Review of "Heroes with a Hundred Names: Mythology and Folklore in the Early Fiction of Robert Penn Warren. By Leverett Butts."

Leverett Butts’ Heroes with a Hundred Names: Mythology and Folklore in the Early Fiction of Robert Penn Warren is a daring and insightful reading of Penn Warren’s use of mythological and folkloric materials in the four novels of his major phase, beginning with Night Rider in 1939 (Houghton Mifflin), and closing with Band of Angels in 1955 (Random House). The book reflects Butts’ deep immersion in Warren’s fiction; his grasp of Warren’s key themes and of Warren’s critique of the materialism and rootlessness of contemporary society; his sensitive understanding of the characters’ psychologies and moral predicaments; and the investment he shares with Warren in comparative mythology.