Nathaniel Hawthorne 
Tanglewood Tales 

In the winter of 1853 the ’Tanglewood Tales, ’ a series of stories like the ’Wonder-Book, ’ was written. The introductory chapter has some interesting observations on the adaptation of the classic myths to children. This work belongs to a special class of books, those in which men of genius have retold stories of the past in forms suited to the present. The stories themselves are set in a piece of narrative and description which gives the atmosphere of the time of the writer, and the old legends are turned from stately myths not merely to children’s stories, but to romantic fancies.