One of Angela Carter's most misunderstood texts,(1) Heroes and Villains (1969) is by the author's own admission an important novel, dealing with myth making in the Barthesian sense of culturally constructed collective fictions or cliches (Katsavos 12). Throughout her career, Carter has consistently rejected myths, including the utopian elements of myth and the mythic element of utopian thought, as "social fictions that regulate our lives," dismissing these myths as "consolatory ...