what the heck is a "Wicket Gate"). Doubting Castle? Vanity Fair? Hmm. Anyway, I wasn't moved to want to read the original, and I wouldn't call this a page-turner, but my kids really looked forward to it each night and that's what I was looking for.

Excellent book.......2007-02-10

I have read this story many times to my toddler. She loves the story and the pictures. She loves turning the pages, which are remarkably strong (she can be pretty rough on them). The binding, however, is not so strong and it is falling apart.

The pictures are excellent quality - very realistic and true to the story. I often give this as gifts for friends' kids (though I don't usually give it until their child is 5 yrs old).

A marvelous, illustrious book.......2007-01-16

I'm in fifth grade. My class is starting a new book called a Dangerous Journey. It is an amazing book with a lot of vivid pictures. Sometimes, the pictures are scary(?), but the amazing pictures seem to come to life. You should read this excellent book. A Dangerous Journey is a perfect birthday and Christmas present, too! I'm going to give this book five stars!!!!!!

Average customer rating:

Very Good
Updated "Progress" another step in the dumbing of America (and Canada, too)
a reader
A Starting Point For New Readers
A superlative re-telling of the timeless classic.

Pilgrims Progress in Today's English
John Bunyan , and James Thomas
Manufacturer: Moody Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 080246520X

Book Description

Retold by James H. Thomas. The best allegory ever written is rewritten in modern English, making it clearer and more forceful to the modern reader. (More than 100,000 in print)

Customer Reviews:

Very Good.......2007-08-23

Great book! will be purchasing more copies to give as gifts! Highly
essential reading for all!

Updated "Progress" another step in the dumbing of America (and Canada, too).......2005-11-17

Consider these three passages:

As I was walking through the wilderness of this world, I came to a place where there was a cave. I laid down in that place to sleep, and as I slept I had a dream in which I saw a man dressed in rags standing in a certain place and facing away from his own house. He had a Book in his hand and a great burden on his back. As I looked, I saw him open the Book and read out of it, and as he read, he wept and trembled. Unable to contain himself any longer, he broke out with a sorrowful cry, saying, "What shall I do?" (L. Edward Hazelbaker - The Pilgrim's Progress in Modern English)

As I walked through the wilderness of the world, I came to a place where there was a den. There I lay down to sleep; and as I slept, I dreamed a dream. In my dream I saw a man clothed in rags, standing by a path with a book in his hand and a great burden upon his back. His face was turned from his own house, which stood nearby. I saw him open his book and read, then begin to weep. No longer able to control his feelings, he broke out with a mournful cry, saying, "What shall I do?" (James H. Thomas - Pilgrim's Progress in Today's English)

As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where there was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: And as I slept, I dreamed a Dream. I dreamed, and behold I saw a man cloathed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a Book in his hand, and a great Burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the Book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, What shall I do?

The first two are intended to be modernizations and clarifications of the too-difficult third version, the one actually penned by John Bunyan in 1678. (If any of you scholarly types are now itching to inform me that there are questions relating to the ur-text, I am aware of them--and I consider them to be irrelevant to the point I am making.) Dr. Johnson once commented that Alexander Pope's brilliant version of Homer's Iliad, possessed every virtue of a translation except fidelity to the original. I shudder to speculate on what he might have had to say about Messrs. Hazelmaker and Thomas.

Let it be clear that I am commenting on "The Pilgrim's Progress" as literature, indeed, as great literature. The religious content of the book is plain in any version. From Bunyan, it is a plain-spoken tale effectively told by a plain-spoken and popular preacher. Bunyan's book, though, is far from being the touchy-feely, ecumenically-friendly thing that the modernized versions might suggest. After all, Bunyan managed to get himself into hot legal water in 1658 when the Puritan-dominated English Republic was in power and then again when the Anglican-dominated Restoration of Charles II came along. Bunyan was obstreperously a one-man sect. The closest thing he ever had to a real congregation was a mixed body of Congregationalists and Baptists, both of which now lay not very enthusiastic claim to him. He devoted a whole book to denouncing those notorious heretics and scoundrels, the Quakers [!] and in "The Pilgrim's Progress," the frightful "Giant Pope" pops up to make things tough for the faithful.

Bunyan's style is plain-spoken but it is far from unsophisticated. Read it aloud. Think how a powerful preacher would caress some words, savor the significant pauses and then thunder away: "I dreamed ... and BEHOLD, I saw a man cloathed in RAGS" or "and as he READ, he WEPT and TREMBled" or "he brake out with a LAMentable cry ... saying, WHAT shall I DO?" Now read Hazelmaker and Thomas out loud. They are anti-alchemists: they turn gold to lead.

Hazelmaker and Thomas are no more faithful to Bunyan's meaning than they are to his art. In the first sentence, Thomas to the contrary, it is obvious that Bunyan was referring to "this world," not "the world". "I came to a place where there was a cave," says Hazelmaker. "I came to a place where there was a den," says Thomas. But Bunyan says, "I lighted on a certain place, where there was a Den". To me, the obvious meaning of the phrases offered by Hazelmaker and Thomas is that the narrator is wandering about the countryside and, more or less by chance, has come upon a geologic feature. Bunyan's use of the words "lighted" (perhaps we would now say "alighted") and "certain" remove the element of chance. The narrator--Bunyan--is exactly where he intends to be. And where he intends to be is absolutely not in a cave. To make that point crystal clear, Bunyan has added a gloss at that very line; it says, "The Jail."

Bunyan spent much of his life in jail. He was there because he resolutely refused to obey the laws on preaching. Neither Puritans nor Anglicans ever said that he could not preach, they only wanted him to agree to do it at approved times and places in order to preserve the public peace in a religion-mad and revolution-riven land. He could have sprung himself at any time, doubtless with the relieved gratitude of his reluctant jailers, simply by saying that he would obey the law. In any case, his incarceration could not have been too onerous either by Seventeenth Century standards or by ours. He was free to write and publish, both at great length. He could and did preach to his fellow jailbirds. And he was even allowed on occasion to leave the jail to preach at large public meetings.

Don't waste your money on either Hazelmaker or Thomas. Stick with the original, a true classic of the English language. If you're still uncomfortable with Bunyan, take the money you've saved and buy a good dictionary.

a reader.......2004-06-22

A very good and readable edition of Bunyons classic. This is a book that all of 21st century Christianity should read. After scripture it is the best help for the Christian walk. We should definitely read this book before we pick up a copy of the latest self help book.

A Starting Point For New Readers.......2004-06-14

For those who have longed to read Pilgrim's Progress but have put it off this is the version to start with. Many have wanted to read this Christian Classic but did not want to start with trying to understand the 17th Century English of the original. To those this book is a blessing. It is very easy to read but amazingly true to the original. It is great as a stand alone reading, but even better when used as a prelude to the original text.

I would advise reading the Moody version and then immediately reading the old text.

A superlative re-telling of the timeless classic........1999-05-21

This version of John Bunyan's original makes for a light, yet poignant read. It provides an insight to Bunyan's own Christian journey and allows the reader to liken his/her own spiritual walk with that of this 17th century author.

The Pilgrim's Progress (Oxford World's Classics)

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Highly Over Rated
wonderful
Pilgrim's Progress
A Bestseller since 1678!
Ian Myles Slater on: A Reliable Edition, Improved

The Pilgrim's Progress (Oxford World's Classics)
John Bunyan
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192803611

Book Description

'As I walk'd through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a Denn; And I laid me down in that place to sleep: And as I slept I dreamed a Dream.' So begins one of the best-loved and most widely read books in English literature. (exact date?)

Customer Reviews:

Highly Over Rated.......2007-06-19

This is one of the most over rated books in history, with the Holy Bible really under rated. It's about a man named Christian wh o starts out alone by himself and builds it into a ministry. Anologizing that for starting out in like the 1640s, the pilgrims are a way ahead because these other modes of thinking are like a thousand years out of date. The ;pilgrim's philosophy- take over the drugg riddled and weak and leave them for dead. These simple methods of living made a lot of technology obsolete. PC's? Word of mouth.

wonderful.......2007-02-20

i am excited about reading this christian classic. The shipment arrived as sscheduled and in great condition... will order again soon

Pilgrim's Progress.......2006-03-09

I really enjoyed this book. The illustrations are very good and go well with the text.

A Bestseller since 1678!.......2006-02-13

I hadn't read this book in a long time, and when I first started it I thought, "Gee, I'm going to have to like it-how can I publish a negative review of the best selling books in history?" Fortunately, my fears were indeed unfounded. Pilgrim's Progress, despite its age, remains a book that makes you think, makes you laugh, makes you love God more.

The book is an allegory: it tells the imaginary story of a man named Pilgrim, from the time he realizes he is in the city of Destruction, and follows his and his companions' journeys through good times and bad to the Celestial City which he seeks. In it are many insights about life as a Christian and life outside of Christ. One of the beauties of the book is that Bunyan draws on so many different themes-fear, dark times, temptation, despair, hope, friendship, slander, greed, mercy, just to name a few-and then shows us the right & wrong way to respond to each of these through the characters and events of the book. Therefore everyone will appreciate the lessons of the book in a unique way, according to what he is experiencing in his own walk with God.

I was most impressed with the passion and singlemindedness of Christian-in the first few pages of the book, once he is convicted of his sin, he starts to run away from the city of Destruction, "but his Wife and Children perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but the Man put his fingers in his ears, and ran on crying, "Life! Life! Eternal Life!"" How often I lack the passion to just get up early for prayer, and this man runs, desperately blocking out all else but the one great prize that he knows he must win.

The other theme that most spoke to me was that of the pilgrims' constant focus on their destination, their hope of heaven, which provided them the strength and courage to face any trial. More on the preciousness of our hope tomorrow.

Ian Myles Slater on: A Reliable Edition, Improved.......2004-06-09

John Bunyan was an astonishing man, a working-class genius who, while producing the last great medieval-style allegories in English, helped invent the English novel, apparently without intending either. The bulk of his writings fell into the obscurity of most seventeenth century theological tractates, but a few have remained current, and "The Pilgrim's Progress" (1678) has been of outstanding importance, for a variety of reasons. It was an immediate popular success, even appearing in French and Dutch editions within a few years, and being reprinted in Puritan Boston, where Bunyan's Baptist teachings would have been unwelcome. The second (1678) and third (1679) printings contained expansions. A fraudulent "Second Part" helped motivate Bunyan to produce his own sequel (1684), published with the First Part ever since.

"The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which is to Come" is, in fact, one of the most widely read works to come out of the era of the English Civil War, Restoration, and Glorious Revolution (which Bunyan did not live quite long enough to see). The number of actual readers, in English and many other languages, certainly exceeds those of Milton, Hobbes, or Locke, possibly all of them together. It is also one of the most misunderstood. In his own time Bunyan (1628-88) was regarded as a dangerous radical; he wrote the first part of "Pilgrim's Progress" while imprisoned for defying authority by refusing to promise to give up preaching. The issue was as much political and social as religious and ecclesiastical; the post-Restoration gentry could fear, but not accept or forgive, the pretensions of a social inferior. (In the age of panic over the "Papist Plot," Bunyan's treatment of the ramshackle "Giant Pope" as nearly harmless is striking: might it be read as an implied attack on the fear-mongering of the Anglican establishment? Perhaps not.)

In the late eighteenth century, William Blake still responded to Bunyan the religious and political Dissenter, and the theologically astute recognized him as expounding a particular doctrine, but distance in time increasingly made him seem not only pious, but even harmless. In the nineteenth century, "The Pilgrim's Progress," long seen as suitable reading for children, was available to the working class in cheap editions, with the approval of their "betters." It found a receptive readership; but it is now clear that many of those readers recognized, as George Bernard Shaw later said, that the sins and failings Bunyan attacked were mainly those of people with money and power. Or, at least, their allegorical representatives always seem to be, or behave like, landowners, merchants, and magistrates, while their victims are working men and women.

Bunyan was indeed mostly concerned with problems of salvation (by faith) and predestination (of which you can never be certain), but the allegorical universe Bunyan presents is solidly grounded in material and social reality. Each soul must seek salvation -- the message of self-help, which the proper Victorians loved. But the little community of believers, the congregation of the true faithful, carried another message for the working class -- Organize!

This Bunyan has yet to be fully digested by popular culture. There are still a multitude of complacent editions, variously inexpensive, lavish, abridged, retold, glossed theologically or linguistically, or otherwise brought into line with some perceived need, and marketed for (mainly Protestant) Christians in search of edification. (It has found many Catholic, and apparently, some Muslim readers, as well, which is another story.)

Those who need a full critical text of this famous work will consult Roger Sharrock's 1960 edition in the Oxford English Texts series, preferably in its revised printing of 1975, and probably in a library (so far as I can tell it is out of print). It was intended as a revision of a 1928 edition by J.B. Wharey, but it broke new ground in Bunyan studies, by returning to the earliest editions of the two parts whenever possible. This was extremely important in restoring the integrity of the text, for reasons I have described in a separate review of Sharrock's popular edition for the Penguin Classics (originally in the Penguin English Library)

Those who want a reliable edition for the serious reader or student, without the full apparatus, however, now have a choice of Sharrock's own very lightly modernized "popular version" for Penguin Books; N.H. Keeble's adaptation of Sharrock's Oxford text for the World's Classics series (published by Oxford University Press; reissued under the Oxford World's Classics imprint), or the present edition by W.R. Owen, which replaces it in the Oxford World's Classics line, and is likewise based on Sharrock's work.

These Oxford popular editions follow Sharrock's critical text, in fact rather more closely than Sharrock's own Penguin edition -- Owens even with some additional reversions to first edition readings, where he finds them comprehensible without emendation. They offer introductions, chronologies, notes, and glossaries directed more to the common reader or student, explaining seventeenth-century history and theology, as well as explicating Bunyan's language. All three were admirable examples of scholarly editions adapted for the ordinary reader, which is helpful, because Sharrock's main edition seems to be out of print. Keeble's edition may be available for the moment, but Oxford, unlike Penguin, doesn't seem to keep multiple versions of a title in print in its "Classics" line.

Since I have copies of both the Penguin and the old World's Classics editions, I hesitated over acquiring this new version. It offered an expansion of Keeble's chronology and notes, and a new introduction, with a bibliography consisting mainly of recent studies (from 1980 on). Definitely an improvement, although not a blockbuster. The big difference, however, is that Owens provides the only illustrations published with the text in Bunyan's lifetime, and the verse captions he provided to them. This is not only interesting; it provides some explicit statements about the text by the author, not otherwise readily available. The illustrations themselves are not impressive -- hardly in a class with those by Blake and Cruikshank, among many others of varying degrees of skill and insight. But they reflect a real, not imaginary, seventeenth-century environment, and are a worthwhile addition to the available evidence.

Average customer rating:

Excellent Drama!
Worn out the tape so we bought the CD

Pilgrims Progress I-Christian Audio
John Bunyan
Manufacturer: Bible Games Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 790128000X

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Drama!.......2007-01-05

This dramatization brings to life John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress with impressive accuracy. If it weren't for the audio version, Pilgrim's Progress would have seemed hopelessly wordy to me! Keep up the good work!

Worn out the tape so we bought the CD.......2006-08-07

What can I say. All of my children loved this so much we worn the tape out and had to buy the CD. This is like radio theater. My oldest is 10 years of age. My youngest is 2 1/2. The all listen and enjoy and have picked up on new concepts each time. A must have.

Little Pilgrim's Progress: From John Bunyan's Classic (The Message)

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Little Pilgrim's Progress: From John Bunyan's Classic (The Message) by Helen Taylor
character qualities
Pleased with availability
OutSTANDING Book!
My children found it gripping

Little Pilgrim's Progress: From John Bunyan's Classic (The Message)
Helen Taylor
Manufacturer: Moody Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0802449247

Book Description

Fifty-five years ago, Helen L. Taylor took John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and simplified the vocabulary and concepts for young readers, while keeping the storyline intact. The result was a classic in itself, which has now sold over 600,000 copies. It’s both a simple adventure story and a profound allegory of the Christian journey through life, a delightful read with a message kids ages 6 to 12 can understand and remember. A new look and fresh illustrations for today’s children enlivens the journey to the Celestial City.

Customer Reviews:

Little Pilgrim's Progress: From John Bunyan's Classic (The Message) by Helen Taylor.......2007-07-12

This is a great book for children to get the message of "Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan. It is written so they can understand it and gets them caught up in the adventure and stories in the book. I use it to teach lessons on Sunday at my church. We read it together and then discuss what the story might mean to them and how they can use what little Christian learns in his life lessons.

character qualities.......2007-05-21

we used this as a read aloud with our kids ages 4-11 they love it. 2-3 page chapters make it a great bed time story. We talked about christian characteristics and worldly charateristics these things are rarely taught. Great Book!

Pleased with availability.......2007-05-14

I used this book for VBS 15 years ago and pulled it out of the mothballs to persuade a new cluster of churches to give it a try so I was gratified that I could still get plenty of copies for the directors and actors.
Beth Snyder, Brownstown Presbyterian Church, Brownstown, IN

OutSTANDING Book!.......2007-02-11

We are reading it for homeschooling and are really enjoying it! My 6 year old son is completely into it and loves to describe the characters.

My children found it gripping.......2007-02-09

I have strong memories of this book from when I read it as a child, very different from other books, and fascinating, one of my favorites, couldn't get it out of my mind. When my children were young, I remembered this book and obtained a copy. The first time I read it to them, they were only 3 1/2 and 5 1/2. I knew they were young, so was amazed at how much they liked the book and would beg me again and again to read "just one more" chapter. (I would still suggest this book for slightly older children, maybe in the younger elementary years.) But it really is an amazingly gripping book for children, with lots of important lessons that can be learned and discussed. My son, after reading about the character "Help" early in the book, asked whether could change his name to "Help"! (We suggested that he have it as a second middle name). Then later he wanted to add the name "Greatheart". Anyhow, I will end with saying I strongly recommend this book.

My Pilgrim's Progress: Media Studies, 1950-1998

Average customer rating:

Hit and miss
In the Conext of George Trow
Elegy for a Midwesterner's Blown Mind
Very disappointing
Wonderful. One of a kind.

My Pilgrim's Progress: Media Studies, 1950-1998
George W.S. Trow
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375701389
Release Date: 2000-05-02

Amazon.com

"I don't just like Ike," declares George W.S. Trow, "I love him. I think he's the guy of guys, I think he's uniquely American, and I'm sorry we're not going to have him anymore." That admiration permeates the pages of My Pilgrim's Progress, a stream-of-consciousness consideration of "how 1950 got to be 1998." As an analysis of how American culture became media culture, My Pilgrim's Progress is brilliant and insightful, particularly the sections on modern newspaper journalism and what Trow calls "the aesthetic of Dwight David Eisenhower" (in which he segues from the novels of John O'Hara to an appearance by Joan Rivers on QVC). But readers will either be seduced or driven mad by Trow's rambling, I-know-what-I'm-talking-about-just-trust-me prose style, in many cases literally transcribed from tapes of his immediate reactions to old newspaper headlines. Although you can't say you weren't warned: Trow advises at one point, "I just want to discuss the attractive inevitability of visceral reactions, which, of course, is exactly our political process, especially our presidential process, and I'm going to do it from a personal point of view." --Ron Hogan

Book Description

"Original, provocative and possibly prophetic."-- The New York Times

When his classic Within the Context of No Context was first published, George W. S. Trow parsed television's overwhelming dominance over America's consciousness. In My Pilgrim's Progress, he returns with a provocative tour of politics and the media to show "how 1950 got to be 1998."

The son of a tabloid journalist, Trow was raised in the "Deepest Roosevelt Aesthetic," and found himself seduced by the ordinaryness of the Eisenhower era. It was a time when the Old World was giving way to the New. Perusing The New York Times of February 1950, he gives us America at the peak of its power, with its politicians and celebrities (and the nearly hesitant advent of television) and the fresh terror of the H-bomb. At turns a cultural history, a eulogy, and a provocative commentary on contemporary America, My Pilgrim's Progress confirms Trow's place as one of our most brilliant and incisive social critics.

Customer Reviews:

Hit and miss.......2001-05-31

I'm torn about this book and don't really know what to rate it, since I found it wildly uneven. But ultimately I think there are enough interesting insights and thought provoking ideas to warrant 4 stars.

Trow meditates on cultural values and attitudes, using examples such as the front page of the NY Times as jump-off points for his reflections. Many of these are very penetrating and allow you to see the development of the country since 1950 in a new light. In particualr, his analysis of the major cultural threads operating at 1950, and the way that TV ended up winning almost by default, was excellent.

On the down side, despite the title the scope of the book is very narrow. There is little coverage of anything that has happened since 1960 or so. The book is also rather geographically limited, as Trow is very focused on New York City, upper class intellectual NYC, to be exact.

I also found the style to be very distracting. Trow writes in a stream of consciousness fashion, which to me really cripples the book and was almost enough to make me knock off another star. He rarely comes out and states an idea, but instead dances around the issue for 15 pages, constantly getting sidetracked and going off on tangents. In the end, you are forced to go back and fill int he blanks to figure out what he was actually trying to get at. Maybe it makes me old fashioned, but in non-fiction I like writers to actually spit out what they're trying to say, rather than playing games and being cutesy.

And as another reviewer mentioned, he has a bad habit of coining new phrases and terminology, which is annoying and makes the book harder to follow than it needs to be. The fact that he often dances around the definition of his terms in the same way he does other things only makes this habit more obnoxious.

But on the whole, I'd recommend the book, since it will challenge you and make you think about recent history, as well as restoring a bit of perspective to modern society and its roots in the post-war period.

In the Conext of George Trow.......2000-06-06

George Trow pointed out elsewhere, in somebody else's context entirely, that a truly privileged, a privileged-from-birth, person was able to, well, analyze, assimilate, interpret remarkably quickly---quickly enough; that quickly---questions of power and privilege in a way that someone who had merely been stunned by them (someone who hadn't had the "privilege" not to be stunned by them) was not. Trow has the grace and congeniality in "My Pilgrim's Progress" to make clear that he's not as privileged as he might sound, or was not at all privileged in the way the Roosevelts, or even the Eisenhowers (whose cultural shock waves he documents), were. Neither was he irremediably stunned. Since his father's position (as an East Coast journalist of a certain vanished kind) was wiped out at the same time the Roosevelts "disappeared"---as forces to be reckoned with, in government or in ethics---or Eisenhower (a military man who'd sensed something wrong in the military and in the country as early as 1959, '49?), Trow is able to describe, because he's seen, several kinds of illusion at close hand, and a deeply contemporary, deeply American denial. (Call it longing.)

In this book Trow is the same stylist he's always been--with greater or lesser irony--in all his writing. He still plays around with Mrs. Rittenhouse (except she's last year's Mrs. Vanderbilt, or this year's Diana Vreeland). And he still, sometimes, defines his vocabulary while he's first using it in a sentence, or not long before--while you're still catching up. But "My Pilgrim's Progress" (the title goes right back to Louisa May Alcott, and then some) is the clearest and the most self-declaring of any of his satires, essays, "speeches," or plays. And maybe also the funniest. (It would be a trip and a thrill to hear someone reading the entire book out loud.) The origins of "Perhaps you can force me to tell you" (one of the great Trow-satire sentences) are here, but in their own clothes. The 1963 World's Fair makes another appearance, kittycorner to where it clearly was in "Context of No Context." That book's fedora hat is redefined--or refined. Questions of irony and emotion turn out not to have been easy questions in the interim--for any of us.

In short, anyone who worries what some very specific changes---in America, in the media ("hyperactivity," Trow calls this one), in the world---have been doing to our insides (our "selves") should read this book. It's short itself, given all the information--the reporting--that it sums up. It is in no way a "self-help book"; just a very clear diagnosis, no more baffling than any other specialist's. But this specialist is with us in our sense of urgency. He's been trying to take the time; and here he does.

Elegy for a Midwesterner's Blown Mind.......1999-12-25

Having been raised by television, it has been pretty hard for me to focus on reality, that is, the human exchanges of power that must have, in the first place, created television (right?). I was born in a sub-suburb in the middle of the midwest, with one or two cultural roots that abruptly stopped after my grandparents, who don't really talk about stuff like cultural roots anyway. Well, then I read Mr. Trow's book and it blew my mind clean off. It did this because it demonstrated to me precisely why it has been so bloody hard to find something in life and language deeper than television and hollywood movies. The linguistic way out of TV and Hollywood was, of course, the liberal arts. But as thrilling, interesting and mysterious as the liberal arts were, I never managed to make them as central a part of my consciousness as is, say, Star Wars. This is why: the liberal arts have always flourished in an environment of cultural connectedness to the flow of history and of real human power in terms of values "deeper" than money. To George Trow, who is perhaps the only real old world Harvard-educated WASP alive who is able to watch television alongside folks like myself--speak both languages, as it were--the liberal arts are visceral. To me they are mostly obscure and dry, with flashes here and there of accessibility. The polyglot author of "My Pilgrim's Progress" showed me, in cruelly stark relief, just what my cultural and lingustic coordinates are on the world-historical grid. For that, I thank him--I think.

Very disappointing.......1999-04-24

Maybe "Context of No Context" was a good book, but "My Pilgrim's Progress" isn't even a bad book. It's a hoax on the reader. It's one long, repetitious, self-justifying bleat! Is the author senile, or just soused? He should have called it "My Long Day's Journey Into Night."

Wonderful. One of a kind........1999-01-08

In "My Pilgrim's Progress," George W. S. Trow abandons the impersonal, incantatory voice of his celebrated 1981 essay "Within the Context of No Context" for a free-flowing, deeply intimate act of performance art on the page. If the astounding "No Context" was a late 20th century "The Waste Land", then Trow's newest book is his "Krapp's Last Tape." With razor-sharp wit, brilliant insight, and what can only be described as a broken heart, Trow pours into a tape recorder his analyses of an eclectic series of "Mainstream American Cultural Artifacts" (everything from the front page of the February 1, 1950 edition of The New York Times to the films of Alfred Hitchcock to the documentary "Elvis 56") in order to achieve the possibility of compassion and forgiveness for what he understands to be five decades of personal, cultural, and spiritual "abandonment." The depth of pain and urgency - the life and death personal stakes - behind the author's voice raise what might have been merely a rambling, anecdotal memoir into a work with enormous power. "My Pilgrim's Progress" resonates with the intimacy and significance of a death-bed confession. It is a gut-wrenching, remarkable, "feverish" monologue about our contemporary American history. An extraordinarily moving book.

Average customer rating:

An Enduring Christian Classic
Bunyan's Masterpiece in Respectfully Modern English
Appropriate for our times
A Pilgrims Progress for the rest of us!
Excellent Companion to Original Work

NEW PILGRIM""S PROGRESS, THE
John Bunyan , and Warren W. Wiersbe
Manufacturer: Discovery House Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 092923913X

Product Description

Makes the richness of Bunyan's work readily accessible to readers of all ages and backgrounds. Discover new truths that will enlighten and magnify your views of this encouraging classic.

Customer Reviews:

An Enduring Christian Classic .......2006-03-14

John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress originally published in 1678 is an enduring classic in Christian inspirational writing. In the present edition Markham and Wiersbe have sought to make this text more accessible to the modern reader by minor updates to the language and structure.

The book describes the allegorical journey of a Christian pilgrim from the City of Destruction to the Eternal City (Earth to Heaven). Throughout this trip the pilgrim encounters a range of individuals that embody various human characteristics (doubt, mistrust, superficiality, etc.). Most thoughtful readers will undoubtedly see something of themselves in these characters.

The editors have added helpful historic and religious notes to better situate the modern reader to Bunyan's seventeenth century context. Brief appendices discussing the Puritans and Bunyan have also been included. Readers who enjoy works such as C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters may be interested in this book.

Overall, it is one of the better works in the genre of inspirational religious writing. I highly recommend it to all readers

Bunyan's Masterpiece in Respectfully Modern English.......2005-10-04

Wiersebe has done a great job revising the English to make Pilgrim's Progress understandable to the modern American. His revisions are done sparingly, preserving the style of the original.
As a devout Evangelical himself, Wiersbe has no agenda other than making the work understandable. His notes and comments at the end of each section offer theological insights, both true to Bunyan and true to the Scripture.

If you are reading Pilgrim's Progress for you own edification, or if you are teaching a class, this is the best edition.

Appropriate for our times.......2005-06-28

Having read the original many years ago, I find this version refreshing and necessary to our times. Sadly, some of our commentaries thrashing the book for paraphrasing shows an "artsy" snobery when what we should be doing is hailing the author for being inciteful enough to realize that the message is what is most important and it will not reach it's intended audience if they cannot understand the language. Let's face it, the USA sits at the bottom of the educational food chain; perhaps this version of the book will reach and thus help bring to Christ some of our less educated brothers and sisters. Isn't that what is most important?

A Pilgrims Progress for the rest of us!.......2003-08-30

Get this version of Pilgrims Progress if you want to understand it best. The notes in this book are outstanding and are presented along side the text so you don't have to flip pages. I have given out about 10 copies of this book to my friends and they have all loved it. I have read this book to young and old and they all enjoyed it. Yes, it is a paraphase but it lovingly captures the message and explains the historical context.

Do not forget that Bunyan was a simple tinker; a practical man. I don't think he would have objected to this paraphrase so long as the message he intended came through clearly and was accessible to everyone, and in this, it well accomplishes. Warren W. Wiersbe is a well known international Bible conference teacher, a gifted communicator, and is known as a "pastors, pastor." He has kept to Bunyan's meaning and gives about the best running commentaries available. Buy the original for its poetic language, but if you want to understand its timeless message and have a fun read, buy this version. In fact, buy five copies and share them with friends. It was the message, not the language, which made this one of two books almost every English family owned in Bunyan's times.

Excellent Companion to Original Work.......2001-06-22

Wiersbe's revised edition of this classic is notable for several reasons. The extensive notes, Scripture references and end-of-chapter comments are excellent. Also, the translation manages to retain the style and form of the original--I wasn't jarred by obviously modern words or phrases. I would recommend The New Pilgrim's Progress, especially as a companion in studying Bunyan's original work.

Average customer rating:

Your Life's Companion
Readable and human parable. A story for all times.
Captivating
Classic
Wonderful theology, incomplete allegory

The Pilgrim's Progress
John Bunyan
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 0786199318

Book Description

John Bunyan's classic allegory of Christian's journey to the Celestial City, abridged and updated for the modern reader.

Download Description

Journey with Christian on the most incredible adventure ever imagined. Reaching the Celestial City is a little more difficult than our hero bargained for! Will he pass safely through the Valley of the Shadow of Death?

Customer Reviews:

Your Life's Companion.......2006-08-10

Enthralling. This book will help every Christian deal with the battles of being a Christian in this life and all the struggles that go with it. It teaches you never to give up even when you feel like you can't go on. Life's struggles are not a new occurrence, but as timeless as human existence itself. It teaches you not to be too concentrated on your struggles, but to look at the great prize which is Heaven and not be distracted or enticed by the struggles of life nor the easy way out. Excellent. It is a must read for every Christian.

Readable and human parable. A story for all times........2004-10-18

The first time that I encountered Christian and his pilgrimage was as a preface and a family favorite in the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Unfortunately, it was not until twenty-something years later that I actually got around to reading the book itself. If I were you, I would not wait that long.

The first part of the current combined book appeared in 1678. Bunyan, a nonconformist Protestant minister who was imprisoned for preaching without a license, wrote at least the first part of the book in jail. The second part was first published in 1684. It is likely the most popular allegory ever written, and is still one of the best selling books of all time.

What makes it so popular? The obvious key to its popularity is its simple, crisp style. Even accounting for the language changes between the seventeenth century and now, it is not a struggle to read Progress and it flows well for the modern reader. Although the book is allegory, the characters are full of little realistic details that make them feel quite human. Incidentally, I was reading this book as I was walking some of the old pilgrimage trails of Europe and it was interesting to me how vivid and applicable his version of the pilgrimage experience is. The Slow of Despair rang remarkably true, as did characters such as Talkative and Mr. Worldly Wisdom.

The Oxford University Press edition is bound with a scholarly introduction which is, for a change, worth reading. It also came with explanatory notes and a glossary which were helpful for the modern reader who is not familiar with the everyday language of the period.

Captivating.......2003-10-15

This book is a true classic. John Bunyan spins a wonderful tale of the spiritual walk to heaven. The language may be a bit hard and it won't be that easy of a read, but it is definately worth the while!

It is spiritually edifying and also quite captivating.

A must read!!!

Classic.......2003-06-24

Pilgrim's Progress is without a doubt one of the true classics of time--an allegory that has remained a best seller years after its introduction.

My first introduction to Pilgrim's Progress was as a child in parochial school. I had to do a book report on it in 5th grade and ended up reading numerous times for various projects throughout grade school.

The reader follows the main character--aptly named "Christian"--on his journey to the Celestial City.

Along the way, Christian passes through the many trials of life, symbolized by intruiging characters and places along the way. An early temptation is the "City of Destruction", which Christian narrowly escapes with his life. The various characters are perhaps the most fascinating portion of the book--Pliable, Giant Despair, Talkative, Faithful, Evangelist, and numerous others provide the reader with a continual picture of the various forces at work to distract (or perhaps, encourage)Christian on his ultimate mission.

Of course, the theology (for those of the Christian faith) of Pilgrim's Progress is a constant source of debate, the book is nonetheless a classic of great English writing.

It's not a quick read--that's for sure--however, I certainly would recommend that one read it in its original form. Don't distort the beauty of the old English language with a modern translation.

Wonderful theology, incomplete allegory.......2002-08-17

The Pilgrim's Progress is perhaps one of the most enduring allegories ever written; it has set the form for several more recent works (Hannah Hurnard's "Hind's Feet on High Places," most notably). Bunyan's work was, for 18th century Christians, a companion to the Bible. The theology is a perfect example of Reformation thought, and were it not for a major flaw in the allegory, this work would be just about perfect.
Setting out from the City of Destruction, Christian makes his journey throughout many perils and temptations, eventually finding his way (through death) to the Celestial City, to live with Christ and the saints. Along the way he learns much about evading temptation, and much practical advise on escaping sin is given to the reader through his discussions with travelling companions Faithful and Hopeful.
However, by no means is Christian's journey representative of the Christian life as it is meant to be lived. Two stunning flaws stand out - first, that Christian in no way has any direct contact with Christ, until after his death; secondly, that Christian's life is devoid of relationships, outside of his two travelling companions.
These two realities of the novel are startling, especially given that the Christian life is, first and foremost, relational-primarily, the Christian lives in relation to God, and then in relation to his neighbor. The Christian is not an island; he is to evade the world, but love those in it. Bunyan entirely misses this key point.
Not only is the life Bunyan paints theologically incorrect, but it is entirely undesireable. It would be unimaginable for the Christian to live an entire life without, along the way, enjoying intimacy with Christ. Indeed, it is these moments of intimacy in spite of imperfection, which drive the Christian's soul onward. And it hardly needs mentioning that a Christian who, rather than reaching out and loving those around him, dismisses them as sinners and leaves them behind, is more reminiscent of Pharasitical hypocrisy, than Christian love.
If one is looking for a challenging allegory, they need look no further than Hannah Hurnard's "Hinds Feet on High Places;" its protagonist, Much Afraid, is throughout her journey often in direct contact with Christ, and her redemption comes not through death, but through Christ making her able to go out into the world and love. Though "Hind's Feet" is not as theologically rich as Bunyan's allegory, its practical application is far more uplifting, hopeful, and correct.

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