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The Hero with a Thousand Faces (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)

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The Hero with a Thousand Faces (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) Hardcover – July 28, 2008

by Joseph Campbell (Author)

4.7 6,471 ratings

Part of: The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell (18 books)

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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 these pages, 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 part of the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, this third edition features expanded illustrations, a comprehensive bibliography, and more accessible sidebars.

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 artistsincluding authors, songwriters, game designers, and filmmakersand continues to inspire all those interested in the inherent human need to tell stories.

Part of series

The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell
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432 pages
Language

English
Publisher

New World Library
Publication date

July 28, 2008
Dimensions

6 x 1 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

1577315936
ISBN-13

978-1577315933
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This book is about the universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world's mythic traditions.
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The hero, therefore, is the man or woman who has been able to battle past his personal and local historical limitations to the generally valid, normally human forms.
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It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those constant human fantasies that tend to tie it back.
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It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into the human cultural manifestation.
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From the Publisher


	GODDESSES	PATHWAYS TO BLISS	THE HERO’S JOURNEY	THE ECSTASY OF BEING	MYTH AND MEANING

Customer Reviews	431	549	1,147	63	8
Price	$14.99	$12.98	$27.44	$16.59	$21.82
The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell	Traces the evolution of the Feminine Divine from one Great Goddess to many.	Shows how myth can help each of us truly identify and follow our bliss.	Reveals and illuminates Campbell’s personal and intellectual journey.	Campbell’s writings on dance and art.	A wide-ranging collection of insights from Joseph Campbell

Editorial Reviews

Review

I have returned to no other book more often since leaving college than this one, and every time I discover new insight into the human journey. Every generation will find in Hero wisdom for the ages.”
Bill Moyers

In the three decades since I discovered The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it has continued to fascinate and inspire me. Joseph Campbell peers through centuries and shows us that we are all connected by a basic need to hear stories and understand ourselves. As a book, it is wonderful to read; as illumination into the human condition, it is a revelation.”
George Lucas

Campbell’s words carry extraordinary weight, not only among scholars but among a wide range of other people who find his search down mythological pathways relevant to their lives today....The book for which he is most famous, The Hero with a Thousand Faces [is] a brilliant examination, through ancient hero myths, of man’s eternal struggle for identity.”
Time

In the long run, the most influential book of the twentieth century may turn out to be Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces.”
Christopher Vogler

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ New World Library; Third edition (July 28, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1577315936
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1577315933
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Medical Psychoanalysis
- #4 in Popular Psychology Psychoanalysis
- #7 in Folklore & Mythology Studies

Customer Reviews:
4.7 6,471 ratings

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Joseph Campbell

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Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood he became interested in mythology. He loved to read books about American Indian cultures, and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was fascinated by the museum's collection of totem poles. Campbell was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich. While abroad he was influenced by the art of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. These encounters led to Campbell's theory that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.

After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, and then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 40s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He also edited works by the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer on Indian art, myths, and philosophy. In 1944, with Henry Morton Robinson, Campbell published A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. His first original work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came out in 1949 and was immediately well received; in time, it became acclaimed as a classic. In this study of the "myth of the hero," Campbell asserted that there is a single pattern of heroic journey and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. In his book he also outlined the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero's journey.

Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Joseph Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, introduced Campbell's views to millions of people.

For more on Joseph Campbell and his work, visit the web site of Joseph Campbell Foundation at JCF.org.

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Manuel Alejandro Crespo Rodríguez

An excellent book on the hero's jourrney.

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2019

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This classic work of Joseph Campbell deals with two ideas: the monomyth and the cosmogonic cycle. The monomyth (also known as the hero’s journey) is a mythological archetypal story found around the world. Campbell’s at-the-time novel work systemizes the understanding of the monomyth. According to him, the monomyth has three major rites of passage: separation, initiation and return. Under these rites of passage Campbell develops his systematization of mythic understanding. Under the part of separation are five themes: (1) The Call to Adventure, (2) Refusal of the Call, (3) Supernatural Aid, (4) The Crossing of the First Threshold, and (5) The Belly of the Whale. Under initiation are six themes: (1) The Road to Trials, (2) The Meeting with the Goddess, (3) Woman as the Temptress, (4) Atonement with the Father, (5) Apotheosis, and (6) The Ultimate Boon. Under the part of return are also six themes: (1) Refusal of the Return, (2) The Magic Flight, (3) Rescue from Without, (4) The Crossing of the Return Threshold, (5) Master of the Two Worlds, and (6) Freedom to Live.

According to Campbell, myths shouldn’t be understood as scientific of historical thought, for it renders the story from its deeper interpretations and understanding. Using his systematization of the monomyth we can look at old myths in a new light. The author uses the scientific research of noted scholars such as Sigmund Freud, Carl G. Jung, Wilhelm Stekel, Otto Rank, Karl Abraham and Géza Róheim. His arguments are wisely and adamantly placed, making it impossible to refute his scholarly research as mere superstition.

The book, although it provides explanations to well known myths, is of intermediate difficulty to read. It isn’t lengthy as James Frazer’s work (and doesn’t even give exhaustible examples of myths) but his argumentation and connection of different themes, motifs and archetypes between stories with eons between is difficult to grasp at first. Even when Campbell is exclusively describing a part of the hero’s journey, all the mythological themes are connected, and therefore it is important to keep in mind all the aspects of the journey at once. His perspective isn’t orthodox in nature, so you will find similarities between characters of various myths, such as Buddha and Jesus. The other part of his analysis is the cosmogonic cycle. In there he polishes is thesis developed in the monomyth part, focused in the understanding of the cycles of death and rebirth.

The book contains endnotes, footnotes, an index and a bibliography divided in four parts: his main bibliography, editions of sacred texts he cited, journals and works he cited without information on edition. It is well written and maintains the thesis it puts forth at the introduction. It is a highly recommended book for those interested in story and myth. Those who read Mircea Eliade, James Frazer or Carl G. Jung will find it in their interest to dig into this book.

14 people found this helpful

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Jeremy David Stevens

The Karate Kid and The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2018

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All the way back in 1949, Joseph Campbell wrote a book titled The Hero With a Thousand Faces. The book contains hundreds of examples of stories from a wide range of mythology, including those from Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Native American, and Greek (and countless other) canons.

Campbell identifies similarities in style as well as structure between the great adventure stories/mythologies throughout human history. Famously, he determines specific characteristics about the hero and his or her journey, hence the term (coined by Campbell) familiar to readers and writers alike, The Hero’s Journey. In effect, there is a very specific set of rules governing what makes a great story. And just in case I wasn’t certain of the extent of Campbell’s research, the book contains over forty pages of endnotes and other references. The man put in the research time.

Reading The Hero With a Thousand Faces came at the perfect time for me. I’d heard of it and seen it recommended to me on Amazon for quite some time, but I never took the time to actually read it. Actually, I “Wikipedia’d” it a few times, but that was the extent of that. But in finally reading the book, Campbell has helped me understand much better some of the ideas that I’ve been working out in my weekly “Books of the Bible” review posts. If you’ve read any of my recent Bible book reviews, you’ll immediately recognize that Campbell has already clearly written what I’m still trying to figure out for myself. For example:

“For the symbols of mythology are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented or permanently suppressed. They are spontaneous productions of the psyche…”

Powerful stuff.

Here are the rules governing the first great stage of the adventure story (some of it is paraphrased in my own words):

The Call to Adventure
Initial Refusal to Heed the Call
Supernatural Aid/Mentor/“Old Man” (Old man is a direct quote from Campbell.)
Crossing the First Threshold
Belly of the Whale (The Point When the Hero’s Death/Ultimate Failure seems Certain)

Truly, Exodus would have been the perfect story to compare with Campbell’s ruleset, but I just wrote a review of Exodus last week, so I wanted to do something different. The Karate Kid might just might be the most perfect modern example of them all (and one of my favorite movies). So I thought it might be interesting to see just how closely the writers of this movie follow Campbell’s rules.

Young New Jersey native Daniel is called to the great land of adventure (California) by his mother. He hates it there (his initial macro-reluctance to heed the call) and would like nothing more than to move back home. The only saving grace (besides a pretty girl) is a mentor (Mr. Myagi) that he meets when he arrives. After getting into some trouble with the local bullies, Daniel’s mentor signs him up for a karate tournament. Daniel is mortified and has no faith in his ability to survive a karate tournament like that (Micro-reluctance to Heed the Call), “I cannot believe… what you got me into back there!”

But Daniel does as his mentor says and enters the tournament anyway (Crossing the First Threshold), where he manages to make it to the semifinals, further than he ever dreamed, before even hitting a snag. When he gets there, young bully Bobby cheats in a most despicable manner, kicking Daniel directly in the knee, damaging Daniel’s body seemingly beyond repair (into the Belly of the Whale, i.e., Daniel’s ultimate defeat seems certain). But just as soon as all hope is lost, Daniel’s mentor heals his leg through supernatural methods and Daniel comes back to win the tournament, his dignity, and the girl. Indeed, it’s a Hero’s Journey almost worthy of Moses.

Note: There are other rules and further stages to the story that I haven’t included in this short review, but it seems to me that these are certainly the essential components to the modern story. Maybe some other time, I can write about the further stages and which stories they apply to (Lord of the Rings comes to mind).

My final say on this book is as follows: If you’re a student of religion, mythology or philosophy, or if you are a writer (whether of music, poetry, or fiction), read this book. It contains a lot of good information.

256 people found this helpful

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anthony pape

The best book I've ever read.

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2022

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This book is fascinating both in it's claims, assertions, and observations that all religions and mythology are the same story. From people that have never met due to space or time. And that they are not to be regarded as history books but as psychology books that represented what we were most concened with then. Not that religion is true (I think Campbell was an Aethiest) but how has religion served mankind? How can it serve us today? I also like how he says it basically can't. The scientific method and large state powers have shattered it. It's taught today basically as lies. But Campbell then also offers some clues as to what the next great hero, savior, or religion is up against. Also this guys vocabulary is crazy and you may have to stop to read about some side story he mentions like everyone has read that. But I really love it because I always feel like I'm on the brink of figuring something out. About the meaning of life, and it just slips away, But the book has that feel to it.

10 people found this helpful

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Eric D.

Old style language

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2024

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Hard to read because it's an older book, but it's what it's supposed to be. The fault was actually mine

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APRIL SECORD

Great book!

Reviewed in Canada on May 29, 2024

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This was a used version and it is in great condition. Any marks were described upfront and the book came quicker than expected. Great seller! And Great Book!

Patrícia da Silva Porto

Para quem gosta e se interessa por mitologia

Reviewed in Brazil on March 25, 2024

Verified Purchase

O livro é interessantíssimo. Comprei esta edição em inglês porque a edição em português que li, da Editora Pensamento, é muito ruim: papel branco, letra pequena e brochura que vai soltando, além de quase não ter ilustrações. Esta edição em inglês é caprichada.

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Aida

Libro maravilloso

Reviewed in Mexico on May 25, 2022

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El libro llegó perfecto, ya quería conseguirlo desde hace tiempo y al fin me animé.
El precio lo vale, es un libro indispensable para cualquier persona interesada en creación de personaje o historias.

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V-rock

Brilliant

Reviewed in India on January 28, 2024

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As all his works, this was just as brilliant a read as his Power Of Myth series

Pedro Paramo

Fast shipping and great quality!

Reviewed in the Netherlands on January 23, 2024

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Fast shipping and great quality.
Beyond worth it, a must have!

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