This book has a complicated plot, the English used by the author is both simple and complicated, and the author appropriately quotes many wonderful Bible verses to describe the journey that the characters (the main character, his wife, his friends, his children, and even a few people who he hardly knows) undertake in their journey to Heaven. The good parts of this book are: the author is a confident Christian who has read the Bible as if it were the word of the Lord (it is, although I am not sure the proud author really knew that), the author took the time to make the book as complicated and interesting as he could (he describes a complex checkerboard of different geographical difficulties, he describes a fascinating sequence of meetings, sometimes violent and dangerous, with many non-Christian adversaries, which mirrors the real life of all Christians, and which would mirror the real life of all non-Chrisitans if they had the fortune to be Christians....if you have read it, you know what I am talking about). The book is difficult to read, however, as the author is (through little fault of his own, he was born at a very conceited and contentious time in Christian history) very proud of himself (he calls the character who reminds him of himself 'Christian' and gives other people, who remind him of people who he did not like, for one reason or another, mocking names - what Christian would want to write a book like that); and while he is clearly Christian, he does not seem to have a deep love for the Bible (for example, when Jesus looked at Jerusalem "Jesus cried": when Bunyan looked at Jerusalem, Bunyan thought "what mocking name can I call this city by?": when Jesus had a long conversation with the rich young man, and felt happy that the rich young man had followed all the commandments, but was not willing to give up his riches, Jesus was sad: Bunyan would have been happy to find a mocking name for the poor young man: Mr Riches, perhaps. Who knows? Bunyan also slandered saintly people who he disagreed with on technical theological issues (his nasty comments about the Popes, some of whom, including Peter, Clement, Linus, and many others, were true saints whom poor Bunyan knew little about, and his vicious description of the successors of Peter are a stain on his (Bunyan's) legacy). . Well, all that being said, he was a talented writer and a prayerful person, and there are not many books out there by people who have that combination of skills. A good book for preachers who are looking for good ways to express the word of the Lord, a good book for people who want to see how interesting English prose was back in the day. However, I completely understand why someone would get 20 or 30 pages in and want to stop reading: this book should not be compared to the Bible, which was the word of the Lord: it is a very good effort by a very flawed Christian to write an interesting book, and it has many appropriate Biblical quotes. That being said, while I am glad to live in a world where a good Christian like John Bunyan lived, his book should not be described as being comparable to the Bible. The Bible described the truth, this book describes the truth as Bunyan - and he would agree with this - the truth as Bunyan, a mere Christian and not an inspired Evangelist, describes the truth. And by the way - Bunyan may still be in Purgatory. Pray for him.
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