The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell

By: Joseph Campbell

Narrated by: Arthur Morey, John Lee, Susan Denaker

Since its release in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell's revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In this book, 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 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.

©2008 The Joseph Campbell Foundation (jcf.org). Third edition (with revisions) / 1968 by Princeton University Press. Second edition (with revisions) / 1949 by Bollingen Foundation and published by Pantheon Books. (Original edition), year 2008 (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Arthur Morey, John Lee, and Susan Denaker are an adept and experienced performance team. The way they trade voices adds texture to the complex compendium of stories." ( AudioFile)

An amazing and enlightening experience

I finished the audio book in a day and a half. It was a read that articulated my own hypotheses and journey through mythology in a manner so succinct and enthralling that I simply could not put it down. I wish I had read it at a younger age, as it posited the very answer I strove so long to achieve. Having experienced this enriching tale, I leave now with a clearer understanding and articulation of the adventure, trials and tribulations each of us undergo as we undertake our own destinies. Thank you for putting this audible book together!

Important, yet dated and pseudoscientific.

I'm an avid history and mythology nerd. I studied ancient history (as a minor, not a major), and spend a fair amount of my free time learning about ancient cultures and religions. In addition, I love psychology. I love how different myths reveal things about human nature. This book is the perfect combination of things I love. I was saving The Hero with a Thousand Faces for when I had free time because I just knew I would love it. I read the reviews on Goodreads and was assured this was an important book. Why was it such a let down?

Here's what I think:

Pros

The main point of the book - the fact that most if not all myths follow a similar structure and that there is something to be gained by analysing this - is good. Campbell is very observant, and I use that word on purpose, as I feel like he is more observant than he is insightful.

I loved hearing all the snippets of myths from around the world. He really does pull from an extremely varied pool. Greek, African, Irish, Native American, South American, Inuit, Maori e.t.c. Fantastic stuff.

Cons

Campbell overthinks many things. I know how silly that sounds considering the material, but really, I think he's overdoing it. Where I would say "A trickster god confusing two people (by wearing a hat that is red on one side, and blue on the other) is a possible representation of either the nature of perception, the seeming unfairness of luck, or a parable for stubbornness, Campbell says something along the lines of: The hat clearly signifies the four cardinal directions, and can be thus interpreted as a representation of the celestial bodies... (This is an exaggeration, not an actual quote).

Campbell makes wild leaps of logic, and at times, doesn't even try to convince the reader. Like the myth with the hat above, the tone in the book is saying that this 3000 year old myth obviously exists because of this or that reason. He rarely, if ever, states that something is possibly related, only that it is. I'm not qualified to argue with him, but I feel as though more effort could be spent on educating the reader, rather than stating the supposedly obvious facts. He also rarely gives the 'wider picture'.

He relies on Freud and Jung. I can't really blame him for this as the book was written in 1949, but this aspect of the book as not aged well at all. I could barely read for 15 mins at a time before rolling my eyes at another explanation for the hero's anxiety being our collective lust for our mother and hatred for our father. And the importance of dreams. We still don't understand dreams. They potentially serve a biological function of strengthening our emotional intelligence, but are infamous for frequently being utterly random. Dreams are fascinating, and deserved to be studied, but they are far from a reliable source.

In addition, the 3 narrators switch in out seemingly at random. Very distracting.

More than a the hero’s journey

This book has more to do with the depth of what it means to be human than about telling stories about heroes. Lots to think about and consider in this book.

Epic subject, epic work.

I read this to increase my understanding of story writing and to make sure I wasn't missing any crucial basic beats, but it also holds poignant comments on everyday life.

Amazing Experience!

Fantastic read and I personally found it very enlightening. A great read for any artist or whoever is interested in related topics of mythology.

Excellent read of a hard book

Excellent book, now I need to read it in paper so I can take proper notes. The narrators give it a new voice and dimension to the text, but it's not a book to absorb in one go.

World changing

I’m a song writer, this book has changed my approach and understanding of all creative works. Powerful read.

Beloved book, insufferable reader

Whoever reads all the source quotes is insufferable. I bought this audiobook months ago and still haven't finished it, because he is so horrendous. The dramatic reading is not my issue, my issue that the dramatics of his reading clash with the actual words. This guy is clearly reading for the sole purpose of hearing his own voice out loud, he's in love with it. It makes the text so difficult to understand when it truly shouldn't be. It's also grating and gives me major whiplash. I listened to another book he read the entirety of and I just cannot do it again. That book was about a completely different subject, modern, non-fiction, yet he read it identically to this.

Deep thoughts

The story reminds all the way about something far and forgotten, but at the same time familiar and relative.

Good in summary, but some myths are weird reads

Tremendous symbolism and insight, but ngl some of the myths are dumb as hell. Also why do they keep switching narrators? Felt disjointed.