The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories - Hardcover

Booker, Christopher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826452094 ISBN 13: 9780826452092

Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group, 2005

Synopsis

From The Epic of Gilgemesh to Jaws and Schindler's List, Christopher Booker examines in detail the stories that underlie literature and the plots that are basic to story telling through the ages. In this magisterial work he examines the plots of films, opera libretti and the contemporary novel and short story. Underlying the stories he examines are Seven Basic Plots: rags to riches; the quest; voyage and return; the hero as monster; rebirth and so on. Booker shows that the images and stories serve a far deeper and more significant purpose in our lives than we have realised. In the definition of these basic plots, Booker shows us we are entering a realm in which the recognition of the plots proves only to be the gateway. We are in fact uncovering a kind of hidden universal language: a nucleus of situations and figures which are the very stuff from which stories are made. With Booker's exploration, there is literally no story in the world which cannot be seen in a new light: we have come to the heart of what stories are about and why we tell them. Here, Christopher Booker moves on from some of the themes he outlined in his hugely bestselling book The Neophiliacs. Seven Basic Plots is unquestionably his most important book to date.

About this title

About the Author

As a noted commentator on the political, social and psychological history of our time, Christopher Booker has in recent years, through his weekly Sunday Telegraph column, become the most conspicuous 'global warming sceptic' in the British press. He has based his view on exhaustive research into the scientific evidence for and against the theory of 'man-made climate change'.

His professional interest in this issue grew out of research for his previous book Scared To Death, co-written with Dr Richard North, a study of the 'scare phenomenon' which has been such a prominent feature of Western life in recent decades. Booker's other recent books have included The Seven Basic Plots, a best-selling analysis of why we tell stories which has established itself as a standard text (also published by Continuum). He has been an author and journalist for nearly 50 years, and was the founding editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye.

Review

"...It's a tribute to the ease and fluency of his writing that at no point does it seem impenetrable or unwelcoming....full marks to Christopher Booker for recognising that genre fiction (detective stories, horror stories, romances) can be written about in the same breath, as it were, as the great masterpieces of literature." —Adele Geras, Times Educational Supplement (UK), November 2004

"...Scholarly but very readable....His book is a fascinating one...." —Leicester Mercury (UK) November 2004

"...the achievement is monumental and a tribute to the passion with which he [Booker] has pursued his interest in fiction and in story-telling...a compelling read." —Wells Journal (UK) November 2004

"...This is a work of voracious reading and unstoppable enthusiasm" —John Mullan, Evening Standard (UK) November 22, 2004

"Booker`s knowledge and understanding of imaginative literature isunrivalled, his essays on the great authors both illuminating andstimulating. This is a truly important book, an acolade often bestowed andrarely desrved in our modern age" -Dame Beryl Bainbridge, author of Every Man for Himself and winner of the Whitbred Novel Award

'This book...has mind-expanding properties. Not only for anyone interested in literature, but also for those fascinated by wider questions of how human beings organise their societies and explain the outside world to their inmost selves, it is fascinating.'Katherine Sale, Financial Times (UK), October 22, 2004

'This is the most extraordinary, exhilarating book. It always seemed to me that 'the story' was God's way of giving meaning to crude creation. Booker now interprets the mind of God, and analyses not just the novel - which will never to me be quite the same again - but puts the narrative of contemporary human affairs into a new perspective. If it took its author a lifetime to write, one can only feel gratitude that he did it.'Fay Weldon, novelist

'An enormous piece of work, not really one book at all but at least three ...nothing less than the story of all stories. And an extraordinary tale it is ... Booker ranges over vast tracts of literature, drawing together the plots of everything from Beowulf to Bond, from Sophocles to soap opera, from Homer to Homer Simpson, to show the underlying parallels in stories from what appear to be the most disparate sources. If stories are about "what happens next", this book sets out to show that the answer is always "the same things", then to explain why. I found it absolutely fascinating.'Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye

'This is literally an incomparable book, because there is nothing to compare it with. It goes to the heart of man's cultural evolution through the stories we have told since storytelling began. It illuminates our nature, our beliefs and our collective emotions by shining a bright light on them from a completely new angle. Original, profound, fascinating - and on top of it all, a really good read.'Sir Antony Jay, co-author of Yes, Minister

'I have been quite bowled over by Christopher Booker's new book. It is so well planned with an excellent beginning and the contrasts and comparisons throughout are highly entertaining as well as informative and most original - and always extremely readable.'John Bayley

Edition details

• Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0826452094
• ISBN 13: 9780826452092
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 736