The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of Grimm Brothers: The Complete First Edition collects 200 stories and 10 "Children's Legends" collected by the Brothers Grimm in Germany. Over the decades (1812-1857), the Grimm Brothers would release seven editions of their fairy tale collection, each time adding or revising stories until they had 210 in total (the first release had 86). Here, you'll find classics you know as well as one-paragraph riddles or cautionary tales.
The classics you know are here:
The Frog King
Rapunzel
Hansel and Gretel
Cinderella
Little Red-Cap (Little Red Riding Hood)
The Bremen Town Musicians
Hans in Luck
The Elves
Little Briar-Rose (Sleeping Beauty)
Snow White
Rumpelstiltskin
And plenty you don't know. Recurring themes include:
- wicked stepmothers doing cruel things to their children
- princesses making suitors do impossible tasks for their hand in marriage
- people tricking each other (and the devil)
- powerful magicians using their magic for good or ill
- lots of stories in forests
Review
This disappointed me. I got this version (ISBN 9781503275836) because I thought it was the original version of the fairy tales (those original 86 in the first edition), in the original versions that weren't considered suitable for children (subsequent releases would soften the stories). Alas, it was falsely advertised: all the stories, in later iterations, are here instead. And it was a print on demand book, too.
I read about 50 of the stories; aside from the familiar, there's little of value here. Occasionally you'll find a witty or interesting story, but those are overpowered by the prevalence of bizarre and and seemingly pointless tales. I now understand why many collections present only the familiar stories.
Rating: B-
No comments:
Post a Comment