hmmm, quest novels, huh. OK, how about the classics: the Iliad and the Odyssey? You have Hector and Odysseus.
And for side stories, there's Diogenes, Jason and the Argonauts, or how about the works of Socrates or Plato?
Seems to me they all have their own quest. The thirst for knowledge and truth is one of most powerful quests of all.
Unfortunately, these classics seem to have been ignored by our education system for a long time. But the good news is that you can still find most of them at good libraries. Now, if we can just get the kids to read them.
Beowulf just about did me in, in the 9th grade!!!
Exactly. It's a type of narrative completely ignored and rarely taken on its own merits by the literary establishment, but vital nontheless.
The question for any discussion is --- is it well done or not?
It always involves a hero, and heroes are at present shunned.
The great mythic prototypes are always with us, however. Consider the 'band of brothers' theme; the ancient prototype is Ulysses, then used successfully, beautifully, in 'Saving Private Ryan' (a movie but let that go for now).
I would say that in 'Cities of the Plain' Cormac McCarthy didn't do well with the theme of the lone hero. In All The Pretty Horses he constructed a masterpiece with his lone hero.
That's the only question -- well done or badly done.
Take The Old Man And The Sea --- again, the hero on a quest. Again, a masterpiece.
You can find these mythical themes in so many works. It's like a kaliedoscope -- you have a limited number of glass pieces, but the creative combinations are endless in their variety.