The Seven Basic Plots

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.

Christopher Booker writes for the Sunday Telegraph and is the bestselling author of The Seven Basic Plots, The Real Global Warming Disaster, The Great Deception and Scared to Death (all published by Bloomsbury Continuum). He has been an author and journalist for nearly 50 years, and was the founding editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye.

Introduction and historical notes PART ONE: THE SEVEN GATEWAYS TO THE UNDERWORLD 1 Overcoming the Monster 2 The Monster (II) and the Thrilling Escape from Death 3 Rages to Riches 4 The Quest 5 Voyage and Return 6 Comedy 7 Comedy (II): The Plot Disguised 8 Tragedy (I): The Five Stages 9 Tragedy (II): The Divided Self 10 Tragedy (III): The Hero as Monster 11 Rebirth 12 The Dark Power: From Shadow into Light Epilogue to Part One: The Rule of Three (the role played in stories by numbers) PART TWO: THE COMPLETE HAPPY ENDING Prologue to Part Two 13 The Dark Figures 14 Seeing Whole: The Feminine and Masculine Values 15 The Perfect Balance 16 The Unrealised Value 17 The Archetypal Family Drama (Continued) 18 The Light Figures 19 Reaching the Goal 20 The Fatal Flaw PART THREE: MISSING THE MARK 21 The Ego Takes Over (I): Enter the Dark Inversion 22 The Ego Takes Over (II): The Dark and Sentimental Versions 23 The Ego Takes Over (III): Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy 24 The Ego Takes Over (IV): Tragedy and Rebirth 25 Losing the Plot: Thomas Hardy - A Case History 26 Going Nowhere: The Passive Ego. The Twentieth-Century Dead End - From Chekhov to Close Encounters 27 Why Sex and Violence? The Active Ego. The Twentieth-Century Obsession: From de Sade to The Terminator 28 Rebellion Against 'The One': From Job to Nineteen Eighty-Four 29 The Mystery 30 The Riddle of the Sphinx: Oedipus and Hamlet PART FOUR: WHY WE TELL STORIES 31 Telling Us Who We Are: Ego versus Instinct 32 Into the Real World: The Ruling Consciousness 33 Of Gods and Men: Reconnecting with 'The One' 34 The Age of Loki: The Dismantling of the Self Epilogue: The Light and the Shadows on the Wall Author's Personal Note Glossary of Terms Bibliography Index of Stories Cited General Index