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The Hero with a Thousand Faces cover art

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

By: Joseph Campbell
Narrated by: Arthur Morey, John Lee, Susan Denaker
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Summary

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 this book, 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 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 artists - including authors, songwriters, game designers, and filmmakers - and continues to inspire all those interested in the inherent human need to tell stories.

©2008 The Joseph Campbell Foundation (jcf.org). Third edition (with revisions) / 1968 by Princeton University Press. Second edition (with revisions) / 1949 by Bollingen Foundation and published by Pantheon Books. (Original edition), year 2008 (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Arthur Morey, John Lee, and Susan Denaker are an adept and experienced performance team. The way they trade voices adds texture to the complex compendium of stories." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about The Hero with a Thousand Faces

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  • Overall
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    1 out of 5 stars

A triumph of over generalisation and reductionism

I've got half way through this and am returning it. I am obviously aware that this work is treated with great reverence (it was allegedly an inspiration for Star Wars after all!).

I'm afraid that I just find it a triumph of over generalisation and reductionism. Campbell knits together the worlds mythologies and the stories therein are interesting and pleasant to listen to; it is the connecting material that is sadly lacking.

For Campbell, it seems, mythology and religion are to be conflated. The difference is that the former is directed at a local audience whereas the latter is a mythology for everyone.

After making this dodgy reductionist move the field is open for Campbell to further reduce and over generalise everything he can find to fit into a single monomyth about the hero.

The superficial similarities of many stories worldwide is further to be analysed in terms of rights of passage, Freudian and Jungian themes. This type of psychoanalytic analysis (something that I am not amenable to) dates the book.

What really had me choking on my cornflakes however was the chapter on Buddhism. Not withstanding some questionable translations, Campbell grossly mischaracterises it, trots out the Heart Sutra as if he has the first clue what it means (I think we can safely conclude that he has not himself transcended subject-object duality), and then proceeds to conflate every duality he can lay his hands on. It's utterly meaningless garbage.

Enough was enough for me at this point. It is great that Audible allows you to return books.

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88 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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Narration problems

I’m not sure who decided on this narrator but he’s not well suited to this type of writing! I can imagine he’d be good narrating a thriller, not something of academic significance. It’s off putting, and the footnotes supplied by additional voices is also confusing to listen to. The whole thing only becomes clear when I’ve got the book on hand, as it can otherwise seem like a lot of semi coherent rambling and non-sequiturs. The overwhelming sense I get while listening to this is that the narrator is just speaking words and has no idea what any of them mean.

The book itself is a classic!

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36 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Awful narration

Dreadful. Narrator repeatedly changes throughout the recording for no apparent reason, disrupting the tone and making it near impossible to focus on the content. Audio level is inconsistent. Does not do any justice to Campbell’s work. Avoid.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Confusing performance

Right to the end, I failed to understand the logic of who was narrating what.

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16 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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I think I am going to need to listen again...

This book has inspired works and research that I admire, that's why I decided to listed to it.

It's written in a language that is a little inaccessible (perhaps because it's older).

The different narrators are good in of themselves but the devision between them confuses me. What I mean is that it is not intuitively clear to me why one voice is narrating at any specific point.

I gave it the rating I did because although it confused me a little I think that a second listen might clarify the message in the work. It may be that this text needs to be read with a purpose as opposed to an 'easy' listening book.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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Great content. Depressing Narration.

The narrator sounded bored with life.

The overarching thesis that the human psyche is the same across cultures and can be analogized in the myths and legends that have persisted in these different places and times should inspire life not drudgery.

I'm referring to the main narrator. Somehow the others were much better. They had pep.

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13 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Great audiobook

I loved it but please learn how to pronounce Oisin. Was painful to hear it pronounced so poorly. Actually all the Irish is pronounced terribly.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

fluff

Reads like the Bible. Too vague and pretentious, maybe the author should have written fiction instead.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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As Inspiring as it is Instructive

I made tons of notes about the common themes of Campbell's 'mono-myth' running through much of the world's cultures. These all lend to a sense of clarity in how to frame my stories, interpret other's, and apply the deep insights of mythology to my life.

But this book was also uplifting. Campbell didn't shy from preaching the great lessons of our heroes to encourage us to be the best we can. And it's effective.

Written in the Forties, the book pours uncomfortable credit on the psychoanalysts, with what I think modern psychologists would consider to be somewhat archaic theories. But this is soon stitched more subtly into the fabric of what I found in the end to be a powerful and timeless read.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant! super informative and expertly narrated

loved it- wonderful narration and beautiful context and content. very educational, entertaining and intellectually comprehensive.

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4 people found this helpful