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Summary: Incredible book for serious writers, artists or even lawyers
Review: Reading Joseph Campbell books is like.... First you walk out into a clear desert night, a cloudless sky above, and you see many stars. There are the patterns of stars described by the zodiac signs, but those patterns are haphazard, jerky, and "not real." Those are the patterns people strain to create from apparent chaos because they do not have the tools to see deeper into space. They do not have the tools to see the Real patterns. But there are those people who do have the tools, and one such implement is the telescope. The better the telescope, and the more you learn where to look, the better you see the patterns. You see entire galaxies, binary stars, and those exploding. There are black holes. Life and death throughout the universe, and there are repeated themes everywhere you look. Only the details change. You may not understand the archetypical galaxies, or how they dance together in some great symphony that physicists are forever struggling to describe, but the fact that there ARE patterns is obvious. The rules apparently don't change, just the details in how they are expressed. This is nothing new, and it is certainly not a revelation that patterns occur, too, within us. Perhaps myths are like internal galaxies, swirling about within us by certain rules, and then there is "that uncertainty thing" that we hope might translate into free will. Well, this review seems a bit galactic itself, and perhaps a bit out there, but Joseph Campbell, with this book, has provided a telescope that points to certain galaxies within each person and population, galaxies which reverberate throughout humankind past, present, and future. And though Campbell helps us see these galaxies, there obviously remains much to be explained. One of the interesting things about the act of peering through a telescope is in knowing that other people have looked, or will look, through the same apparatus. Will they see what you see? How will others interpret messages delivered by photons that zip through space into their curious eyes? Recently I read a book called "Danger Close" by Mike Yon. It is the true story of an American soldier who was charged with murder in Maryland. Throughout the book I noticed themes, patterns and so forth. At times it seemed as though the author were winking at a small (a very small) section of the readership. The author seemed to allude to Joseph Campbell and his discoveries. In the final hilarious chapter of Danger Close, the future soldier, then a teenager in a Florida high school uttered, "sat chit ananda" to his raging school principal. And that was when I knew the author had studied his art beyond the writing of a single true sentence; he said so clearly to those few who could read the signs. The author had peered through the telescope created by Joseph Campbell, had seen the galaxies swirling, and had applied the principles of Creative Mythology to a true story, and perhaps that is why "Danger Close" is categorized as "creative nonfiction." The book, or rather the author, even won the very prestigious William A. Gurley award for application of scholarship. I have also noticed that a certain lawyer, a man who wins his cases without fail, sub fuses mythology in his winning arguments. The lawyer uses symbolism and the structure of myth tirelessly, presenting contemporary cases as if they were epic drama. Some of these stories, when presented to juries, have returned verdicts worth tens of millions of dollars. THAT is an example of the power of "applied myth." "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" is a "must read," a part of the training, for any serious writer, artist, or anyone who wishes to reach people on a basic level, or to better understand some of the powerful galaxies swirling within us.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Book
Review: This book was unlike anything I've ever read - profound and wonderful
Rating:
Summary: One of the Most Important Books Ever Written
Review: Despite what several other reviewers here have said, Campbell's style is vibrant and compelling. This is a fun and weighty read. It will change how you look at everything you have read and everything you will read.
Rating:
Summary: difficult yet enriching
Review: Joseph Campbell is simply trying to teach those of us that are interested how to live a fulfilling, blissful life by remaining connected to our own mythologies.
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Summary: One of the most significant books of the 20th century
Review: This is an extraordinary text. What some of the other reviews suggest is that it is to be avoided if you think it will be an escapist treatise bridging the worlds of myth and fantasy. IF YOU EXPECT THIS TO BE LIKE STAR WARS DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. It is a journey to your own personal experience, as well as an exploration of the universal experience. It touches on our deepest fears and needs. It says much about our lives, our religions, and our civilisation. It is a sister text to Jung's autobiography. I found it gave me unique insights into my life, in all our heroic voyages, showing myth not to be the realm of fantasy, but of deep psychic truth. If this interests you read this, read Jung, and read The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, by Roberto Calasso.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant, rather boring book.
Review: When I picked this book up, I realized that it wasn't a beach book, and this was not leisure reading. Unfortunately, I don't have time for non-leisure reading. The stuff I read in this book is fascinating, and a must have for any writer of epic/sci-fi/fantasy fiction, but I took it out of the library, and just didn't have time for it. Also, it probably would take many readings to retain all the knowledge in this book. A good one to buy.
Rating: 
Summary: read this to become mired in the past of others
Review: A good book if you want to see how one might become mired in superstition in any of a dozen different cultures. Books like this stand in the way of human progress by summoning up excuses from the past that purport to 'explain' the trials of tribulations of our lives, rather than giving us true power to overcome our limitations. This book worships inferority and patheticness. It left a horrible feeling in my stomach.
Rating:
Summary: On the Way
Review: Thanks to Campbell and this book I have successfully identified myself as a Lover type, and am now living with it, accepting the spiritual fact of the matter, but more than that, I have discovered (as I trust Joseph Campbell is pleased with)that the Hero with a Thousand Faces, with practice, perseverence and patience (patience, most of all) becomes the hero with One face (following the edict: make yourself Oneness), and that one, solitary hero will not be solitary very long (hint, clue, whisper), for in this manner does one make conscious contact with Inner Figures (Jung), the Anima (in men) or Animus (in women), a man's "heroine," but deeper still (there is always more to be revealed on the Path), one's own Soul (James Hillman).
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Summary: Enlightening
Review: I just read this book,im in the ninth grade and this is truly an amzing book and I recommend it to anyone who can appreciate what Joseph Campbell is trying to teach you.
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Summary: Another Example of Joseph Campbell's Poor Scholarship
Review: There is a major problem with Joseph Campbell's works regarding mythology: his claim that there is an overarching mytheme that transcends cultures is demonstrably false. Joseph Campbell is very good at EDITING myths (for example Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) to make it fit HIS mystical beliefs. One would be better served by ordering tapes on mythology supplied by the Teaching Company. There is a good reason why Sarah Lawrence College refused to accept Joseph Campbell's papers for archival purpuses (and at varience with its policies): his work is regardaded as New Age garbage.
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