Stories and literature

Browse story summaries, literary works and mythology. Each article identifies its source or version where available.

Stories and myths

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - changing size, access, direction and word play
• The Pilgrim's Progress - burdens, paths and gates in Bunyan's Christian allegory
• The Odyssey - voyages, restraint, homecoming and recognition
• Pied Piper
• The Sleeping Beauty
• Beowulf
• St George and The Dragon
• Beauty and The Beast
• Peter Pan
• Mahabharata
• Theseus and the Minotaur
• Sisyphus
• Rapunzel
• Hansel and Gretel
• Bluebeard
• The Company of Wolves
• Paperhouse
• Moby Dick
• Frankenstein
• Dracula
• Faust and The Deal with The Devil
• The Golem

Collections

• The Canterbury Tales - an introduction and links to the individual tales

Cultural patterns and related reading

• The Muse
• Scapegoat
• Apocalypse
• Babies in Baskets Floating Down Rivers
• Pachisi
• The Ontological Argument
• The Egyptian Archetypes in The Wizard of Oz
• Chess
• Atlantis

Reading and interpretation

• Narrative and Interpretation - narrator, audience, the order of disclosure and different ways of reading character
• Metaphor in Literature and Creativity - figurative language in context and research on readers' responses
• The Hero's Journey - a comparative framework and its limits
• Metaphor Research Library - free books, research and historical texts

Campbell and comparative mythology

• Myth as Metaphor: Joseph Campbell's Approach
• Joseph Campbell's Four Functions of Myth
• Comparative Mythology: Methods, Evidence and Limitations
• Rites of Passage, Liminality and Thresholds
• Descent into the Underworld
• Death and Renewal in Myth and Metaphor
• The Trickster: Boundaries, Reversals and Disruption

Campbell stories and images

Start with Joseph Campbell: Reading and Listening Guide for the complete collection and its primary sources.

• The Grail Quest and the Wasteland
• Dragons, Treasure and the Thou Shalt
• The Tiger Raised by Goats
• Indra and the Parade of Ants
• Love, Marriage and Sacred Union
• The Goddess in Joseph Campbell's Interpretation of Myth
• Sacrifice, Surrender and Transformation
• Serpents in Myth: Renewal, Knowledge and Danger

Literary and personal interpretation

• Metaphor in Poetry: Close Reading and Interpretation
• Numbers, Pattern and Symbolism in Literature
• Dreams, Metaphor and Interpretation
• Metaphor and Personal Narratives

Browse further

Subject index | People and authors | All stories and literature