From Homer to Harry Potter - the wisdom of classic literature awaits you. Using the wisdom of over three thousand years of literature and myth, Dr. Allan Hunter explores the stories we need to know and understand, and shows how they have offered us real advice and guidance for generations.

240 pages paperback

From Homer to Harry Potter - the wisdom of classic literature awaits you.

If you're looking for reliable, time-tested guidance on your journey through life then this is the book for you. Using the wisdom of over three thousand years of literature and myth, Dr. Allan Hunter explores the stories we need to know and understand, and shows how they have offered us real advice and guidance for generations.

You'll find practical advice that will help you to identify which of the six archetypes you are presently living, as well as what challenges you may have to face if you are to grow spiritually to fulfill all you are capable of being.

For the first time we have a coherent way of understanding these archetypes and the way they appear in our world and in our lives. Until now this way of looking at ourselves and others has been hopelessly confused. Now it is made clear - and we see that the information we have been seeking has always been present in the stories our culture has been treasuring since storytelling began.

Whether you are a student of literature or a student of life, walking a spiritual path or not, the information you'll find inside this book is an eye-opening experience.

Read the sample chapter on Harry Potter here.

Endorsements

"Just as this is a book about the Stories We Need, Allan Hunter is an author we need. Using what he calls 'the guiding power of literature' to illustrate the six distinct stages of personal development he has identified over his 30 years of counseling and teaching, Hunter fascinates, educates and exhilarates. Waves of gratitude to him on behalf of the legions of souls in whom this book is sure to spark introspection, revelation and growth."
-Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of Becoming Finola

"Stories We Need to Know refreshingly reminds us of what our heavily sedated and theoretical age has sadly forgotten: that great literature was always a source of healing and a path to personal growth. In this groundbreaking study, Allan Hunter uncovers the vital interplay of literature and psychology as he takes a bold new look at the way archetypes - whether found in The Odyssey or Harry Potter - can profoundly transform both individual lives and our spiritually starved society."
- Robert Atwan, Series Editor, The Best American Essays

"Subtitled ‘reading your life path in literature’, this is a fascinating exploration by an author who is both a counsellor and Professor of English, in which he draws on both disciplines and writes in the tradition of scholars such as Joseph Campbell on the stages of the hero’s journey. The context will be a familiar one for many network readers, namely the problem of soul starvation in our time. The book is divided into three parts, in which the middle is the shortest, explaining to the idea of his six stages of life from the first part. These are Innocent, Orphan, Pilgrim, Warrior-Lover, Monarch and Magician. Not everyone moves through all these stages, and there may well be cycles of development in which one returns to an earlier stage. However, they do represent stages of progression through life involving ego development, commitment, service and the embodiment of wisdom in achieving balance and love. There are obstacles and challenges at every stage, which becomes even clearer in the third part which draws on Great Western literature to illustrate the dynamics of the stages (the author is unapologetic about this tradition, describing its dismissal as a result of ‘trendy ignorance’). Here we have Odysseus, Oedipus, Orestes, Jesus, King Arthur, Shakespeare, Dickens and JK Rowling, among others. The commentary on Harry Potter is very interesting in the light of what has gone before, showing the depths to which it appeals. The central emphasis is on the development of love and the expression of creativity, which are essential elements in education. This brilliant book certainly shows the reader how considering literature seriously and deeply can be a valuable tool in helping us become more fully human.
— Editor Network Review Journal of the Medical & Scientific Network

Allan G. Hunter was born in England in 1955 and completed all his degrees at Oxford University, emerging with a doctorate in English Literature in 1983. His first book was Joseph Conrad and the Ethics of Darwinism. In 1986, after working at Fairleigh Dickinson University's British campus and at Peper Harow Therapeutic Community for disturbed adolescents, he moved to the US. For the past twenty years he has been a professor of literature at Curry College in Massachusetts, and a therapist. He has produced two books specifically aimed at using writing and drawing exercises therapeutically - The Sanity Manual and Life Passages. Both books are based on his revolutionary interactive writing exercises, tried and proven in counselling sessions and classes. While working with clients in this way he began to uncover the presence of a series of archetypes within their writings. This led to his present work with the formulation of the six archetypal stages of spiritual development.

Four years ago he began teaching with the Blue Hills Writing Institute and he has remained with it ever since, working with students to explore the memoir and life-writing. His own experience of this medium is reflected in From Coastal Command to Captivity; The Memoir of a Second World War Airman, a project on which he worked with his father up to the time of his death. It required extensive reworking to bring this memoir to completion. As in all his books, the emphasis is on the healing nature of the stories we weave for ourselves if we choose to connect to the archetypal tales of our culture.

For more, see http://allanhunter.net/ or his YouTube Channel