The Companion to Bunyan

John Bunyan was a major figure in seventeenth-century Puritan literature, and one deeply embroiled in the religious upheavals of his times. This Companion considers all his major texts, including The Pilgrim's Progress and his autobiography Grace Abounding. The essays, by leading Bunyan scholars, place these and his other works in the context of seventeenth-century history and literature. They discuss such key issues as the publication of dissenting works, the history of the book, gender, the relationship between literature and religion, between literature and early modern radicalism, and the reception of seventeenth-century texts. Other chapters assess Bunyan's importance for the development of allegory, life-writing, the early novel and children's literature. This Companion provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to an author with an assured and central place in English literature.

Contents

Introduction / Anne Dunan-Page
John Bunyan's literary life / N.H. Keeble 
John Bunyan and Restoration literature / Nigel Smith 
John Bunyan and the Bible / W.R. Owens 
John Bunyan and the goodwives of Bedford: a psychoanalytic approach / Vera J. Camden 
Grace abounding to the chief of sinners: John Bunyan and spiritual autobiography / Michael Davies 
The Pilgrim's progress and the line of allegory / Roger Pooley 
Bunyan and the early novel: The life and death of Mr. Badman / Stuart Sim
Militant religion and politics in The holy war / David Walker
A book for boys and girls, or, country rhimes for children: Bunyan and literature for children / Shannon Murray
Posthumous Bunyan: early lives and the development of the canon / Anne Dunan-Page 
The Victorians and Bunyan's legacy / Emma Mason 
Bunyan: colonial, postcolonial / Isabel Hofmeyr.