The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories

Booker, Christopher

ISBN 10: 0826480373 / ISBN 13: 9780826480378

Published by Continuum, 2006

The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR001829242

Synopsis:

Breathtaking in its scope and originality, "Seven Basic Plots" examines the basis of story telling in literature, film, and libretto. No one will ever see stories in the same way again. This 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.

About the Author: Over the past 40 years Christopher Booker has established a reputation as one of Britain's most original writers and journalists. The founding editor of Private Eye, his previous books have ranged from The Neophiliacs to The Great Deception (Continuum 2003).

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories
Publisher: Continuum
Publication Date: 2006
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Good