Do you know "Talkative"?

In light of my last post - The Guardian's 100 best novels: No 1 - The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan (1678) - I thought I would share this.

'Do you know "talkative"?' details an excerpt from The Pilgrims Progress in which Faithful and Christian encounter Talkative.

It is an interesting little article worth a moment of your time.

The Guardian's 100 best novels: No 1 - The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan (1678)

I was delighted to see this in today's Guardian. Delighted for two reasons: (1) It is an absolutely magnificent book; a classic in the truest sense, and; (2) It is about the only piece of fiction that has genuinely changed my life; through it I became a Christian.

True to form, the Guardian insist on seeing the book as "an allegory of state repression" without paying heed to the patently obvious allegory actually intended by Bunyan.

Nevertheless, I'm so pleased the Guardian counted it amongst their 100 best novels - placing it at No. 1 no less - and always think on it with fondness. If you only ever read one "classic" in your lifetime, make it this one.