In A Wonder Book, Hawthorne takes a number of classical myths which have won the interest of readers for centuries and imaginatively presents them, connecting them by amusing incidents which take place outside of the actual telling of the legends themselves. The myths, which include "The Gorgon’s Head", "The Golden Touch", "The Paradise of Children", "The Three Golden Apples", "The Miraculous Pitcher", and "The Chimaera", are told by a student, Eustace Bright, to his young cousins and sisters and brothers during his college vacations.