The Seven Basic Plots

Why We Tell Stories

By: Christopher Booker

Narrated by: Liam Gerrard

Length: 38 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

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 reveals 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 analyzes 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 5,000 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.

©2004 Christopher Booker (P)2019 Tantor

Entertaining every minute!

Compelling theory of storytelling explained through a fun run across hundreds titles and thousands of years. Spoiler alerts of course ; )

So much more than a book about plots.

I was looking for deeper insight into story telling, but this author showed me story telling is not a simple topic to be understood without a full dive into history, psychology, science/nature and the ultimate questions in life. This is one of those books I wish everyone would read and I have no doubt it will play a role in humanity’s future. Wish I could meet Mr. Booker and thank him for what must have been an incomprehensible amount of work in bringing us this insight.

Magnificent!

Interesting form, great insights on development trends, wise observations and bright, strong humor make this book absolutely fascinating. Thank you!

Absolutely love

I like patterns, and this book is full of the patterns of our literature. Especially liked learning about hamlet and the epic of Gilgamesh. Neat. Easy listen.

Put in the work and it is worth it!

I have read many of the books he discusses. As a non-literary scholar who is just now learning it’s ok to read the same book multiple times, this book provides a framework for thinking about the stories famous and personal we tell. It is long but worth the time if you are always asking yourself after reading the classics, why?!

Worth reading but ...

"Everyone is an hero in his/her book.” With this in mind, I would have given a four-star, but was only taken back by the last few chapters' narrow political views.

Insightful but too long

I did enjoy the book but it went on and on and on and on. It could have been jut as effective if they had been more proficient in editing it down.

Excellent!

Fantastic and brilliant. Content you won't find elsewhere. I enjoyed the narrator and thought he did an excellent job of bringing this wonderful book to life. Highly recommended.

an interesting, if not too thorough diesection of plot.

the first 7 chapters were interesting. after that I really didn't need any more complete breakdowns of the plots of well known stories. especially not ones that had already been discussed. how many times does one think they can handle listening to the cliff notes on Cinderella? I don't know but I lost count and finally gave up on the listen after around thirty hours. this is the first audio book I didn't finish. the author could have really used a good editor.

Some interesting ideas but flawed analysis

The first part of the book (wherein the “7 plots” are discussed) was interesting. However, the book then goes into a very long winded discussion of what has “gone wrong” with storytelling over the past 200 years. The headline is that humans have become more ego centric and have (in his telling) explored storylines that depart from the classic “7 plots” in ways that reveal how many of their authors are unable to “grow up” - and usually have some disfuncional relationship with their mothers.

The historical analysis of this is flawed to say the least. Not least because the author has many examples of stories from the past 200 years that actually do fit the “primordial archetypes”. His casual dismissal of the movements for women’s suffrage, civil rights, and the end of colonialism as somehow emblematic of the age of egocentricity are downright appalling.

Also, this book should’ve been about 1/3 as long as it was.