The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories
- ISBN-10
- 0826452094
- ISBN-13
- 9780826452092
- Category
- Literary Criticism
- Pages
- 748
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2004-01-01
- Publisher
- A&C Black
- Author
- Christopher Booker
Description
"This 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."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations
By Georges PoltiWe are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
-
20 Master Plots and How to Build Them
By Ronald B. TobiasThis book shows you how to take timeless storytelling structures and make them immediate, now, for fiction that's universal in how it speaks to the reader's heart and contemporary in detail and impact.
-
The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller
By John TrubyThe Anatomy of Story is his long-awaited first book, and it shares all of his secrets for writing a compelling script.
-
20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them
By Ronald TobiasShirley Jackson's short story " The Lottery " illustrates the point on a larger scale . The title of the story cues us well . This is a story about a lottery . As we read the story we learn that a town holds an annual lottery and has ...
-
Groupthink: A Study in Self Delusion
By Christopher BookerYou are its murderers and there is little left in my own brain but the thoughts of murder for you . ... I carry a knife in my heart for every one of you, you, Macmillan, and you, Gaitskell . . . till then, damn you, England.
-
Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel
By Jane SmileyThe author celebrates the art of fiction as she looks at one hundred very different examples of the novel, ranging from the classics to little-known gems, and discusses the evolution of the novel and the practice of novel-writing.
-
Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story
By John YorkeIt's here that Richard II discovers Bolingbroke has usurped his kingdom ('let us sit upon the ground and tell sad ... Shakespeare even spells it out: I am in blood Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as ...
-
Ten Million Photoplay Plots
By Wycliffe Aber HillTen Million Photoplay Plots
-
The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell
By Chris ColferBut with the legendary Evil Queen hot on their trail, will they ever find the way? The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell brings readers on a thrilling quest filled with magic spells, laugh-out-loud humour and page-turning adventure.
-
The Phantom Tollbooth
By Norton JusterA journey through a land where Milo learns the importance of words and numbers provides a cure for his boredom.