Books with author Nathanial Hawthorne

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.

"The Scarlet Letter" is the story of Hester Prynne a young attractive woman who has been convicted of the crime of adultery and has been sentenced to wear a scarlet letter "A" sewn to her dress. The novel, which is set in middle 17th century Boston, is a vivid picture of the archaic social beliefs and customs that were indicative of early colonial American life. It is a time in which adultery was not only considered immoral but was a crime, people believed in witches, and extreme puritanical beliefs ruled everyday life. Hawthorne's narrative is a haunting portrait of days long past.

In the winter of 1853 the "Tanglewood Tales," a series of stories like the "Wonder-Book," was written. The introductory chapter has some interesting observations on the adaptation of the classic myths to children. This work belongs to a special class of books, those in which men of genius have retold stories of the past in forms suited to the present. The stories themselves are set in a piece of narrative and description which gives the atmosphere of the time of the writer, and the old legends are turned from stately myths not merely to children's stories, but to romantic fancies.

In the winter of 1853 the "Tanglewood Tales," a series of stories like the "Wonder-Book," was written. The introductory chapter has some interesting observations on the adaptation of the classic myths to children. This work belongs to a special class of books, those in which men of genius have retold stories of the past in forms suited to the present. The stories themselves are set in a piece of narrative and description which gives the atmosphere of the time of the writer, and the old legends are turned from stately myths not merely to children's stories, but to romantic fancies.

In the winter of 1853 the "Tanglewood Tales," a series of stories like the "Wonder-Book," was written. The introductory chapter has some interesting observations on the adaptation of the classic myths to children. This work belongs to a special class of books, those in which men of genius have retold stories of the past in forms suited to the present. The stories themselves are set in a piece of narrative and description which gives the atmosphere of the time of the writer, and the old legends are turned from stately myths not merely to children's stories, but to romantic fancies.

The principal setting is a communal farm called Blithedale (i.e., "Happy Valley"), a would-be modern Arcadia along the lines of the anti-capitalist ideals of Charles Fourier, yet is nonetheless destroyed by the self-interested behavior of some of its members. Among those members are: Hollingsworth, a monomaniacal philanthropist and confirmed misogynist who intends to turn Blithedale into a colony for the reformation of criminals; Zenobia, a passionate feminist of exotic origin who ironically finds Hollingsworth's misogyny irresistible; Priscilla, a young and impecunious seamstress from the city; and Miles Coverdale, the unreliable narrator, a minor poet and dandy given to acts of voyeurism.An intense friendship develops among these four during the spring and summer, but begins to disintegrate as autumn approaches and ultimately ends in tragedy.

One of 19th-century America's greatest authors recounts timeless tales from Greek mythology in this delightful partner to A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys. Nathaniel Hawthorne's evocative interpretations of traditional stories about heroes, sorceresses, kings, and other legendary characters provide young readers and listeners with a spellbinding introduction to classic myths.The adventures begin with "The Minotaur," the tale of an Athenian prince's conquest of a monstrous half-man, half-bull. Other stories include "The Pygmies," concerning a friendly giant and his small-minded neighbors; "The Dragon's Teeth," recounting the birth of a team of warriors and the founding of a city; "Circe's Palace," in which an enchantress matches wits with the trickster Ulysses; "The Pomegranate Seeds," a tale of the underworld; and "The Golden Fleece," the story of an aspiring king and his quest for the shining symbol that will win a throne.

In the winter of 1853 the "Tanglewood Tales," a series of stories like the "Wonder-Book," was written. The introductory chapter has some interesting observations on the adaptation of the classic myths to children. This work belongs to a special class of books, those in which men of genius have retold stories of the past in forms suited to the present. The stories themselves are set in a piece of narrative and description which gives the atmosphere of the time of the writer, and the old legends are turned from stately myths not merely to children's stories, but to romantic fancies.