A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys
Nathaniel Hawthorne reshaped six Greek myths for young readers in this 1851 collection, wrapping them in a gentle frame in which a college student named Eustace Bright tells the tales to a group of children at a New England country house. Inside that frame come the great stories: Perseus and the deadly Gorgon Medusa, King Midas and his golden touch, Pandora and the forbidden box, Hercules and the golden apples, and the kind old couple rewarded with a never-empty pitcher. Hawthorne softens the ancient cruelty and adds his own warmth and humor, turning myth into something closer to a fireside story. The result feels far more personal than a plain retelling and shows a darker novelist at his most playful. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available to read and download.
About the Author
Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th-century American novelist and short-story writer central to the Dark Romantic movement. He is best known for The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, with their themes of sin, guilt, and Puritan New England.
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