The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
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The original version of the Grimms' tales in English for the first time—in an acclaimed, illustrated edition
When Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published their Children’s and Household Tales in 1812, followed by a second volume in 1815, they had no idea that such stories as “Rapunzel,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “Cinderella” would become the most celebrated in the world. Yet few people today are familiar with the majority of tales from the two early volumes, since in the next four decades the Grimms would publish six other editions, each extensively revised in content and style. For the very first time, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm makes available in English all 156 stories from the 1812 and 1815 editions. These narrative gems, newly translated and brought together in one beautiful book, are accompanied by sumptuous new illustrations from award-winning artist Andrea Dezsö.
From “The Frog King” to “The Golden Key,” wondrous worlds unfold—heroes and heroines are rewarded, weaker animals triumph over the strong, and simple bumpkins prove themselves not so simple after all. Esteemed fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes offers accessible translations that retain the spare description and engaging storytelling style of the originals. Indeed, this is what makes the tales from the 1812 and 1815 editions unique—they reflect diverse voices, rooted in oral traditions, that are absent from the Grimms’ later, more embellished collections of tales. Zipes’s introduction gives important historical context, and the book includes the Grimms’ prefaces and notes.
A delight to read, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm presents these peerless stories to a whole new generation of readers.
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I am honestly stuck on what I want to rate this, obviously there is no half star option but I am torn between giving this 2 stars, and 1.5 stars. Anyway, I wanted to give up by the end of February because I was kind of over this series. Some of the stories are just repetitive. So from March - June I would read a few pages here and there while doing my hair, but by July I wanted to get this book off of my “currently reading” list. Anyway, here is what I took from this series:
- Girls are stupid, girls are vain, girls can walk on a fruit or a vegetable without squishing it thus proving they are girls, and finally girls should marry men old enough to be their parent.
- Incest is okay between a father and daughter.
- A Dwarf is always magical, be nice to them.
- Animals sometimes aren't just animals, they could be magical, or even royalty.
- Witches are always old mean women.
- You must do whatever your parents tell you because they know everything.
- Don't wish for something out loud because there is a 99% chance it will happen.
- Kidnapping a child is okay if a child is bad.
- Oh, and you die in the end... a good portion of the time.
One star taken off for repetitiveness, one star taken off for having women look stupid a majority of the time, and one star taken off for the way they portray incest. I really want to take off .5 stars for just being annoyed with it, but I don't think that would be fair. But hey, I am just glad I finished reading this.
This was...weird. I enjoyed a lot of the stories. Some are very familiar, some are vaguely familiar but a little altered, and some I don't know at all. Usually the unfamiliar ones are the more batshit ones, guess it's harder to make the truly nutty ones palatable to the masses. I feel like I would have gotten more out of this if I'd been reading it with an accompanying class or set of notes on the symbolism and meanings of the stories. There are a lot of repeated themes, to the point that I'd call them tropes, and some of those left me very confused. There are also many that read like morality tales, which isn't surprising because that's actually what a lot of storytelling is intended for, but that moral is lost on me. Sometimes I think I'm getting the moral, but it seems like such a ridiculous lesson that I must be misunderstanding. Either that or times truly have changed (which is quite probable, I'm sure my modern ethical code varies greatly from that of the Grimms' time). The material is presented very raw, which is interesting in light of having read later editions with their additional polish, but still, difficult to digest.
