Boston. Good with no dust jacket; Cloth; Houghton, Osgood & Co ; 1879. Red cloth with embossed boards, good, rubbing, corners bumped, slight fraying to spine, foxing to end papers & title page. 224 pgs Includes stories The Gorgon's Head, The Golden Touch, The Paradise of Children, & others.; 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" 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.

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Details

Bookseller: Bluestocking Books (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 5003
Title: A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
Author: Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Book Condition: Used - Good with no dust jacket; Cloth; Houghton, Osgood & Co ; 1879
Binding: Hardcover
Place of Publication: Boston
Bookseller catalogs: Children's literature;

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Glossary

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Title Page: A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
Rubbing: Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
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....
Cloth: "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...