Customer Reviews

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Consider for a minute, every movie that has ever touched your heart, every story that still moves you, or every hero/heroine that has inspired you. Every bit of magic in the world of story telling that you could not define or articulate. This is the logic behind it. And the logic in itself, is magical.

This book makes every goosebump make sense. It will make you smile in recognition or gasp at the recall, and all in all, you see how the hero's journey is not just applicable to a Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker, but to your own life . This is not for people who are looking to be spoonfed, or who like their knowledge with a big dose of fun and excitement. Yes, it is pedantic, and it is long winded, but if you are patient, and do not require special effects to understand transformation of the spirit, this book will find a permanent place in your book shelf and you will feel rejuvenated everytime you read it.

This book is accessible to any reader because it is so well-written; not because it lacks intellectual credibility. Notice the previous reviewer made no reference to the ideas or arguments presented in the book; but instead chose to associate Campbell's work with popular science fiction in an obvious attempt to make the people who enjoy the book look stupid. Based on the content of the review, this reviewer has more experience with science fiction than with "mythography". My guess is that the reviewer has not read the book. Seems like the anonymous reviewer wanted to look and feel smarter than the audience who is inspired by Campbell's work, but wasn't sure enough about their remarks to leave a name.

Three quotes for the genius from NYC:

"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree."

"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

Albert Einstein

Get it?

I enjoyed reading his book. I recommend this book to who ever enjoys reading. I also recommend this book to people who do not enjoy reading, if you want to start a book start with this one.

Joseph Campbell was undoubtedly one of the most influential mythologists of the twentieth century. This, his crowning achievement, celebrates the nature of myth, and in particular the nature of the mythological hero. Drawing from sources all over the globe, from primitive stories to complex pantheistic mythologies, and including many religions still extant today, such as Christianity and Buddhism, Campbell explains the archetypal elements of the hero myth, the different forms of the heroic quest, and the purpose of the hero's life work.

Campbell's work is important because of its attempt to resurrect myth--in other words, to restore its credibility in a technological society where science rules all--and to show the important function which myth can play, even in a society as complex as ours. He argues that "whenever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed" (in Chapter IV of part one, "the keys"). In other words, myth should not be viewed literally, but rather allegorically for the lesson it can teach. Furthermore, Campbell argues that truth manifests itself in many different forms, ranging from a simple fairy-tale to a complex Egyptian ritual. For Campbell, the purpose of myth is to rise above the limits set by science and reasoning, and to provide mankind with a metaphysical form of fulfillment not attainable through modern technology.

Campbell's analysis of the various parts of the hero myth is very enlightening. There are shortcomings, of course (as there necessarily must be), and the archetypes he defines are not universal in nature. Still, he does a remarkable job of showing how myths from all parts of the globe often create essentially the same hero, albeit in different forms and with different attributes dependent on local customs. My only complaint with this book is that I believe Campbell takes the parallels of psychoanalysis and myth too far, especially in Part One of the book. His argument is made good by the many examples of similar myths from distinct parts of the globe, and the use of modern dreams as examples does only little to strengthen this hypothesis.

I believe this work is a necessary part of any study of mythology. It may be dated, true, but that does not entirely discredit it as a strong analysis of the universal hero. I certainly do not regard this work as authoritative on the subject of myth, but I do think Campbell's argument is one worth considering.

I began to read Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" without stopping and I could not put it down. It is a very intriguing and easy to read book, and I would strongly recommend this book to the general readers.

In this book, Campbell brought forth in a very insightful way about the journey of the 'archetypal hero' who can be found in almost all the mythologies and religions of every country. This is interesting for I never seen it before. The author has done so with a careful study of these mythologies, legends, and religions.

There was a mention of "Dark Night of the Soul" in this book, which I think is important for me personally. The fact that I have a journey and this book speak of great volume for me. Each of us has a road of trials, challenges and obstacles to face. But, not everyone has a destiny. There are many in our world who refuses to know one's own "dark night of the soul," who refuses to heed one's calling, and who desires to be 'safe' and 'asleep.' These people are ignorant of the fact that they are slaves to their own temptations and to the will of the psychopaths in power.

This book is one of the most important books. And, if you are a truth seeker, this is a book for you.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces is the work that first introduced me to Joseph Campbell. It was then and continues to be one of my favorite books of all time. Each time I read this valuable resource, I uncover another layer of usefulness. This time, I was specifically looking at how the cycle of the Hero's Journey directly related to the cycle of healing.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces presents Campbell's Hero's Journey. By looking at mythology worldwide, he noticed some very significant similarities in the journeys taken by the hero or heroine of these stories, hence the cycle. In this work, Campbell presents a number of snippets from different myths showing that indeed such a pattern exists. Indeed, it is a template still used by the best pieces of fiction and some of the most memorable movies.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces is a must have for anyone the least bit interested in mythology as well as every psychologist, writer, and healer on the planet. This is one of those books that quickly becomes dog-eared with consistent reuse.

The premise of this book is amazing. Pulling from a wide selection of ancient world myths, Campbell identifies features common to the Hero, like the Virgin Birth, the Call to Adventure, Crossing the Threshold, Trials, and the Return. If this stuff seems obvious now, it's only because Campbell's book has been so influential.

Parts of the book are great. "Once having traversed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials." Doesn't that make you want to read more? Campbell is at his best when he is talking about the journey of the hero. But he tries to do a lot more than that in this book.

First, he gives too many examples. A few examples are helpful; a lot of examples obfuscate, rather than illuminate, the subject. I wish he had said more and shown less.

Second, when Campbell shifts focus off the hero, the book loses steam. The chapters dealing with the "Cosmogonic Cycle," where the mythology of the universe is covered, just don't fit in here.

I recommend this book. If you have the patience to sift through its dirt, you will find some gold.

I purchased this book as a reference for a term paper I was doing for a literature class. The book was extremely interesting and thought-provoking and helped me to better understand the role of a "hero" in today's society. Though at times a little hard to comprehend because I am not used to reading such "deep" material, the book was really informative and I encourage others to read this book and others by Joseph Campbell - a brilliant author and mythologist - who understands the role a hero a lot better than myself or Hollywood screenwriters could ever hope to.

I like the overall concept behind _The Hero With a Thousand Faces_, as I am a huge advocate of using a historical/anthropological/mythological approach to solving the mystery of Man's intelligent existence. To its credit, this book was somewhat ahead of its time. The main wave of mythical-anthpological books came either concurrently or later with authors such as Carl Jung, Claude Levi-Strauss, and Alan Watts. Although the aforementioned authors were similar to Joseph Cambell and carried on in his tradition, they all proved to be superior to Campbell in most respects. _The Hero..._ is a decent book within a fascinating genre, but it is marred by an overly-verbose writing style. Campbell often uses flowery descriptive language that would be more appropriate in some kind of cheesy romance novel, and his sentences are festooned with unnecessary adjectives and adverbs to the point of absurdity. It is as if he was suffering from delusions of grandeur when he was writing _The Hero..._, and attempted to infuse it with a melodramatic and emotional tone. Sometimes he succeeds in utilizing a beautiful and ornately descriptive style, but for the most part the fancy descriptiveness detracts from the book. This book would have been better if the style were more dry and sober, and less romantically emotive. This is not a bad book, but you might be better served reading something by the other authors I mentioned above.

If you want to get an understanding of what would happen if you crossed mythology with Freud and Jung's subconscious then this is the book to get. Joseph Campbell takes an in-depth view of mythology and claims that it is really just composed of products of the subconscious. He backs his claim up with many stories from such well known religious stories such as the bet about Job to myths told by the Eskimos. You do not have to believe what he is telling you, but his points are very intriguing ones to think about. This is some pretty heavy stuff, definitely not meant for a light read, but if you have a basic idea of Freud then you will be able to take that knowledge and expand it into the realm of mythology quite easily. You may yet discover that there is still new and intriguing stuff to learn about.