A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (including "Tanglewood Tales")
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- G to Vg
- Seller
-
Colombies, France
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: George Routledge. n.d. (Victorian era) . Cloth. G to Vg. Bound in brown cloth, gold illustration of a classical figure with a lyre on spine, classical woman picking apples on front board, pale grey/blue endpapers, b/w frontis, "Circe's Palace", Book is in two parts, " A Wonder-Book", 4b/w plates, 213pp. and "Tanglewood Tales", 3 b/w plates, 261pp. The author based his stories on classical myths. Book has been respined and replaced in its original binding with the addition of new endpapers.
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 A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (including "Tanglewood Tales")
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Details
- Bookseller
- Northgate Books
(FR)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 6467
- Title
- A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (including "Tanglewood Tales")
- Author
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Format/Binding
- Cloth
- Book Condition
- Used - G to Vg
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- n.d. (Victorian era)
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- George Routledge
- Place of Publication
- London
Terms of Sale
Northgate Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Northgate Books
Biblio member since 2018
Colombies
About Northgate Books
French and English secondhand and antiquarian books.
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...
- G
- Good describes the average used and worn book that has all pages or leaves present. Any defects must be noted. (as defined by AB...
- VG
- Very Good condition can describe a used book that does show some small signs of wear - but no tears - on either binding or...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
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