The Hero with A Thousand Faces (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) - Hardcover

Joseph Campbell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1577315936 ISBN 13: 9781577315933

Publisher: New World Library, 2012

Synopsis

Since its release in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell’s revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In these pages, Campbell outlines the Hero’s Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world’s mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction.

As part of the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, this third edition features expanded illustrations, a comprehensive bibliography, and more accessible sidebars.

As relevant today as when it was first published, The Hero with a Thousand Faces continues to find new audiences in fields ranging from religion and anthropology to literature and film studies. The book has also profoundly influenced creative artists including authors, songwriters, game designers, and filmmakers and continues to inspire all those interested in the inherent human need to tell stories.

About this title

Review:

A brilliant examination, through ancient hero myths, of man s eternal struggle for identity. --Time

From the Back Cover:

Despite their infinite variety of incident, setting, and number costume, the myths of the world offer only a limited number of responses to the riddle of life.

In this fascinating and influential book, Joseph Campbell presents the composite hero. Apollo, the Frog King of the fairy tale, Wotan, the Buddha., and numerous other protagonists of folklore and religion enact simultaneously the various phases of their common story.

The relationship of their timeless symbols to those discovered in dream by contemporary depth psychology is taken as a starting point for interpretation. The psychological view is then compared with the words of such spiritual leaders as Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Lao-tse, and the 'Old Man' of the Australian tribes. From behind a thousand faces the single hero looks out, archetype of all human myth.

"Campbell's words carry extraordinary weight, not only among scholars but a wide range of other people who find his search down mythical pathways relevant to their lives today."
TIME

About this edition

• Publisher: New World Library
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1577315936
• ISBN 13: 9781577315933
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 432