The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell StoriesThis remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of 'basic stories' in the world. Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it shows that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of storytelling. But this is only the prelude to an investigation into how and why we are 'programmed' to imagine stories in these ways, and how they relate to the inmost patterns of human psychology. Drawing on a vast array of examples, from Proust to detective stories, from the Marquis de Sade to E.T., Christopher Booker then leads us through the extraordinary changes in the nature of storytelling over the past 200 years, and why so many stories have 'lost the plot' by losing touch with their underlying archetypal purpose. Booker analyses why evolution has given us the need to tell stories and illustrates how storytelling has provided a uniquely revealing mirror to mankind's psychological development over the past 5000 years. This seminal book opens up in an entirely new way our understanding of the real purpose storytelling plays in our lives, and will be a talking point for years to come. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 86
Page 5
... plot ' after another emerged to view , each with its own particular structure , I eventually found myself with just one intractable pile of stories which did not seem to fit any of the patterns I had been looking at . I puzzled over ...
... plot ' after another emerged to view , each with its own particular structure , I eventually found myself with just one intractable pile of stories which did not seem to fit any of the patterns I had been looking at . I puzzled over ...
Page 6
... plot. Again there are others, a great many, which show the story somehow 'going wrong', in terms of failing fully to realise the basic plot which lies behind it. As we shall see, the question of how and why stories can go wrong in this ...
... plot. Again there are others, a great many, which show the story somehow 'going wrong', in terms of failing fully to realise the basic plot which lies behind it. As we shall see, the question of how and why stories can go wrong in this ...
Page 7
... plot . The first two parts of the book have been primarily concerned with those stories which express the archetypal patterns underlying them in a way which enables them to come to a fully resolved and satisfactory ending . In the third ...
... plot . The first two parts of the book have been primarily concerned with those stories which express the archetypal patterns underlying them in a way which enables them to come to a fully resolved and satisfactory ending . In the third ...
Page 34
... plot to marry her off to yet another Hydra - head , the unpleasant old Arthur Gride . Finally all Ralph's wicked schemes are exposed and brought to naught . Nicholas , the triumphant hero , is free to marry his ' Princess ' who , it is ...
... plot to marry her off to yet another Hydra - head , the unpleasant old Arthur Gride . Finally all Ralph's wicked schemes are exposed and brought to naught . Nicholas , the triumphant hero , is free to marry his ' Princess ' who , it is ...
Page 35
... plot that there is almost no limit to the variety of story-types it can give rise to. We can recognise it wherever our interest in a tale is centred on the steady build-up to a climactic battle between the hero and some dark ...
... plot that there is almost no limit to the variety of story-types it can give rise to. We can recognise it wherever our interest in a tale is centred on the steady build-up to a climactic battle between the hero and some dark ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
THE COMPLETE HAPPY ENDING | 237 |
MISSING THE MARK | 345 |
WHY WE TELL STORIES | 541 |
The Light and the Shadows on the Wall | 699 |
Authors Personal Note | 703 |
Glossary of Terms | 707 |
Bibliography | 711 |
Index of Stories Cited | 715 |
General Index | 720 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aladdin Amleth anima Anna Karenina archetypal arrives beautiful become begins central figure centre century characters Comedy comes complete consciousness Creon Dark Father dark feminine dark figure dark masculine dark power Dark Rival death developed Don Giovanni Dream Stage egocentric egotism emerge eventually everything familiar fantasy film finally girl goal Hamlet happens happy ending heart hero and heroine hero or heroine human imagination inner James Bond Jane Eyre journey killed king kingdom liberated light lives look Macbeth married Moby Dick mother murder mysterious nature Nightmare Stage novel obsession Odysseus Oedipus ordeals Overcoming the Monster pattern play plot Princess Quest Rags to Riches realise recognise represents role seems seen sense shadow storytelling symbolic symbolised Teiresias tells Theseus thing Tragedy transformation true turn type of story ultimately uncon unconscious values Voyage and Return whole wife Wise Old woman young