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Aeneas Press edition Edwardian

The Golden Fleece

A Romance

by Julian Hawthorne 1846–1934

The book, and the century it came out of.

A professor of geology, a retired general, and a young engineer sit on a hot veranda west of the Rockies arguing about the sea that used to be there — and out in the desert is a mine called the Golden Fleece, a relic said to be Montezuma’s, and a woman who knows more about both than she says. Julian Hawthorne grew up among Emerson, Thoreau and Melville, wrote some fifty books, and later went to prison for mail fraud over a mining stock — which lends this treasure romance of 1892 an edge he did not plan. Illustrated with 51 full-page plates — paintings by Delacroix, Vernet and Decamps among them.

The professor crossed one long, lean leg over the other, and punched down the ashes in his pipe-bowl with the square tip of his middle finger.
The first sentence of The Golden Fleece
A note on this edition

The Golden Fleece, by Julian Hawthorne, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 96 pages
Reading time
about 2 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501328327
The plates

51 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Arab Encampment, Eugène Delacroix
Arab Encampment Eugène Delacroix 1839
View toward the Hudson River, Thomas Doughty
View toward the Hudson River Thomas Doughty 1839
The Stile, Thomas Creswick
The Stile Thomas Creswick 1839
Neapolitan peasants at the Madonna dell’Arco feast, Thomas Uwins
Neapolitan peasants at the Madonna dell’Arco feast Thomas Uwins 1840
Granada: the Chapel of Ferdinand and Isabella, David Roberts
Granada: the Chapel of Ferdinand and Isabella David Roberts 1838
End of Storm, Ivan Aivazovsky
End of Storm Ivan Aivazovsky 1839
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of The Golden Fleece as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Golden Fleece as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Golden Fleece, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Adventure & the Sea shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501328327, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of The Golden Fleece?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Julian Hawthorne's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 96 pages, which is roughly about 2 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
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The Golden Fleece
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