The 100 best novels: No 1 � The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1678)

John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress begins our 100-part list of the best novels
written in English. Robert McCrum explains its enduring appeal
Who, when and why - introducing the series
Robert McCrum
Robert McCrum

Mon 23 Sep 2013 08.00 BSTFirst published on Mon 23 Sep 2013 08.00 BST
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John Bunyan
Detail of the frontispiece of the fourth edition of The Pilgrim's Progress (1680).
Photograph: Alamy
The English novel begins behind bars, in extremis. Its first author, John Bunyan,
was a Puritan dissenter whose writing starts with sermons and ends with fiction.
His famous allegory, the story of Christian, opens with a sentence of luminous
simplicity that has the haunting compulsion of the hook in a great melody. "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."

A "Denn" is a prison, and Bunyan wrote most of the book in Bedford county gaol,
having been arrested for his beliefs during the "Great Persecution" of 1660-1690.
He shares the experience of prison with Cervantes, who had the idea for Don Quixote
while incarcerated in La Mancha. Like so many novels that follow in this list, The
Pilgrim's Progress blends fact and fiction. As well as being the record of Bunyan's
dream, a well-known fictional device, it is also an archetypal tale � a quest,
fraught with danger. Christian's pilgrimage takes him through the Slough of
Despond, Vanity Fair and the Delectable Mountains in a succession of adventures
that keep the reader turning the page. With his good companions, Faithful and
Hopeful, he vanquishes many enemies before arriving at the Celestial City with the
line that still reverberates through the English literary tradition: "So he passed
over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side."

In Hollywood terms, the novel has a perfect "arc". It also contains a cast of
unforgettable characters, from Mr Worldly Wiseman to Lord Hategood, Mr Stand-fast
and Mr Valiant-for-Truth.

More profoundly, as an allegory of state repression, it has been described by the

historian EP Thompson as one of the "foundation texts of the English working-class
movement". Part of its uniquely English quality is a robust and engaging sense of
humour that has cemented its appeal to generations of readers.