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Selected Tales
Part of a special set of 10 hardcover classics, designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith, that innovatively use foil and a special new binding material to create a highly collectible set.
Stepmothers, dark forests, strange beasts, broken promises, sinister brides, castle turrets, princes on horseback, magic lamps, industrious dwarves and a frog king. Collected and adapted from German folk tales, these imperishable stories can be read over and over again.
Stepmothers, dark forests, strange beasts, broken promises, sinister brides, castle turrets, princes on horseback, magic lamps, industrious dwarves and a frog king. Collected and adapted from German folk tales, these imperishable stories can be read over and over again.
336 pages, Leather Bound
First published December 20, 1812
About the author
Jacob Grimm
5,072 books2,049 followersGerman philologist and folklorist Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm in 1822 formulated Grimm's Law, the basis for much of modern comparative linguistics. With his brother Wilhelm Karl Grimm (1786-1859), he collected Germanic folk tales and published them as
Grimm's Fairy Tales
(1812-1815).
Indo-European stop consonants, represented in Germanic, underwent the regular changes that Grimm's Law describes; this law essentially states that Indo-European p shifted to Germanic f, t shifted to th, and k shifted to h. Indo-European b shifted to Germanic p, d shifted to t, and g shifted to k. Indo-European bh shifted to Germanic b, dh shifted to d, and gh shifted to g.
This jurist and mythologist also authored the monumental German Dictionary and his Deutsche Mythologie .
Adapted from Wikipedia.
Indo-European stop consonants, represented in Germanic, underwent the regular changes that Grimm's Law describes; this law essentially states that Indo-European p shifted to Germanic f, t shifted to th, and k shifted to h. Indo-European b shifted to Germanic p, d shifted to t, and g shifted to k. Indo-European bh shifted to Germanic b, dh shifted to d, and gh shifted to g.
This jurist and mythologist also authored the monumental German Dictionary and his Deutsche Mythologie .
Adapted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
March 17, 2024
enough to put you off of fairy tales for life.
April 14, 2019
This collection of stories once again told me that I'm not very big on fairytales. Or more specifically the repetitiveness of them. Where I did enjoy the first half of the 57 fairytales, cause the ones I knew where in there, the second half just dragged and dragged and dragged.
The fact that I didn't know any of the tales, or cared for them didn't help. The fact that the same story, with some slight differences got told three times in a row neither. I think I would've rated the book higher had there been some shuffle between the stories so that I didn't have to read the same story over and over again.
Next to that, most of the stories either didn't make any sense, or consisted of only dickheads and women whose sole purpose was to get married to whoever and be a wife or just to serve a man in general. Every man in this book was either jealous, mean-hearted, a straight up ass or unlikeable to read about. But for some reason they still had all the good things happening to them. Right.
This compilation of tales would have been so much better if they had just scrapped about the last 20-25 tales, cause until that point they were somewhat enjoyable. The only good thing that came out of this is that I could pinpoint where authors of other books have gotten inspiration from these tales, that was kinda funny to do.
Yeah, reading this won't add anything useful to your life in my opinion, you can skip it with ease.
The fact that I didn't know any of the tales, or cared for them didn't help. The fact that the same story, with some slight differences got told three times in a row neither. I think I would've rated the book higher had there been some shuffle between the stories so that I didn't have to read the same story over and over again.
Next to that, most of the stories either didn't make any sense, or consisted of only dickheads and women whose sole purpose was to get married to whoever and be a wife or just to serve a man in general. Every man in this book was either jealous, mean-hearted, a straight up ass or unlikeable to read about. But for some reason they still had all the good things happening to them. Right.
This compilation of tales would have been so much better if they had just scrapped about the last 20-25 tales, cause until that point they were somewhat enjoyable. The only good thing that came out of this is that I could pinpoint where authors of other books have gotten inspiration from these tales, that was kinda funny to do.
Yeah, reading this won't add anything useful to your life in my opinion, you can skip it with ease.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2020
A collection of fairytales is a beautiful leather edition. Seeing this at my old job I had to have it as it wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would. I have been brought up with a lot of fairytales but it’s always fun to read more.
This collection covers all there is to fairytales. You have mostly the basic plot with a kingdom, a princess, a soldier, a witch and some magic spell or a talking animal.
That’s basically it. That’s all there is to these fairytales. They felt so repetitive after reading a couple that I skipped a bunch just to enjoy myself. Don’t get me wrong it’s a beautiful collection and I think children would love hearing the stories. Unfortunately, in this age and time it’s better for some stories to be buried. The way POV’s are treated is just not good. Women are portrayed as these helpless creatures that are only good for bearing children and marriage. So to say it shortly most of these stories don’t hold up as good as I thought they would. Lastly, I always thought the point of a fairytale is that it has to a moral to the story. The greedy man learns that it’s better to live with less, the vain mother learns that beauty comes from within, stuff like that. Well I was surprised that of all the stories I read there wasn’t as much moral as I thought there would be.
A beautiful edition on your shelves but something that doesn’t hold up with the age of time.
This collection covers all there is to fairytales. You have mostly the basic plot with a kingdom, a princess, a soldier, a witch and some magic spell or a talking animal.
That’s basically it. That’s all there is to these fairytales. They felt so repetitive after reading a couple that I skipped a bunch just to enjoy myself. Don’t get me wrong it’s a beautiful collection and I think children would love hearing the stories. Unfortunately, in this age and time it’s better for some stories to be buried. The way POV’s are treated is just not good. Women are portrayed as these helpless creatures that are only good for bearing children and marriage. So to say it shortly most of these stories don’t hold up as good as I thought they would. Lastly, I always thought the point of a fairytale is that it has to a moral to the story. The greedy man learns that it’s better to live with less, the vain mother learns that beauty comes from within, stuff like that. Well I was surprised that of all the stories I read there wasn’t as much moral as I thought there would be.
A beautiful edition on your shelves but something that doesn’t hold up with the age of time.
February 10, 2019
It was so sexist and I often had to put down out of frustration. But it was also fun to read this many original fairytales, plus it is still the most gorgeous book I own haha
March 16, 2022
The collection of Grimm’s stories has just reignited my passion of love for fairy tales. These fairy tales aren’t as familiar to me as some others that I have grown up with, but this is why I love reading collections because now I have found some favourites. I also loved coming back to it and reading the originals and seeing how they differ from the adaptations (mostly done by Disney), I loved reading it in all its gory, in its anticipation of happily ever after, and of course the adventures and quests along the way.
I was actually surprised at the horror and the adult themes, because of Disney watering it down you forget just how ‘grown up’ they actually read which I did enjoy.
This is a collection of tales I will be for sure re-visiting time and time again, and I am already telling some stories to my nieces and nephews (adapting them and putting my own spin on them).
I especially loved this edition (Oxford World’s Classics) it had a preface describing how the stories were collected, the importance of preserving stories and customs of oral storytelling, all of which I'm hugely fascinated by so was so happy to find this in there.
The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is that these tales are outdated, and it is important to recognise and acknowledge the misogynistic/sexist and often offensive remarks.
I was actually surprised at the horror and the adult themes, because of Disney watering it down you forget just how ‘grown up’ they actually read which I did enjoy.
This is a collection of tales I will be for sure re-visiting time and time again, and I am already telling some stories to my nieces and nephews (adapting them and putting my own spin on them).
I especially loved this edition (Oxford World’s Classics) it had a preface describing how the stories were collected, the importance of preserving stories and customs of oral storytelling, all of which I'm hugely fascinated by so was so happy to find this in there.
The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is that these tales are outdated, and it is important to recognise and acknowledge the misogynistic/sexist and often offensive remarks.
June 23, 2022
Ha sido una experiencia curiosa entrar en los orígenes de muchos cuentos de hadas como los que aparecen en esta selección de los hermanos Grimm. Los tiempos han cambiado muchos elementos en la Cenicienta o Blancanieves, han dejado a la Princesa y el sapo irreconocibles o ni siquiera han tocado a ningún elemento de Hansel y Gretel, pero la magia y el folclore rural sigue estando presente en cada capítulo.
Caracterizados por su brevedad y por un marco común, la mayoría de los cuentos incluidos son bien conocidos como los ya mencionados. El ritmo general de la narración hace que incluso me hayan gustado aquellos que no conocía. Tengo que destacar que quizás lo más sorprendente ha sido lo extraños que resultan muchos de ellos, comprendiendo una concatenación de elementos que no siempre tiene causa y efecto - por no decir que rayan en lo totalmente absurdo - o bien basados en una excesiva repetición de la misma fórmula - siendo tres un número mágico de veces - para que cambie algo. También es habitual en la recta final del cuento que los malvados sean castigados con muertes algo escabrosas.
Aunque no me parecen sensacionales, recomiendo la experiencia de leerlos para sorprenderse de la estructura narrativa y de las extrañas circunstancias que forman parte de la raíz de estos cuentos.
Caracterizados por su brevedad y por un marco común, la mayoría de los cuentos incluidos son bien conocidos como los ya mencionados. El ritmo general de la narración hace que incluso me hayan gustado aquellos que no conocía. Tengo que destacar que quizás lo más sorprendente ha sido lo extraños que resultan muchos de ellos, comprendiendo una concatenación de elementos que no siempre tiene causa y efecto - por no decir que rayan en lo totalmente absurdo - o bien basados en una excesiva repetición de la misma fórmula - siendo tres un número mágico de veces - para que cambie algo. También es habitual en la recta final del cuento que los malvados sean castigados con muertes algo escabrosas.
Aunque no me parecen sensacionales, recomiendo la experiencia de leerlos para sorprenderse de la estructura narrativa y de las extrañas circunstancias que forman parte de la raíz de estos cuentos.
November 22, 2021
I think I may not like fairytales after all. They just don’t really hold up nowadays, you get very quickly toted of the beautiful young princess who gets married to the hero after having exchanged two words. Also that edition, although very beautiful, is SO repetitive. The editor could ha e offered a smaller selection, or at least shuffled them a bit so that you don’t have two tales that are the same but with a different animal back to back. All in all a tedious read.
August 28, 2019
Happily ever after...
This is a new entry in Oxford World’s Classics gorgeous hardback series, which so far seems to be concentrating on classic collections of short stories. Like most people, I know some of the Grimms’ stories from childhood, though in a bowdlerised version, and from Disney, pantomimes, ballets, etc. However, I’ve only tried to read the originals once before, in Philip Pullman’s version. He’d modernised the language horribly and tried to put in some archly knowing little jokes, and I disliked it all so much I only got about a third of the way through. So when I saw that this collection is a modern translation too, I was a bit apprehensive. Of course, I needn’t have worried – as always the OWC have treated the stories with respect and the translator, Joyce Crick, has done an excellent job of using standard modern English, making the stories easily approachable and enjoyable, while still retaining the sense of antiquity which gives them part of their charm. She tells us she has striven to return the stories as far as possible to the Grimms, by stripping out the layers that some later translations and adaptations have added over the years.
The book includes the Grimms’ Preface to the Second Edition where they explain how the stories were collected, from where, and that the point was to preserve the stories before the custom of oral storytelling died out. However the interesting main introduction, also by Joyce Crick, reveals that some at least of the stories were not collected from peasants but from friends of the Grimms from their own social class, recounting tales they had been told in their childhoods. Crick uses the introduction to supply some historical context to the stories, an insight into the then-contemporary drive to collect folklore, and to give some background about the brothers’ lives, while also looking more academically at the relevance of the stories to their own time and place.
While many of the stories could be shared with children, either to read themselves or to have read aloud to them, others may be less suitable, either because of some fairly strong images of horror or simply because of the more adult themes they contain. This volume is clearly aimed primarily at the adult reader, with the introductions, appendices and notes, and also because it lacks illustrations. Crick explains: “The present edition has no pictures, though its conversations have certainly invited them, taking place as ever between a princess and a frog, or a wolf and a girl in a red bonnet, or two frightened children in the forest, but also between a disgruntled fiddler and a Jew, and between a boy-giant and an officious bailiff. So this selection finds itself aimed at readers who once read these tales in their childhood, or had them read to them, and are returning to them late, apple bitten, naivety lost, in history. It was Jacob Grimm who spoke of a ‘lost Paradise of poesy’.”
There are 82 stories in the collection, including all the best known ones, like Rapunzel, Snow White, Cinderella, although sometimes not going by those names – here we have the originals rather than the versions that have developed over time. So Cinderella appears here as Ashypet, and we have the spirit of her dead mother sending her aid rather than a wand-wielding fairy godmother. But there are also lots that I either didn’t know or hadn’t heard for many years, so I found it an excellent mix of the familiar and the new. There’s humour, horror, lots of poor girls finding their Princes and even some poor men finding their Princesses, animal fables, morality tales, supernatural intervention and human goodness and evil. There are quite a lot of stories that repeat or echo other ones, but each time with enough of a different take to allow them to stand as individual.
I loved the retellings of all the stories I already loved – Rapunzel, The Singing Bone, The Tale of the Boy Who Set Out to Learn Fear (some great horror imagery and lots of humour in that one), The Tale of the Fisherman, etc. But I found lots of new favourites too, including Cat and Mouse as Partners (a timely warning of the perfidy of our beloved felines), Faithful John (horrific in parts, but they all live happily ever after, even the beheaded children!), The Three Little Men in the Forest (which I’m sure I’ve come across before but for some reason particularly enjoyed the way it’s told here), Clever Hans (lots of humour enhanced by some lovely repetition). And on and on... too many to list. There were very few I didn’t enjoy – a couple that felt unnecessarily cruel, like Sensible Elsie whose fate seemed rather worse than she deserved, and a couple which had rather ugly depictions of Jews – of their time, but didn’t sit comfortably with me in today’s world.
Overall, I loved this collection, and will undoubtedly dip into it again often. I heartily recommend it to anyone who doesn’t know the stories and would like to, or to people who are already familiar with them but would have their appreciation enhanced by the great extras always found in OWC editions, in terms of the introduction, appendices and notes.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Oxford World’s Classics.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
This is a new entry in Oxford World’s Classics gorgeous hardback series, which so far seems to be concentrating on classic collections of short stories. Like most people, I know some of the Grimms’ stories from childhood, though in a bowdlerised version, and from Disney, pantomimes, ballets, etc. However, I’ve only tried to read the originals once before, in Philip Pullman’s version. He’d modernised the language horribly and tried to put in some archly knowing little jokes, and I disliked it all so much I only got about a third of the way through. So when I saw that this collection is a modern translation too, I was a bit apprehensive. Of course, I needn’t have worried – as always the OWC have treated the stories with respect and the translator, Joyce Crick, has done an excellent job of using standard modern English, making the stories easily approachable and enjoyable, while still retaining the sense of antiquity which gives them part of their charm. She tells us she has striven to return the stories as far as possible to the Grimms, by stripping out the layers that some later translations and adaptations have added over the years.
The book includes the Grimms’ Preface to the Second Edition where they explain how the stories were collected, from where, and that the point was to preserve the stories before the custom of oral storytelling died out. However the interesting main introduction, also by Joyce Crick, reveals that some at least of the stories were not collected from peasants but from friends of the Grimms from their own social class, recounting tales they had been told in their childhoods. Crick uses the introduction to supply some historical context to the stories, an insight into the then-contemporary drive to collect folklore, and to give some background about the brothers’ lives, while also looking more academically at the relevance of the stories to their own time and place.
While many of the stories could be shared with children, either to read themselves or to have read aloud to them, others may be less suitable, either because of some fairly strong images of horror or simply because of the more adult themes they contain. This volume is clearly aimed primarily at the adult reader, with the introductions, appendices and notes, and also because it lacks illustrations. Crick explains: “The present edition has no pictures, though its conversations have certainly invited them, taking place as ever between a princess and a frog, or a wolf and a girl in a red bonnet, or two frightened children in the forest, but also between a disgruntled fiddler and a Jew, and between a boy-giant and an officious bailiff. So this selection finds itself aimed at readers who once read these tales in their childhood, or had them read to them, and are returning to them late, apple bitten, naivety lost, in history. It was Jacob Grimm who spoke of a ‘lost Paradise of poesy’.”
There are 82 stories in the collection, including all the best known ones, like Rapunzel, Snow White, Cinderella, although sometimes not going by those names – here we have the originals rather than the versions that have developed over time. So Cinderella appears here as Ashypet, and we have the spirit of her dead mother sending her aid rather than a wand-wielding fairy godmother. But there are also lots that I either didn’t know or hadn’t heard for many years, so I found it an excellent mix of the familiar and the new. There’s humour, horror, lots of poor girls finding their Princes and even some poor men finding their Princesses, animal fables, morality tales, supernatural intervention and human goodness and evil. There are quite a lot of stories that repeat or echo other ones, but each time with enough of a different take to allow them to stand as individual.
I loved the retellings of all the stories I already loved – Rapunzel, The Singing Bone, The Tale of the Boy Who Set Out to Learn Fear (some great horror imagery and lots of humour in that one), The Tale of the Fisherman, etc. But I found lots of new favourites too, including Cat and Mouse as Partners (a timely warning of the perfidy of our beloved felines), Faithful John (horrific in parts, but they all live happily ever after, even the beheaded children!), The Three Little Men in the Forest (which I’m sure I’ve come across before but for some reason particularly enjoyed the way it’s told here), Clever Hans (lots of humour enhanced by some lovely repetition). And on and on... too many to list. There were very few I didn’t enjoy – a couple that felt unnecessarily cruel, like Sensible Elsie whose fate seemed rather worse than she deserved, and a couple which had rather ugly depictions of Jews – of their time, but didn’t sit comfortably with me in today’s world.
Overall, I loved this collection, and will undoubtedly dip into it again often. I heartily recommend it to anyone who doesn’t know the stories and would like to, or to people who are already familiar with them but would have their appreciation enhanced by the great extras always found in OWC editions, in terms of the introduction, appendices and notes.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Oxford World’s Classics.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
November 22, 2020
Huge disappointment
January 1, 2020
Already owned this book for a while, and found it here on goodreads, so thought I'd review it! Really love this book and the collection of tales. Really nice to read some of the original style fairytales, and different style of writing than I normally read. Definitely a gorgeous looking book...which is partly the main reason I got it to look cute on my book shelf!
July 18, 2012
Many of our much loved fairytales stem from the collaborative works of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm. They are familiar, homely, frightening and fantastic. With settings from the humble home, enchanted forests and grand palaces, you are sure to find a tale you will enjoy.
The Oxford collection of the Grimm tales is a raw change from the 'happily ever after' of Walt Disney. While many of our familiar fairytales are included, they are shrouded with darker material. Rooted in Germanic folklore and Norse poetry, these morality tales provide an education to it's readers. Although the original variants of some of the tales may be deemed as unsuitable for children it is clear that manyy hold moral messages, particularly that of 'Little Red Cap' wherein it highlights the dangers of strangers.
The concept of storytelling has been around for centuries and whilst being recited for aural pleasure it it not without it's moralistic undertones. Be it to provide such lessons, to sooth a child, for character development or for a simple bedtime story. It is undeniable that fairytales are pivotal in aiding the development of a child's outlook of the outside world, their home and themselves.
For use in the classroom, the Grimm tales can be used as the basis for BIG Writing where they can write a modern fairytale, for speaking and listening to word and sound patterns as well as providing a platform for acting out the tales. Having read some of the Grimm tales to Year Four children it was apparent that they thoroughly enjoyed the darker, mystical aspect of the tale and it spurred them on to creating their own creative tales.
The Oxford collection of the Grimm tales is a raw change from the 'happily ever after' of Walt Disney. While many of our familiar fairytales are included, they are shrouded with darker material. Rooted in Germanic folklore and Norse poetry, these morality tales provide an education to it's readers. Although the original variants of some of the tales may be deemed as unsuitable for children it is clear that manyy hold moral messages, particularly that of 'Little Red Cap' wherein it highlights the dangers of strangers.
The concept of storytelling has been around for centuries and whilst being recited for aural pleasure it it not without it's moralistic undertones. Be it to provide such lessons, to sooth a child, for character development or for a simple bedtime story. It is undeniable that fairytales are pivotal in aiding the development of a child's outlook of the outside world, their home and themselves.
For use in the classroom, the Grimm tales can be used as the basis for BIG Writing where they can write a modern fairytale, for speaking and listening to word and sound patterns as well as providing a platform for acting out the tales. Having read some of the Grimm tales to Year Four children it was apparent that they thoroughly enjoyed the darker, mystical aspect of the tale and it spurred them on to creating their own creative tales.
April 2, 2016
My favourite part of the tales was the 'riddles'...
King: If someone hypothetical person did exactly the abominable thing you did, what punishment would you give them?
Wicked person: I would roll them down a hill in a barrel of spikes and then have their body ripped apart by oxen
King: HA HA HA GOT YOU! that shall be your fate. Oh! how clever I am
How does this work every time?! However it did tickle me so I guess job well done!
King: If someone hypothetical person did exactly the abominable thing you did, what punishment would you give them?
Wicked person: I would roll them down a hill in a barrel of spikes and then have their body ripped apart by oxen
King: HA HA HA GOT YOU! that shall be your fate. Oh! how clever I am
How does this work every time?! However it did tickle me so I guess job well done!
December 27, 2016
I enjoyed reliving my childhood through these tales.
February 24, 2024
I guess this book was alright...There were a lot of times when I was a bit weirded out by the way the stories were going. I really liked the stories where they ended in a very gruesome way, I didn't wanted a happy ending I wanted a bad ending 👹👹. One of my most favourite stories was Clever Elsie. It was so stupid and funny, how can one even come up with a story like that. I have always liked the brothers Grimm and their tales.
May 29, 2020
only took me two years to get through this, i feel like i read the same stories like four times and i definitely like slightly more modern versions better
November 30, 2023
A collection of some Grimm fairy tales. They were much darker than we know them today and there were a few I’ve never heard of. I especially liked the original Cinderella!
March 19, 2009
It has been a very interesting voyage for me since my childhood, and the Disney version of such familiar tales. Here are the more scholarly, more engaging editions of a good selection of the stories collected by the Grimm Brothers. I can see where Terry Gilliam gets a lot of his strange visuals, not just for the Brothers Grimm, but also the first of Baron Munchausen's tall tales with the Six Who Went Far in the World. Will and Jake were definitely off in their own world, populated by wicked but easily-fooled witches and queen, useless older siblings, and the more fortunate youngest (usually the third child), and various dead beings brought back to life in innocuous ways. Also a tip for kiddies wanting to get their way, all you have to do is keep badging your parents, and they will let you do all the things that are expressly forbidden. The brevity of these tale spare no unnecessary detail, as most oral tradition gets to the good stuff quickly. Only the few stories translated into a thick brogue to match the Austrian or other Germanic dialect the stories we first written down took their time to get through, often having to reread a passage or flip to the glossary in the appendix. Nice also to see JRR Tolkien's writing on myth and fairy tales referenced in the introduction.
October 19, 2012
I loved reading the harsh and grisly details of traditional folklore, and watching the popular motifs appear time and again was fun. Until, I suddenly realized I've read one too many. Then I had to stop. No more. No more envious step mothers, no more parents who readily give their children to strangers or leave them to die a slow lonely death in the woods because food is scarce. No more beautiful young princesses who offer themselves up in marriage to anyone who can solve their problem, only to try to have their hero killed because they don't really want to marry. No more grisly deaths at the end of each and every story.
I get it. Everything happens in threes, 3 tasks, 3 attempts, 3 siblings, 3 whatever. Maybe this book goes in threes too; maybe it's impossible to finish all of the tales in one reading. Maybe it takes three? It was great while it lasted, and I'm sure I'll come back to it in a few years. But for now, I'm done.
I get it. Everything happens in threes, 3 tasks, 3 attempts, 3 siblings, 3 whatever. Maybe this book goes in threes too; maybe it's impossible to finish all of the tales in one reading. Maybe it takes three? It was great while it lasted, and I'm sure I'll come back to it in a few years. But for now, I'm done.
August 3, 2022
This is a collection of fairy tales, that were collected around Europe in the early 1800s. For this reason, you can't apply modern ideals to them. It's full of sexism and misogyny. Women are for marriage and motherhood and need a big strong man to save them. If that's going to bother you, don't bother reading this.
I really like fairy tales. The Disney versions are what I knew from my childhood, so I've wanted to read the original versions for a while. They're a lot more gory and interesting than the versions I remember 😂
My only real complaint is in the order of the stories. Some of them are nearly identical, but they are one after the other in the book. It would have been better to separate these stories a little so it doesn't feel like you're reading repeats.
I really like fairy tales. The Disney versions are what I knew from my childhood, so I've wanted to read the original versions for a while. They're a lot more gory and interesting than the versions I remember 😂
My only real complaint is in the order of the stories. Some of them are nearly identical, but they are one after the other in the book. It would have been better to separate these stories a little so it doesn't feel like you're reading repeats.
August 4, 2022
Easy to read, and interesting to see older versions of well known tales. Also well ordered to see repeating themes. However, I couldn't bring myself to make a huge effort to analyse them, and without this the book was a bit lacking. Perhaps better dipped in and out of
August 5, 2012
Worth a read for the bizarre factor alone: especially for the tale about the boy born half human half hedgehog. No idea what the results of Freudian literary analysis would be though...!
August 11, 2022
Sympa de lire ce livre mais au final assez répétitif dans le schéma de construction, des personnages et des morales
July 19, 2024
Wow, people really didn't know how to tell a story two centuries ago. It is profound how many of these stories have become foundational stories (Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, etc.) the world over after reading their original versions here. Fairy tales and whimsy are one thing - complete nonsense is another.
Many (most?) of these stories sound as if they were told by an agitated 5-year old who has just consumed too much sugar: "And there was a fox, and the fox said to the hunter 'If you let me go, I'll tell you where the golden bird is', but then the fox turned into a crow? And the crow was dead? But the hunter opened its mouth and inside it was a ruby and when the ruby was removed the crow was alive again ! And then a princess came, who was also sleeping by the river, and she was the most beautiful princess ever, and the hunter gave her the ruby and they lived happily for ever"
Many (most?) of these stories sound as if they were told by an agitated 5-year old who has just consumed too much sugar: "And there was a fox, and the fox said to the hunter 'If you let me go, I'll tell you where the golden bird is', but then the fox turned into a crow? And the crow was dead? But the hunter opened its mouth and inside it was a ruby and when the ruby was removed the crow was alive again ! And then a princess came, who was also sleeping by the river, and she was the most beautiful princess ever, and the hunter gave her the ruby and they lived happily for ever"
September 12, 2019
I love fairy tales. I always have. I just wish that some of Grimms' fairy tales had been a little less repetitive. I get it. They were to teach lessons. But don't give me three stories with the same plot and the same message and the same everything but change it from 5 characters to 6. I guess it's because when they were travelling around and collecting these, the same story existed in variants from different villages etc. so they just recorded them all. And when telling fairy tales they could pick whichever they thought would please each crowd. I GET why there are variants. I just think they maybe should have been left out of this collection.
December 3, 2022
Het mag gezegd worden: sprookjes zijn underrated! Het was heerlijk om door dit boek vol Europese folklore te bladeren. Sommige verhaaltjes hebben een goed einde, sommige een slecht. Sommige verhaaltjes zijn luchtig, andere duister. Sommige verhaaltjes willen een boodschap overbrengen, sommige lijken compleet random. Je weet nooit wat je kan verwachten (alhoewel de typische clichés vaak terugkomen).
De Engelse vertalingen in deze editie van Grimm waren echt heel goed. Ik miste wel de knotsgekke verhaaltjes uit de editie die ik van Lotte heb geleend. Iedere editie zal zo wel zijn voor- en nadelen hebben.
De Engelse vertalingen in deze editie van Grimm waren echt heel goed. Ik miste wel de knotsgekke verhaaltjes uit de editie die ik van Lotte heb geleend. Iedere editie zal zo wel zijn voor- en nadelen hebben.
November 13, 2020
Firstly the layout of this book was bad. Maybe the editor didn’t want to format the stories in a normal manner because the stories were so short but that decision made this a pain to read.
If you lost your place in a page good luck trying to find it again on some pages.
Other than that major annoyance it’s filled with some great little stories and even though some of them are very similar (proving the way stories could change through oral story telling) they were mostly easy to read and understand the meaning behind.
If you lost your place in a page good luck trying to find it again on some pages.
Other than that major annoyance it’s filled with some great little stories and even though some of them are very similar (proving the way stories could change through oral story telling) they were mostly easy to read and understand the meaning behind.
March 4, 2024
This book really entertained me.
I loved it from the beginning, how the stories came about and the brothers background as I didn't know much about them.
Some of the stories are a little odd and I'm not sure if I would read all of them to my children, however, I enjoyed over 80% of the stories.
This is a book I would highly recommend for anyone who wants a bit if a laugh, something easy to read and a bit of history into some of Walt Disney's version of the classic fairy tales that we know and love.
I loved it from the beginning, how the stories came about and the brothers background as I didn't know much about them.
Some of the stories are a little odd and I'm not sure if I would read all of them to my children, however, I enjoyed over 80% of the stories.
This is a book I would highly recommend for anyone who wants a bit if a laugh, something easy to read and a bit of history into some of Walt Disney's version of the classic fairy tales that we know and love.
January 9, 2024
I would really like to give it a higher rate but honestly there were so many absurd & sexist elements in there I couldn't stomach. I did like to read some of these fairy tales again, to immerse myself in the magical worlds of them and read the stories as they were written back in the day (that is, not censored for the sake of children). Livraria Lello's edition also made it more enjoyable for sure but only to some point where things got too chauvinistic and ridiculous.
February 12, 2024
Cette œuvre littéraire est un mélange de plusieurs fameux comptes connus par nombreux, avec de tournure sombre
Il m’est alors simplement impossible de noter ce livre, car il y avait des récits que j’ai adoré, néanmoins il y en a d’autres que j’ai trouvé trop répétitifs ou trop farfelus (Bien que je comprenne que ces comptes ont été initialement écrits pour des bambins.)
En tout cas, j’ai bien aimé la collection et je pense peut-être m’acheter d’autres histoires
Il m’est alors simplement impossible de noter ce livre, car il y avait des récits que j’ai adoré, néanmoins il y en a d’autres que j’ai trouvé trop répétitifs ou trop farfelus (Bien que je comprenne que ces comptes ont été initialement écrits pour des bambins.)
En tout cas, j’ai bien aimé la collection et je pense peut-être m’acheter d’autres histoires
September 7, 2024
It’s always the mother who is extremely cruel, never the father
The brave little Taylor is goated
In 80% of the stories the ultimate prize is marrying the kings daughter. Interesting to see how that was very much agreed upon by most to be the ultimate prize
They are so mixed on if they are good or not, if they even make sense or not
Of all the books I’ve read this has maybe made my vocabulary the most colourful. I love to quote the stories indirectly
7.5/10
The brave little Taylor is goated
In 80% of the stories the ultimate prize is marrying the kings daughter. Interesting to see how that was very much agreed upon by most to be the ultimate prize
They are so mixed on if they are good or not, if they even make sense or not
Of all the books I’ve read this has maybe made my vocabulary the most colourful. I love to quote the stories indirectly
7.5/10
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