A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys: Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

Six legends of Greek mythology, retold for children by Nathaniel Hawthorne, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham

In 1838, Hawthorne suggested to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that they collaborate on a story for children based on the legend of the Pandora’s Box, but this never materialized. He wrote A Wonder Book between April and July 1851, adapting six legends most freely from Charles Anton’s A Classical Dictionary (1842). He set out deliberately to “modernize” the stories, freeing them from ...