The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Joseph Campbell read myths, legends, and religious stories from across the world and argued that beneath their surface they share one underlying pattern. He called it the hero's journey, or the monomyth: a hero leaves the ordinary world, faces trials and a decisive crisis, and returns transformed with something to share. Campbell draws on Greek myth, the Buddha, Indigenous legends, and more to trace this shape, and connects it to the inner work of becoming a fuller person. The book later shaped storytellers from George Lucas onward. Ray Dalio names it among the three books he would give every graduating student.
What you might want to know about The Hero with a Thousand Faces
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Joseph Campbell's study of world myth, which finds a single recurring story, the hero's journey, behind legends from every culture.
It is Joseph Campbell's name for the recurring story pattern he found across world myths, in which a hero leaves home, faces trials, and returns changed. He also called it the monomyth.
Yes. George Lucas has credited Joseph Campbell's work, including this book, as an influence on the structure of Star Wars.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces was written by Joseph Campbell, published in 1949 by New World Library.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces is 432 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Hero with a Thousand Faces takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.