Hello, my name is Finn, and I'm going to help you understand this book.
Here it is, explained like you are 10:
A kind young storyteller named Eustace Bright sits with a group of children at a house called Tanglewood and tells them the old Greek myths. He tells how Theseus fought the Minotaur, a monster that was half man and half bull. He tells how Jason sailed away to find the Golden Fleece, the shining wool of a magic sheep. And he tells about Proserpina, who was carried off to the dark world under the ground.
The storyteller Eustace Bright tells the children of Tanglewood six great Greek myths. Theseus creeps into a maze to fight the Minotaur. Jason and his heroes sail in search of the Golden Fleece. Proserpina is carried under the earth, and her mother's sorrow brings winter. Soldiers spring from dragon's teeth, and Circe turns sailors into pigs in her enchanted palace. Every tale is full of monsters, magic and brave deeds.
Nathaniel Hawthorne built the book as stories inside a story: a short scene of the children asking for a tale, then the tale itself, told aloud in a warm, clear voice. He changed the old myths on purpose, softening the cruel parts and making the heroes feel like real people. Each of the six tales stands alone, so the book can be read one story at a time.
It works because Hawthorne tells the myths the way a good storyteller tells them by a fire: simply, musically, and with feeling. The heroes are brave but not perfect, and the wonders are strange but clear. For over 170 years this book has been the first meeting with Greek myth for countless children, and it still earns that place.
Tanglewood Tales is Nathaniel Hawthorne's second book of Greek myths for children, published in 1853 as the sequel to A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys. The young storyteller Eustace Bright gathers the children of Tanglewood and tells them six tales, among them Theseus and the Minotaur, Jason and the Golden Fleece, and Proserpina. Hawthorne reshaped the old stories, softening their violence and adding moral weather, and the book has introduced children to Greek myth for over 170 years.
Tanglewood Tales is Nathaniel Hawthorne's second book of Greek myths for children, published in 1853 as the sequel to A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys. The frame is the same: the young storyteller Eustace Bright gathers the children of Tanglewood and tells them six tales, among them Theseus and the Minotaur, Jason and the Golden Fleece, Proserpina, and Circe's palace. Hawthorne freely reshaped the old stories, softening their violence and adding his own moral weather, and said he meant to give them a life of their own rather than a classical stiffness. Few writers for children have ever matched the ease and music of these retellings.
Starvard carries Tanglewood Tales because it completes Hawthorne's pair of myth books on our shelf, standing beside A Wonder-Book, and because for over 170 years it has been one of the main doors through which English speaking children first meet Greek myth. Many adults first met these heroes in Hawthorne's humane, storyteller's voice, and the voice has not dated. Young readers ready for monsters, quests and enchanted islands, and parents who want the myths told beautifully and without gore, will find this exactly the introduction they were hoping for.
Edition: The standalone 1853 book; not the combined A Wonder-Book and Tanglewood Tales (ebook 35377). Text: Project Gutenberg ebook 976.
The first chapter
THE WAYSIDE. INTRODUCTORY.
THE MINOTAUR.
THE PYGMIES.
THE DRAGON'S TEETH.
CIRCE'S PALACE.
THE POMEGRANATE SEEDS.
THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
Source: Project Gutenberg. Published 1853. Public domain. Share this book: WhatsApp
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