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Myth and Reality

Mircea Eliade (translated by Willard R. Trask)

An informative guide to the modern mythologies! This classic study, translated from the original French, deals primarily with societies around the world in which myth is—or was until very recently—“living,” in the sense that it supplies models for human behavior and, by that very fact, gives meaning and value to life. The author believes that understanding the structure and function of myths in these traditional societies serves to clarify a stage in the history of human thought: “myths reveal that the World, man, and life have a supernatural origin and history, and that this history is significant, precious, and exemplary.”
 

$18.95 list, 204 pages

10-digit ISBN: 1-57766-009-9

13-digit ISBN: 978-1-57766-009-5

© 1963

“This small book is an important addition to the growing literature on the nature and significance of myths. Professor Eliade’s erudition and analytical skills are here once more on display. His range of interest includes primitive Australians, ancient Egyptians, classical Greece and Rome, European Middle Ages, and the works of Picasso, James Joyce, Becket, and Ionesco . . . Here is a book that both the scholar and the lay person will find rich in meaning and thoroughly exciting.”  —Joseph Bram

“Eliade is the most informative guide to the modern mythologies. . . . He gives the whole subject a valuable and comprehensive new look. Though addressed to the nonspecialist, it carries a huge load of learned references and exhibits great rigour of method.”  —Frank Kermode

Table of Contents

1. The Structure of Myths

2. Magic and Prestige of “Origins”

3. Myths and Rites of Renewal

4. Eschatology and Cosmogony

5. Time Can Be Overcome

6. Mythology, Ontology, History

7. Mythologies of Memory and Forgetting

8. Greatness and Decadence of Myths

9. Survivals and Camouflages of Myths

Appendix I: Myths and Fairy Tales

Appendix II: Basic Bibliography