Home A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (Illustrated) by Nathaniel Hawthorne (ISBN: 9781482038491)

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A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (Illustrated) Paperback - 2014

Name: A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (Illustrated)
Price: 2.68 GBP
Availability: InStock
Author: Hawthorne, Nathaniel
ISBN: 9781482038491

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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About this book

Hawthorne made it his ambition to be a writer as a teenager, he graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine, where poet Longfellow was also a student, and spent several years traveling New England writing short stories before creating The Scarlet Letter. He wrote A Wonder-Book between April and July 1851, freely adapting six legends from Charles Anton's A Classical Dictionary. He set out deliberately to 'modernize' the stories, freeing them from 'cold moonshine' and using a romantic, readable style. This was criticized by adults but proved universally popular with children.

The stories in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys are all stories within a story. The frame being that a Williams College student, Eustace Bright, is telling these tales to a group of children at Tanglewood, an area in Lenox, Massachusetts, where Hawthorne lived for a time.

A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys covers the myths of:

The Gorgon's Head - the story of Perseus killing Medusa at the request of the king of the island, Polydectes.

The Golden Touch - the story of King Midas and his "Golden Touch".

The Paradise of Children - the story of Pandora opening the box filled with all of mankind's Troubles.

The Three Golden Apples - the story of Heracles procuring the Three Golden Apples from the Hesperides' orchard, with the help of Atlas.

The Miraculous Pitcher - the story of Baucis and Philemon providing food and shelter to two strangers who were Zeus and "Quicksilver" (Hermes) in disguise. Baucis and Philemon were rewarded by the gods for their kindness; they were promised never to live apart from one another.

The Chimæra - the story of Bellerophon taming Pegasus and killing the Chimæra.

From the publisher

Hawthorne's gentle, charming collection of classic myths retold for the children of his day is a neglected classic. Addressing the reader in personable Victorian fashion, his prose is clear and beautiful. But Hawthorne is also equal to the task of less genteel, more vigorous images. Adding to the pleasure of these retold tales is the gorgeous art of Arthur Rackham, both in black-and-white drawings and full-color plates, which captures the unearthly beauty and the unexpectedly surprising humor of Hawthorne's work. Highly recommended!

First Edition Identification

Although dated 1852 on the title-page, A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys was actually published in November 1851 by Ticknor, Reed and Fields in Boston . This edition has the misprint “lifed” for lifted” on page 21, line 3. It features the original gray-green cloth, pale yellow wove endpapers, a frontispiece and six inserted engraved plates after designs by Hammat Billings.

Details

Title A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (Illustrated)
Author Nathaniel Hawthorne
Binding Paperback
Pages 136
Volumes 1
Language ENG
Publisher Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Date 2014-01-30
Illustrated Yes
ISBN 9781482038491 / 1482038498
Weight 0.42 lbs (0.19 kg)
Dimensions 9.02 x 5.98 x 0.29 in (22.91 x 15.19 x 0.74 cm)
Ages 09 to 12 years
Grade levels 4 - 7
Dewey Decimal Code 398.209

About the author

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts, and made his ambition to be a writer while still a teenager. He graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine, where the poet Longfellow was also a student, and spent several years travelling in New England and writing short stories before his best-known novel The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850. His writing was not at first financially rewarding and he worked as measurer and surveyor in the Boston and Salem Custom Houses. In 1853 he was sent to Liverpool as American consul and then lived in Italy before returning to the US in 1860, where he died in his sleep four years later.