The Pilgrim's Progress to the Celestial Country

"The Pilgrim's Progress" is the most famous work of Bunyan; he began working on it during his first imprisonment and completed it during his second. The book represents an allegorical journey of the Christian to the Celestial City. "The Progress" instantly gained immense popularity, even during the author's lifetime it went through 11 reissues and sold over 100,000 copies, and at one point was considered the most read book in English after the Bible. Bunyan's work had a tremendous impact on the works of Swift, Thackeray, and Dickens (as well as Louisa May Alcott) and became iconic for many generations of Protestants.