Bunyan wrote the first part of his allegory while in prison for his faith, and this experience adds extra urgency and depth to his story of Christian pursuing his pilgrimage through Vanity Fair, the Slough of Despond and Delectable Mountains towards the Celestial City.

The influence of The Pilgrim's Progress, both indirectly on the English consciousness and directly on the literature that followed, has been immeasurable. Rich, inventive, profoundly challenging, it is a work of imaginative intensity that has rarely been matched.