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.
