Tanglewood Tales

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Tanglewood Tales for Boys and Girls (1853) is a book by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, a sequel to A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys. It is a re-writing of some of the most famous of the ancient Greek myths in a volume for children.

The book covers the myths of:

• Theseus and the Minotaur (Chapter : "The Minotaur")
• Antaeus and the Pygmies (Chapter: "The Pygmies")
• Dragon's Teeth (Chapter: "The Dragon's Teeth")
• Circe's Palace (Chapter: "Circe's Palace")
• Proserpina, Ceres, Pluto, and the Pomegranate Seed (Chapter: "The Pomegranate Seed")
• Jason and the Golden Fleece (Chapter: "The Golden Fleece")

In addition there is an opening Introduction, titled "The Wayside", in reference to The Wayside inn, in Concord, Massachusetts, presumably where Hawthorne was when he wrote the Introduction. Hawthorne recounts a visit from his young friend Eustace Bright, who requested a sequel to Wonder Book, thus explaining the origin of Tales. Although Hawthorne informs us in the introduction that these stories were also later retold by Cousin Eustace, the frame stories of A Wonder-Book have been abandoned.

Hawthorne wrote the book while renting a small cottage in the Berkshires, a sort of inland Newport, Rhode Island for the wealthy industrialists of the Gilded Age. The owner of the cottage, a railroad baron, renamed the cottage "Tanglewood" in honour of the book written there. Later, a nearby mansion was renamed Tanglewood and hosted concerts which continue to this day.

[edit] External links

• Tanglewood Tales, available at Project Gutenberg.
• Tanglewood Tales, scanned 1853 edition, illustrated, available at Google Books.