The Seven Basic Plots

Introduction and Historical Note; Part One: The Seven Gateways to the Underworld; Part Two: The Complete Happy Ending; Part Three: Missing the Mark; Part Four: Why We Tell Stories; Epilogue.

Booker, Christopher
Christopher Booker writes for the Sunday Telegraph and is the bestselling author of The Seven Basic Plots, a hugely popular analysis of why we tell stories. Other books include The Real Global Warming Disaster, The Great Deception and Scared to Death (all published by Bloomsbury Continuum). He has been an author and journalist for nearly 50 years, and was the founding editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye.

"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, FT Christopher Booker's mammoth account of plot types, archetypes, their role in literary history and where Western culture has gone horribly wrong. Times Literary Supplement His prose is a model of clarity, and his lively enthusiasm for fictions of every description is infectious... The Seven Basic Plots is nevertheless one of the most diverting works on storytelling I've ever encountered. Dennis Dutton, The Washington Post This is the most extraordinary, exhilarating book. 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. 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 This is a truly important book, an accolade often bestowed and rarely deserved in our modern age. Dame Beryl Bainbridge"