The Hero with a Thousand Faces cover art

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

By: Joseph Campbell
Narrated by: Arthur Morey, John Lee, Susan Denaker
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £22.99

Buy Now for £22.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

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.
Customs & Traditions Movements & Methodologies Social Psychology & Interactions Sociology Inspiring Funny Ancient History Classics Hinduism Comparative Mythology
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Broken Money cover art
Primitive Mythology cover art
A Classical Education cover art
The Promise of Kuan Yin cover art
The Seven Basic Plots cover art
Psychology of the Unconscious cover art
The History of the Ancient World cover art
Uncovering World Mythology: The Ultimate Collection (5 Books in 1) cover art
Maps of Meaning cover art
The Hero's 2 Journeys cover art
Sensing the Rhythm cover art
The Golden Bough cover art
Mythology cover art
Story or Die cover art
Brave New World cover art
Hermetic Philosophy and Creative Alchemy cover art

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

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    252
  • 4 Stars
    105
  • 3 Stars
    77
  • 2 Stars
    27
  • 1 Stars
    24
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    208
  • 4 Stars
    80
  • 3 Stars
    67
  • 2 Stars
    31
  • 1 Stars
    18
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    225
  • 4 Stars
    89
  • 3 Stars
    45
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    26

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Epic read/listen

Extremely well structured and well read. The depth in which the author goes into each topic is quite ever powering at times, which I see as a good thing. It definitely deserves a second and dare I say a third listen, especially for a man like like myself, not so well versed in the mythology and phycoligy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very Interesting

Can't wait to listen to it again. So much interesting information. Very intriguing comparisons.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Dry delivery

I had previously read this book years ago as part of a scriptwriting degree, and a return to it in audio book form has been an interesting experience.The delivery of the reading was quite dry in places, though fortunately they do have other people in to read certain stories which does break up the otherwise monotonous tone.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great exploration of Hero Myths.

This was a great esoteric and philosophic exploration of Hero Mythology. I enjoyed the breadth of quotes from various cultural and interpretive sources and the change in voice for clarity and emphasis

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Glad I persevered but hard-going.

Took blogger/podcaster Tim Ferriss' recommendation on this one and like always, he comes up with good shouts. My three star scoring though is based on the structural organisation of this book and the plethora of myths discussed. Whilst Campbell threads ideas together through themes common to all hero myths/stories at times it felt disjointed. I would have resonated more with an order based on chronology or geography with each of the similarities between the heroes/myths/stories discussed in that context.
Still Campbell's body of work is superb in it's breadth and extremely interesting for anyone interested in human history/RE/myths and what it means to be human searching to understand the divine through the stories of our individual and collective cultures.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

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!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

36 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely superb and more relevant now than ever!

A book every child should read early in life to prevent disconnection from the soul.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful