How many stories?

[Lester]

Does anyone remember the reference for storytelling? It was something I read a while back from one of the great literary critics who shows how there are only a limited number of stories available to authors and storytellers and that all stories are variations on this handful of plots. Thanks for any help.

[Redzeppelin]

The "Vague Vault of Memory" tells me that there's about 20 basic plots. I have a book by - I think his name is George Polti (book's at school and I'm not) - that claims there are 36 essential situations. Polti lists each situation, possible variations of it, and he lists examples from literature (though the examples are generally late 19thC and backwards from there.)

One other option is the idea of the "monomyth" (cf. Joseph Campbell) - that all hero stories are variations of one pattern.

Not sure if I answered your question or not -

[Jean-Baptiste]

Welcome to the forums, Lester!

I don't know the answer to your query, but I have another question to add to it. Who was it that said (something like):

There are only two kinds of stories: Someone comes to town, and someone leaves town.
?

I want to say that it was John Updike, but that seems wrong.

I hope you find what you're looking for.:)