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Aeneas Press edition Renaissance First published 1678

The Pilgrim's Progress

From This World to That Which Is to Come

by John Bunyan 1628–1688

The book, and the century it came out of.

A man with a burden on his back leaves the City of Destruction and walks: through the Slough of Despond, past Apollyon, through Vanity Fair, to the river he must cross alone. Bunyan gave each moral condition an address and a road, and the plainness of the telling is why the book outlived the theology it was built to carry. Accompanied here by period paintings, with ornament drawn from the pilgrim’s staff, the scroll and the far mountain — a Gilded Library edition of the most walked-in allegory in English. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Hobbema, Kneller and Steen among them.

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.
The first sentence of The Pilgrim's Progress
A note on this edition

The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 496 pages
Reading time
about 10 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501006737
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Wooded Landscape with Travellers and Beggars on a Road, Meindert Hobbema
Wooded Landscape with Travellers and Beggars on a Road Meindert Hobbema 1668
View inside the Saint Bavo church in Haarlem during mass, Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet
View inside the Saint Bavo church in Haarlem during mass Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet 1666
Italian Landscape with Classical Ruins, Willem Schellinks
Italian Landscape with Classical Ruins Willem Schellinks 1660
Three Drinking and Smoking Farmers in a Tavern, Q352438
Three Drinking and Smoking Farmers in a Tavern Q352438 1667
Interior with a Woman sewing and a Child, Pieter de Hooch
Interior with a Woman sewing and a Child Pieter de Hooch 1668
A female vegetable seller and a housewife at the Eenhoornsluis in Amsterdam, in the background the Westertoren, Michiel van Musscher
A female vegetable seller and a housewife at the Eenhoornsluis in Amsterdam, in the background the Westertoren Michiel van Musscher 1669
Afterwards

This book in culture: one version

Most people meet a book like this one on a screen first. Here is what was made of it — and none of these is the book.

  • 1978 Pilgrim's Progress Ken Anderson
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of The Pilgrim's Progress as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Pilgrim's Progress as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Pilgrim's Progress, first published 1678, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the The Gilded Library shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501006737, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of The Pilgrim's Progress?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. John Bunyan's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 496 pages, which is roughly about 10 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
The Pilgrim's Progress
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