The Celestial Railroad

Allegorical short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1843 and included in his short-story collection Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). Following the path of Christian in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, the narrator travels from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City--not on foot as had the original pilgrim but as a passenger on the Celestial Railroad. Mr. Smooth-it-away, a friendly fellow traveler, comments contemptuously about the arduous trip the old-fashioned pilgrims had to undergo. At the journey's end, Mr. Smooth-it-away leaves the other passengers and divulges his true identity by breathing fire and brimstone. The narrator awakens and realizes, with great relief, that it has all been a dream.


Genre: Literary Fiction