The Heroes, Illustrated Edition (Yesterday's Classics)

Charles Kingsley had a great admiration for the ancient Greeks, he wanted to share that with his children and so he wrote this book. His children were very young at the time, and the time was the late 1800s. All these things must be taken into account if you are going to read this book. The myths

Show More

are toned down and all objectionable bits removed (except for the killing bits). At times there is moralizing and a condescending tone, which grates on our modern ears. That being said, it is still a very nice introduction into the Greek myths for young children. This particular edition is nice for teaching, as it has lots of interesting facts about the culture, history, archaeological finds and the nature of myths themselves at the end, and throughout there are illustrations copied from bits of vases and vocabulary words in the margins. It also includes the author's original preface at the end, which personally, I would skip. That is where the tone is the most grating.

Show Less