Six legends of Greek mythology, retold for children by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Gorgon’s Head, The Golden Touch, The Paradise of Children, The Three Golden Apples, The Miraculous Pitcher, and The Chimaera are included. In 1838, Hawthorne suggested to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that they collaborate on a story for children based on the legend of Pandora’s Box, but this never materialized. He wrote A Wonder Book between April and July 1851, adapting six tales most freely from Charles Anton’s A Classical Dictionary (1842). He set out deliberately to “modernize” the stories, freeing them from what he called “cold moonshine” and using a romantic, readable style criticized by adults but proved universally popular with children.