The Seven Basic Plots cover art

The Seven Basic Plots

Why We Tell Stories

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

About this listen

This remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of "basic stories" in the world. Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it reveals that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of storytelling.

But this is only the prelude to an investigation into how and why we are "programmed" to imagine stories in these ways, and how they relate to the inmost patterns of human psychology. Drawing on a vast array of examples, from Proust to detective stories, from the Marquis de Sade to E.T., Christopher Booker then leads us through the extraordinary changes in the nature of storytelling over the past 200 years, and why so many stories have "lost the plot" by losing touch with their underlying archetypal purpose.

Booker analyzes why evolution has given us the need to tell stories and illustrates how storytelling has provided a uniquely revealing mirror to mankind's psychological development over the past 5,000 years. This seminal book opens up in an entirely new way our understanding of the real purpose storytelling plays in our lives, and will be a talking point for years to come.

©2004 Christopher Booker (P)2019 Tantor Customs & Traditions Social Sciences Tradition
All stars
Most relevant
This is a fascinating examination of the archetypes behind stories and our need to consume them. I've tried to read this huge tome many times, but the sheer size of it had put me off. The material is great and well worth persevering.

The issue for me was that the reader mispronounces so many names and the titles of very well-known books or plays. It's weirdly off-putting as it undermines the authority of the reader. This is clearly the responsibility of the producers who made the recording, but, given it's such a mammoth listen and nobody will ever record it again couldn't they go back and re-record those bits?

Fascinating book, flawed recording

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you’re interested in the structural aspect of stories, this is a must-listen. Booker’s approach includes stories of every kind, and this therefore has a more accessible nature, which I think effectively highlights the structural foundations of the seven basic plots of the title. Very effective and compelling. The first large section of this book is focused on these and variants thereof. I found it riveting.
The next section deals with some case studies, which are interesting, and then dark inversions, which is essentially a variant of what’s come previously, but is also interesting.
The later sections are somewhat more meandering, a little less sharp and more conversational in tone, exploring politics and religion from the story point of view, and the more recent focus on sex and violence (which I personally found a bit much)
Booker is inclined to recapitulate the plots of stories rather than analysing them, which occasionally becomes a little tedious, but the overall detail and analysis makes up for this on the whole in my opinion.
Gerrard mostly does a good job, and on the day-to-day basis of the bulk of the narrative he is easy to listen to and well-paced. However, more unusual proper nouns he often either pronounces in a peculiar way, or mispronounces, occasionally gratingly. For me this was sporadically annoying but not enough to mar an otherwise decent performance of what is a very long audiobook with a sprawling subject-matter.

Story Structures Inspected, Mostly V Good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An incredible view of the stories that have been told and which have played out again and again in our history. It reveals the reason for archetypes, beliefs and biases. Well worth listening to the full 40 hours. Well done to Liam Gerrard for stunning reading.

A masterpiece about masterpieces, expertly read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Goes into detail from the very miniscule cornes of storytelling, to such grandiouse topics as communism.

Most advanced level view on storytelling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
it’s taken months of listening but is inescapably essential content for the craft of storytelling, worthwhile not least for the entertainment of the hundreds of summarised stories themselves. I am in awe of Mr Booker’s magnum opus, and will spend the rest of my career putting his thoughts into practice.

Stunning masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews