Circa 1850s Edition: Harper & Brothers. Very Good. 1850. Hardcover. 135911808X . Brown and green Illustrated on green cloth boards, with sharp image, general age toning and shelf wear. Book is firm in binding, boards started, front & back endpapers unattached, else Very Good +, 210 pages. Sixty color illustrations, many full page by Walter Crane. Preface is dated 1851. Book is free of any markings, not ex-library. ; Large 8vo 9" - 10" tall; 210 pages .

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.

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Details

Bookseller: KULTURAs books (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 100651
Title: A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
Author: Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Illustrator: Walter Crane
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used - Very Good
ISBN 10: 135911808X
ISBN 13: 9781359118080
Publisher: Harper & Brothers
Place of Publication: Circa 1850s Edition
Date Published: 1850
Keywords: 135911808X, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walter Crane illustrations,

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Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Cloth: "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
Shelf Wear: Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...