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Nathaniel Hawthorne, A Wonder Book, 1852
Jun. 14th, 2014 06:45 pmHawthorne is an author I had vaguely heard of, not read. (Turns out that he wrote *The Scarlet Letter* which I tried years ago but never finished).
I was given a lovely copy of *A Wonder Book* (1852) which is basically a series of retellings of Greek mythology interspersed with brief contemporary scenes. The tone in the contemporary scenes reminded me of Louisa May Alcott.
And then Wikipedia told me that Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and the Alcotts lived as neighbors in Concord, Massachusetts. It turns out that it’s a small literary world.
Here is an excerpt that seems Alcottian in tone:
‘So away they went; all of them in excellent spirits, except little Dandelion, who, I am sorry to tell you, had been sitting on a chestnut-bur, and was stuck as full as a pincushion of its prickles. Dear me, how uncomfortably he must have felt!’
I was given a lovely copy of *A Wonder Book* (1852) which is basically a series of retellings of Greek mythology interspersed with brief contemporary scenes. The tone in the contemporary scenes reminded me of Louisa May Alcott.
And then Wikipedia told me that Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and the Alcotts lived as neighbors in Concord, Massachusetts. It turns out that it’s a small literary world.
Here is an excerpt that seems Alcottian in tone:
‘So away they went; all of them in excellent spirits, except little Dandelion, who, I am sorry to tell you, had been sitting on a chestnut-bur, and was stuck as full as a pincushion of its prickles. Dear me, how uncomfortably he must have felt!’
