The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls. Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls
Nathaniel Hawthorne
New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc.
1852 (19982)

Why read it? Hawthorne displays the story teller's art. While his style is ornate, his tales of the ancient myths sound as if they have been told in a summer meadow with the children gathered round and other comfortable settings. Hawthorne intended to make the ancient classical myths presentable to children, but maybe adults need to rise to the wonder of children to fully appreciate the myths. Eustace Bright is Hawthorne's composer and story teller. The myths that Eustace retells are "The Gorgon's Head" [Medusa]. "The Golden Touch" [Midas]. "The Paradise of Children" [Pandora's Box]. Hercules and "The Three Golden Apples." "The Miraculous Pitcher" [Philemon and Baucis]. "The Chimera" [Bellerophon and Pegasus]. Enjoy.

Some sample ideas from the book:
Preface. "The author has long been of the opinion that many of the classical myths were capable of being rendered into very capital reading for children." "...the author has not always thought it necessary to write downward, in order to meet the comprehension of children." "I did not fall asleep [last night listening to one of Eustace Bright's stories], and I only shut my eyes, so as to see a picture of what Cousin Eustace was telling about." "We like a story all the better for having heard it two or three times before."

"...the head of the Gorgon Medusa, with the snaky locks...." "...instead of locks of hair, if you can believe me, they had each of them a hundred enormous snakes growing on their heads, all alive, twisting, wriggling, curling and thrusting out their venomous tongues, with forked stings at the end...." "For the worst thing about these abominable Gorgons was, that, if once a poor mortal fixed his eyes upon one of their faces, he was certain, that very instant, to be changed from warm flesh and blood into cold and lifeless stone!" "Not only must he fight with and slay this golden-winged, iron-scaled, long-tusked, brazen-clawed, snaky-haired monster, but he must do it with his eyes shut...else, while his arm was lifted to strike, he would stiffen into stone, and stand with that uplifted arm for centuries, until time, and the wind and weather, should crumble him quite away."

"But children have no mercy nor consideration for anybody's weariness; and if you had but a single breath left, they would ask you to spend it in telling them a story."

"If he [Midas] loved anything better...it was the one little maiden who played so merrily around her father's footstool; but the more Midas loved his daughter, the more did he desire and seek for wealth; he thought, foolish man, that the best thing he could possibly do for this dear child, would be to bequeath her the immensest pile of yellow-glistening coin, that had ever been heaped together since the world was made." "The very tip-top of enjoyment would never be reached, unless the whole world were to become his treasure-room, and be filled with yellow metal which should be all his own." "I wish everything that I touch be changed to gold." "He seized one of the bed-posts, and it became immediately a fluted golden pillar." "He hurriedly put on his clothes, and was enraptured to see himself in a magnificent suit of gold cloth which retained its flexibility and softness, although it burdened him a little with its weight."

"Gold is not everything, answered Midas, and I have lost all that my heart really cared for." "Which of these two things do you think is really worth the most--the gift of the Golden Touch, or one cup of clear, cold water?" "A piece of bread, answered Midas, is worth all the gold on earth." "But you appear to be still capable of understanding that the commonest things, such as lie within everybody's grasp, are more valuable than the riches which so many mortals sigh and struggle after." "Perceiving a violet, that grew on the bank of the river, Midas touched it with his finger and was overjoyed to find that the delicate flower retained its purple hue, instead of undergoing a yellow blight." "The curse of the golden touch had...really been removed from him."

Quote: "But some people have what we may call the 'leaden touch,' and make everything dull and heavy that they lay their fingers upon!"

Quote: "...a good little boy, who was always making particular inquiries about the precise height of giants and the littleness of fairies, how big was Marygold, and how much did she weigh, after she was turned gold?"

Quote: "There was then but one season of the year, and that was the delightful summer, and but one age for mortals--and that was childhood."

Quote: "Eustace Bright told the legend of Bellerophon with as much fervor and animation as if he had really been taking a gallop on the winged horse; at the conclusion, he was gratified to discern, by the glowing countenances of his auditors, how greatly they had been interested."