The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories By Christopher Booker
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. He examines the plots of films, opera libretti, folk
tales, myths 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.