Pilgrims Progress in Today's English [Paperback]

John Bunyan (Author), James Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1971

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)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Moody Publishers (June 1, 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080246520X
• ISBN-13: 978-0802465207
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Fiction & Poetry > Fiction
  • #5 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Fiction > General
  • #12 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > British > Classics

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you are not a lit snob you will love it, October 25, 2010

By 

didntvoteforhillary (New York) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pilgrims Progress in Today's English (Paperback)

I decided to go ahead and get this version of Pilgrims Progress in spite of...nay even because of the unfavorable reviews. I noticed that those who revere the antiquated English of the original version wrote their reviews in modern English, and I would guess that they also speak in modern English. Therefore why must one labor through a book written in an antiquated language when a more readable version...written in language closer to that which you use everyday...is available? Put it this way...if you enjoy reading your Bible in the King James version then by all means stick with the original Pilgrims Progress. If you prefer to read your Bible in one of the more modern English formats, then you will enjoy this version. I think you will find it delightful, inspiring and thought provoking. Don't let the lit snobs guilt you into buying what you may not like and therefore won't read. This has nothing to do with dumbing down or lack of reading comprehension or anything like that. It is simply personal preference.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Starting Point For New Readers, June 13, 2004

By 

Jack L. Keller "Avid Reader" (Federal Way, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pilgrims Progress in Today's English (Paperback)

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.

126 of 157 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Updated "Progress" another step in the dumbing of America (and Canada, too), November 17, 2005

By 

L. E. Cantrell (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pilgrims Progress in Today's English (Paperback)

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, some editions have 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.