The Age of Fable; or, Beauties of Mythology

xiii, 460 pp. 6 3/16 x 4 1/16. Green full leather, gilt titles, top edge gilt, decorative floral endpapers. Frontispiece of Helen of Troy by Sir Frederick Leighton. A collection of stories from Greek and Roman mythological tradition, with an introduction, guide to proverbial expressions, list of illustrative passages quoted from the poets, and index. Thomas Bulfinch (July 15, 1796 - May 27, 1867) was an American writer born in Newton, Massachusetts, best known for the book Bulfinch's Mythology. Bulfinch's Mythology is a classic work of popularized mythology, the standard for over a century and still in print 160 years after the first work, Age of Fable, was published in 1855. Bulfinch wrote in his preface: "Our work is not for the learned, nor for the theologian, nor for the philosopher, but for the reader of English literature, of either sex, who wishes to comprehend the allusions so frequently made by public speakers, lecturers, essayists, and poets, and those which occur in polite conversation."