First Line Friday #36: Pligrim's Progress in Today's English by John Bunyan & James Thomas

Thanks to Carrie at
Reading is My Superpower
for the Link-up

 

 

Title:  Pilgrim's Progress in Today's English
Author:  John Bunyan (Retold by James Thomas)
Genre:  Christian classics, allegory

    〰First Line〰

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As I walked through the wilderness of the world, I came to a place where there was a den.  There I lay down to sleep; and as I slept, I dreamed a dream.

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Synopsis:  (From Goodreads) 

The best allegory ever written is rewritten in modern English , making it clearer and more forceful to the modern reader. With more than 100,000 in print, this retelling by James H. Thomas follows Christian as he leaves his home in the City of Destruction and begins a long journey to the Celestial City. His adventure is full of encounters with interesting people, such as Faithful, Hopeful, and Ignorance. Traveling through places such as Vanity Fair and the Valley of the Shadow of Death, he reaches his heavenly home but learns rich lessons during the journey. The story has immediate application to everyday life.

Later on, Christian's wife, Christiana, decides to join her husband in the Celestial City. As she travels, Christiana comes upon a different set of people, such as Greatheart, Mercy, and Honesty. Her story illustrates how Christians follow different paths but with the same eternity with Jesus. of God.

 〰First Thoughts〰

This famous allegory is the third of three books that are part of our undergraduate level Spiritual Formation Class at the university that I'll be teaching later this summer and again in the fall.  The First Line Friday posts for the other two books are here and here.

Year ago (I'm not sure how many) I read this book in its original 17th century English.  Because I struggled with allegorical literature even worse than I do now, I do not remember the story or the symbolism at all. I'm looking forward to rereading it in hopes that it will jog my memory.  

While I'm a proponent of making old English more understandable to the masses within reason, I fear that this updated edition won't do justice to the original.  Will it simply update the language to the modern equivalent of the wording, or will it dumb down the story to the point it loses its impact?

We'll see. 

 So, what's the first line of the book you're currently reading?