Customer Reviews

The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil

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I just love this book. The story from which the book takes its title profoundly affected me the first time I read it: it is the story of an Indian king who has to take part in a quest.This turns out to be an unexpected and thoroughly comprehensive lesson in life and the king emerges from it as a new and wiser person. You will also feel different after reading it. All the stories related in this book are incredibly old but can still connect with the deepest part of our souls. A book to reread.

In the tradition of Johann Jacob Bachhofen and in league with those such as Joseph Campbell, Heinrich Zimmer"s "The King and The Corpse" gets about as good as you will find with respect to comparative mythology. I highly recommend any Jung readers to visit Zimmer's brilliant pages. I also find the melding of Western and Eastern myth systems to be superb. Here is an adventurous path to follow.

In the tradition of Johann Jacob Bachhofen and in league with those such as Joseph Campbell, Heinrich Zimmer"s "The King and The Corpse" gets about as good as you will find with respect to comparative mythology. I highly recommend any Jung readers to visit Zimmer's brilliant pages. I also find the melding of Western and Eastern myth systems to be superb. Here is an adventurous path to follow.

Indologist Heinrich Zimmer provides an easy to comprehend text taking four time-out-of-mind-myths and relating them to the esoteric "grail" path! It makes an excellent study for the seeker/student who would wish to follow Wolfgang Von Eckenback's "I learned my ABC's without the use of black magic".

In this writers opinion very few scholars have been suited to blend eastern thought processess into western concepts. Zimmer adeptly crosses this void as if stepping over a puddle of water, making "The King and The Corpse" highly informative and a joy of the heart to ponder.

If you are a seeker on any esoteric path you will find yourself and your 'map' within it's cover.

Shri Rajeshwari Pujari Maharaja

I bought this book because Wally Lamb has said it is the one he returns to when he is seeking inspiration. Lamb even credits this book, along with Vermont College's estimable Gladys Swann, for making him a teller-of-tales. If you are a fan of Joseph Campbell, this book is for you. If, like me, you find Campbell just a bit over-syncretic, still, this thoughtful anthology will not disappoint.
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Zimmer and Campbell are two of the finest comparative mythologists in print. This book, edited by Campbell from notes and articles written by Zimmer, provides a great overview on the symbology and mythology of tranformation, the soul, and purgation. The book, a series of myths and legends with observations and commentary by Zimmer, covers the landscape of both Eastern (Indian & Arab) as well as Western (Arthurian) myth - and discusses the parallels of each. Well worth the read, and a must have in any collection.

I usually don't read mythology books straight through, rather use them as reference. As such this book is easy to use. With Joseph Campbell as the editor I feel assured that it is a good rendition of the myths. I found it relevant to specific images I wanted to learn about. Excellent addition to my "images" library.