A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales For girls and boys By: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
First Page: A WONDER BOOK AND TANGLEWOOD TALES FOR GIRLS AND BOYS BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE WITH PICTURES BY MAXFIELD PARRISH NEW YORK DUFFIELD & COMPANY MCMX COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY DUFFIELD & COMPANY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. [Illustration: JASON AND THE TALKING OAK (From the original in the collection of Austin M. Purves, Esqu're Philadelphia)] Preface The author has long been of opinion that many of the classical myths were capable of being rendered into very capital reading for children. In the little volume here offered to the public, he has worked up half a dozen of them, with this end in view. A great freedom of treatment was necessary to his plan; but it will be observed by every one who attempts to render these legends malleable in his intellectual furnace, that they are marvellously independent of all temporary modes and circumstances. They remain essentially the same, after changes that would affect the identity of almost anything else. He does not, therefore, plead guilty to a sacrilege, in having sometimes shaped anew, as his fancy dictated, the forms that have been hallowed by an antiquity of two or three thousand years. No epoch of time can claim a copyright in these immortal fables. They seem never to have been made; and certainly, so long as man exists, they can never perish; but, by their indestructibility itself, they are legitimate subjects for every age to clothe with its own garniture of manners and sentiment, and to imbue with its own morality. In the present version they may have lost much of their classical aspect (or, at all events, the author has not been careful to preserve it), and have, perhaps, assumed a Gothic or romantic guise. In performing this pleasant task, for it has been really a task fit for hot weather, and one of the most agreeable, of a literary kind, which he ever undertook, the author has not always thought it necessary to write downward, in order to meet the comprehension of children. He has generally suffered the theme to soar, whenever such was its tendency, and when he himself was buoyant enough to follow without an effort. Children possess an unestimated sensibility to whatever is deep or high, in imagination or feeling, so long as it is simple, likewise. It is only the artificial and the complex that bewilder them. LENOX, July 15, 1851 . Contents A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys The Gorgon's Head The Golden Touch The Paradise of Children The Three Golden Apples The Miraculous Pitcher The Chimæra Tanglewood Tales The Wayside Introductory The Minotaur The Pygmies The Dragon's Teeth Circe's Palace The Pomegranate Seeds The Golden Fleece Illustrations JASON AND THE TALKING OAK PANDORA ATLAS BELLEROPHON BY THE FOUNTAIN OF PIRENE THE FOUNTAIN OF PIRENE CADMUS SOWING THE DRAGON'S TEETH CIRCE'S PALACE PROSERPINA JASON AND HIS TEACHER THE ARGONAUTS IN QUEST OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE A Wonder Book THE GORGON'S HEAD Tanglewood Porch Introductory to "The Gorgon's Head" Beneath the porch of the country seat called Tanglewood, one fine autumnal morning, was assembled a merry party of little folks, with a tall youth in the midst of them. They had planned a nutting expedition, and were impatiently waiting for the mists to roll up the hill slopes, and for the sun to pour the warmth of the Indian summer over the fields and pastures, and into the nooks of the many colored woods. There was a prospect of as fine a day as ever gladdened the aspect of this beautiful and comfortable world. As yet, however, the morning mist filled up the whole length and breadth of the valley, above which, on a gently sloping eminence, the mansion stood... Continue reading book >>

A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales For girls and boys By: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

First Page:

A WONDER BOOK

AND

TANGLEWOOD TALES

FOR GIRLS AND BOYS

BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

WITH PICTURES BY MAXFIELD PARRISH

NEW YORK DUFFIELD & COMPANY MCMX

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.

[Illustration: JASON AND THE TALKING OAK

(From the original in the collection of Austin M. Purves, Esqu're Philadelphia)]

Preface

The author has long been of opinion that many of the classical myths were capable of being rendered into very capital reading for children. In the little volume here offered to the public, he has worked up half a dozen of them, with this end in view. A great freedom of treatment was necessary to his plan; but it will be observed by every one who attempts to render these legends malleable in his intellectual furnace, that they are marvellously independent of all temporary modes and circumstances. They remain essentially the same, after changes that would affect the identity of almost anything else.

He does not, therefore, plead guilty to a sacrilege, in having sometimes shaped anew, as his fancy dictated, the forms that have been hallowed by an antiquity of two or three thousand years. No epoch of time can claim a copyright in these immortal fables. They seem never to have been made; and certainly, so long as man exists, they can never perish; but, by their indestructibility itself, they are legitimate subjects for every age to clothe with its own garniture of manners and sentiment, and to imbue with its own morality. In the present version they may have lost much of their classical aspect (or, at all events, the author has not been careful to preserve it), and have, perhaps, assumed a Gothic or romantic guise.

In performing this pleasant task, for it has been really a task fit for hot weather, and one of the most agreeable, of a literary kind, which he ever undertook, the author has not always thought it necessary to write downward, in order to meet the comprehension of children. He has generally suffered the theme to soar, whenever such was its tendency, and when he himself was buoyant enough to follow without an effort. Children possess an unestimated sensibility to whatever is deep or high, in imagination or feeling, so long as it is simple, likewise. It is only the artificial and the complex that bewilder them.

LENOX, July 15, 1851 .

Contents

A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys

The Gorgon's Head

The Golden Touch

The Paradise of Children

The Three Golden Apples

The Miraculous Pitcher

The Chimæra

Tanglewood Tales

The Wayside Introductory

The Minotaur

The Pygmies

The Dragon's Teeth

Circe's Palace

The Pomegranate Seeds

The Golden Fleece

Illustrations

JASON AND THE TALKING OAK

PANDORA

ATLAS

BELLEROPHON BY THE FOUNTAIN OF PIRENE

THE FOUNTAIN OF PIRENE

CADMUS SOWING THE DRAGON'S TEETH

CIRCE'S PALACE

PROSERPINA

JASON AND HIS TEACHER

THE ARGONAUTS IN QUEST OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE

A Wonder Book

THE GORGON'S HEAD

Tanglewood Porch

Introductory to "The Gorgon's Head"

Beneath the porch of the country seat called Tanglewood, one fine autumnal morning, was assembled a merry party of little folks, with a tall youth in the midst of them. They had planned a nutting expedition, and were impatiently waiting for the mists to roll up the hill slopes, and for the sun to pour the warmth of the Indian summer over the fields and pastures, and into the nooks of the many colored woods. There was a prospect of as fine a day as ever gladdened the aspect of this beautiful and comfortable world. As yet, however, the morning mist filled up the whole length and breadth of the valley, above which, on a gently sloping eminence, the mansion stood... Continue reading book >>

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