Tanglewood Tales

A companion to A Wonder Book, this collection retells six Greek myths for young readers, including the stories of Theseus and the Minotaur, Medea, and the Golden Fleece. A young storyteller, Eustace Bright, tells them to a group of children in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts. Hawthorne softens the harsher parts of the old tales and adds humor, setting detail and a gentle moral tone. The book is a good example of nineteenth-century children's literature and of how classical myths were adapted for a new audience.