THE WONDER BOOK FOR GIRLS AND BOYS (1884)
by Hawthorne, Nathaniel
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good+/No Jacket - Issued
- Seller
-
SPRINGFIELD, Virginia, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1884. 150pp/illus. 1st Editon with Church illustrations- fine binding of bevelled maroon cloth with illustration of Pegasus flying over the moon in gilt as are titles- cloth is lightly rubbed at extremities, book is square and tight, ffep has dedication- otherwise no writing or loose pages- clean and crisp-all edges are gilt- Includes The Gorgon's Head, The Golden Touch, The Paradise of Children, The Three Golden Apples, The Miraculous Pitcher and The Chimaera- beautifully illustrated with 37 in text illustrations in b&w by F.S. Church.- A wonderful children's book.- Fiction-juvenile-mythology-adventure-anthology-illustrated . Decorative Boards. Very Good+/No Jacket - Issued. Illus. by F. S. Church. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.
Synopsis
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.
Read More: Identifying first editions of THE WONDER BOOK FOR GIRLS AND BOYS (1884)
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Details
- Bookseller
- DBookmahn's Used and Rare Military Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 011618
- Title
- THE WONDER BOOK FOR GIRLS AND BOYS (1884)
- Author
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel
- Illustrator
- F. S. Church
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket - Issued
- Publisher
- Houghton Mifflin
- Place of Publication
- Boston, MA
- Date Published
- 1884
- Keywords
- Children's Books
- Bookseller catalogs
- Childrens;
- Size
- 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall
Terms of Sale
DBookmahn's Used and Rare Military Books
Books may be returned within 7 days if not satisfied.
About the Seller
DBookmahn's Used and Rare Military Books
Biblio member since 2005
SPRINGFIELD, Virginia
About DBookmahn's Used and Rare Military Books
Specializing in quality military history books on the Napoleonic Wars, Civil War, WWI and WWII, German military and Vietnam. We also sell new Schiffer and Fedorowicz military books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Fine Binding
- An elaborate and decorative binding, example including a leather-bound book with gilt edges, raised blind stamps, raised ribs,...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- FFEP
- A common abbreviation for Front Free End Paper. Generally, it is the first page of a book and is part of a single sheet that...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
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