Brian Larsen’s Archetypes and the Fourth Gospel investigates the Fourth Gospel (FG) using Northrop Frye’s four literary archetypes of romance, tragedy, irony, and comedy. He focuses on four main characters in the FG who he believes correspond to each of these archetypes: Jesus as romantic, Pilate as tragic, Thomas as ironic (with a supplementary discussion on irony and “the Jews” in John), and Peter as comic. Larsen aims to bring conceptual clarity to each of these categories.The introduction lays out Frye’s categories in some detail, affirming their utility in discerning broad patterns in literature while recognizing that Frye need not be followed in every particular. While there is some necessarily dense material here, along with a degree of literary-critical in-house language, Larsen generally presents a clear, jargon-free account of the central issues.Chapter 1 presents Jesus as the hero of the Johannine Romance. (The “romance” in question is a story like The Odyssey or The Song of Roland, not a love story.) The Jesus of the FG is characteristically “romantic” in his steadfast adherence to his values in the face of great opposition. Perhaps of most interest here is his comparison of the 15 characteristics of romance literature found in John Dean’s Restless Wanderers with the FG. Dean’s list, which includes tropes such as “Dramatic qualities of marvel, risk, and triumphant adventure” and “the wandering journey towards ‘home,’” proves strikingly close to the material in the FG.Chapter 2, meanwhile, investigates Pilate from the perspective of the tragic hero. Larsen appropriately notes the highly stylized nature of Pilate’s interactions with Jesus and the Jewish leaders. He views Pilate as a figure caught between forces beyond his control, one who ultimately fails to overcome these circumstances and endorses the execution of the Messiah. A lengthy discussion of tragedy follows.Chapters 3 and 4 follow the same pattern. Thomas is seen as an ironic character, whose own irony is ironized by the miracle of the resurrection. Larsen distinguishes Thomas’s “equivocal” irony with the “negative” irony of the FG’s “Jews,” whom Larsen treats as a collective character perpetually unable to navigate the confluence of heavenly and earthly reality rightly. Larsen provides a brief but compelling argument that the “Jews’” status as a literary character steers the FG clear of anti-Semitic accusations. Peter is held out as a comic figure—someone who begins well, bumbles into unwitting failure by misreading the shape of Jesus’s peculiar messianic mission, but nonetheless reaches a place of peace and reconciliation with Jesus at last. Peter’s impetuous plunge into the water and successful swim to the shore epitomize the happy ending of his story.How compelling is Larsen’s case? The portrayal of Jesus as a romantic figure carries considerable weight. I found the arguments for Pilate, Thomas, and Peter rather less persuasive. Foremost among the difficulties (as Larsen himself is aware) is that the relatively limited narrative space devoted to these latter characters makes a definitive pronouncement on their archetypal nature more difficult. Pilate’s status as a tragic figure seems particularly difficult to argue in light of the Roman Empire’s persistently negative attitude toward early Christianity.Those with an appreciation of literary criticism will naturally be most interested in this volume, and those with an affection for Frye will likewise be most likely to embrace its central thesis. But all readers of the FG will benefit from Larsen’s lively and lucid examination of these archetypal patterns. Seeing Jesus in romantic terms gives a fresh angle of approach to John’s portrait of the Messiah, while the remaining chapters provide at a minimum a fine introduction to connections between the FG and other works of literature that might otherwise be overlooked. Larsen’s strategic deployment of literary sources from The Odyssey to Hamlet to Pride and Prejudice opens up a wealth of fresh perspectives on John’s Gospel in particular and the narrative material in Scripture in general.