Heroic Fiction

This reexamination of the works of five modern novelists—Frank Norris, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Saul Bellow, and Ralph Ellison—draws important parallels to the classical epic tradition found in the novels by these writers. In his introductory chapter Mr. Lutwack dis­cusses earlier American examples of the quest epic and the contributions of the novel form to the epic genre.