The Hero with a Thousand Faces
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Explore the Hero's Journey in stories as old as humanity and as new as last night's dream
The latest incarnation of Oedipus, the continued romance of Beauty and the Beast, stand this afternoon on the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, waiting for the traffic light to change. — Joseph Campbell
Since its release in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faceshas 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.
Reviews:
“I have returned to no other book more often since leaving college than this one, and every time I discover new insight into the human journey. Every generation will find in Hero wisdom for the ages.”
— Bill Moyers
“In the three decades since I discovered The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it has continued to fascinate and inspire me. Joseph Campbell peers through centuries and shows us that we are all connected by a basic need to hear stories and understand ourselves. As a book, it is wonderful to read; as illumination into the human condition, it is a revelation.”
— George Lucas
“Campbell’s words carry extraordinary weight, not only among scholars but among a wide range of other people who find his search down mythological pathways relevant to their lives today....The book for which he is most famous, The Hero with a Thousand Faces [is] a brilliant examination, through ancient hero myths, of man’s eternal struggle for identity.”
— Time
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Campbell's seminal hero's tale has remains influential in academia and the arts, e.g., in the creation of Star Wars. Morey was not the best choice for this complex classic, first published in 1949. He enunciates carefully, so the listener doesn't miss a word, but his mid-sentence pauses are so long that one gets caught up in the words and phrases rather than the meaning of the sentences. This is in stark contrast to the other narrators' styles of delivery. Lee reads with a British accent and high emotions, and Denaker also reads with dramatic flair. Campbell's thesis is that everywhere in the world we find legends with this story line: a hero journeys out of the everyday world into "a region of supernatural wonder." Here he encounters dragons, serpents, and other fantastic creatures whom he conquers. He returns home with special powers that enable him to serve others. A New World Library hardcover.
