5. Religious Journeys

Shown here is a lontar, or palm leaf manuscript. The text is in Kawi, old Javanese, and the manuscript dates from the late 19th century. Javanese examples of the Hindu Ramayana date from the 9th century, but the Sanskrit epic is far more ancient in India. The story of the exiled Prince Rama has been passed down over time through the shadow puppet tradition as well as palm leaf manuscripts into the 20th century.

Written in a Bedfordshire jail, The Pilgrim’s Progress was a foundation text for the budding working-class movement of 18th-century England. It was lauded by Swift, Johnson and Walpole. The first part of Bunyan’s religious allegory follows Christian on a journey to salvation from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. The frontispiece illustrates the second part of his work, with Christian dreaming of his wife and children embarking on their own dangerous journey.

Paradise Lost dramatises the Biblical story of the Fall of Man, including Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve and their eventual expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Like Aeneas and Odysseus, Satan travels between Hell and Earth alone. This edition is significant for Baskerville’s close attention to typography in order to create visual appeal rather than the volume being embellished with illustrations.

Written as fiction but ostensibly to be read as autobiography, Wanderung or ‘hike’, reflects on the human condition and the complexity of reconciling the active life to the contemplative life. It is a precursor to Hesse’s novels of spiritual journeying, Siddhartha and Steppenwolf, for which he won his Nobel Prize.