Grimms' Tales for Young and Old : The Complete Stories

Rating:
Summary: My first real taste of Grimms
Review: Before this book, I had only known the juvenile -"G" rated versions of Grimms. As I had to read this for summer reading, I have to say, it's a bit of an eye opener. This book is great for analysis- you can see why my English teacher picked it (guess he thought we needed a challenge as we already speak English) One fault I do find is in the title: Grimms' Tales...for YOUNG and Old? I would not recomend anyone under the age of maybe thirteen to read this book. I doubt they would understand it very well.

Rating:
Summary: My first real taste of Grimms
Review: Before this book, I had only known the juvenile -"G" rated versions of Grimms. As I had to read this for summer reading, I have to say, it's a bit of an eye opener. This book is great for analysis- you can see why my English teacher picked it (guess he thought we needed a challenge as we already speak English) One fault I do find is in the title: Grimms' Tales...for YOUNG and Old? I would not recomend anyone under the age of maybe thirteen to read this book. I doubt they would understand it very well.

Rating:
Summary: Dreamy world!
Review: How oft we remember dreaming - day dreams as a child and letting our imagination run wild! The Grimm's Fairy Tales are all *Five* Favourite Stars in my Read and Make Read collection in my Library. Some of my fav stories are:
1. Hansel & Gretel
2. Red Riding Hood
3. Snot White
4. Rumpelstiltskin
5. Cinderalla
6. Sleeping Beauty

Many More...you name it and these stories make your dreams sound true! Children love to read and listen. Even write reviews. This book is a famous collection of German Folk Tales by two brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. The first volume contained 86 tales and the second 70 and the last around 210 tales. The translations are perfect in this book and and took minute care to language details. The Grimms had taken pains to collect the tales mainly from friends and acquaintances who lived in and around a place called kassel in Germany and printed as expression of the spirit of german people. These retold stories with their own versions, the brothers have come out to suit public taste and their ideas about telling tales effectively. The translator Ralph Manheim has taken pains equally in translations! I recommend a 'Sure Sure Pick' whether one is a kid or a teen or even an Adult. Nothing like these stories will ever take you on a trip to wonderland! My Choice, of coz!

Rating:
Summary: Best Translation of Grimm
Review: I've always loved fairy tales, and I've never found a better version of Grimm's Tales. Why? The translation! Other versions tend to gloss over the details, taking away from the richness (and occasionally, gruesomeness) of the original. Manheim stays true to the spirit of the work in his translation, and the character of the original really shines through.

The best example I can give is one of the stories -- "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers." Other versions translate this as "The Boy who left home to find out what fear was." Why is this wrong? Well, the story is really about the physical effects of fear -- shivering. He didn't actually leave home to find out about fear itself. The gist of the story is that the main character never understood why his brother would "get the shivers" when he heard a scary story, so (among other reasons) he leaves home to seek his fortune. No matter what scary things he encounters, he never gets the shivers. Finally, at the end, the princess he married gets fed up with his whining about the shivers, and while he's sleeping, dumps a bucket of cold water full of minnows on him. He wakes up happy, saying "I'm shivering, I'm shivering!"

To this day, I use this story as a test of any translation of the Brothers Grimm.

Rating:
Summary: Great Collection of original work
Review: This book contains the stories and fairy tales presented by the Brothers Grimm in their original form (translated from German). There are 210 tales in this book, and some of the more well known of these stories include: Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel & Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel.... And the list goes on.

These original stories contain undertones that are lost with Disney-like euphemisms and euphemistic adaptations. This also means there are some ghastly contents to children, so be attentive. As well, it is unillustrated, and may be more difficult to relay to children, but any effort will be well worth it, in my opinion. At any rate, it could be good reading for adults who wish to discover the original version of some of the fairy tales they might have heard as a child.

Rating:
Summary: A terror & a delight -- but decidedly not for children
Review: This is a book to keep close at hand. Not only does it reveal the fact of those stories you must recall from your childhood, but also it does have aunique quality of they being told orally.

Besides that, these stories retain their sinister atmospheres, their haunting terrors, their violence and charm... look again to the face of Briar Rose and Snow White and see they are not as innocent maidens as you once thought.

My favorite in this book? "The Goose Girl" in all of its gory splendour.

Take care with this tome. It isn't the Grimms you knew as a kid, but you'll love them any way.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and accurate translation of the Grimms' Tales
Review: What a great read! As an adult reading this to myself I am enjoying these tales! Contrary to what most people think these tales truly are meant for adult ears and are of interest to all ages.

Manheim explains that in early translations these were incorrectly labeled fairy tales and mistakenly assumed they were stories for children only. Over and over I am shocked by the gruesome content and punishments. Punishment by entrapping someone inside a barrel lined with the nail heads and then rolling them down a hill, father cutting off his daughters hands to avoid harm to himself, etc.

The reason I began reading these was to get a purist idea of what the Grimms' tales were: having grown up on the Disney version I was curious about the real thing. I was surprised at what I found, and happy! I was hoping to retell these stories to my 3 year-old but I have yet to find one that is tame enough to retell to him, but that is okay.

The storytelling nature of this is truly captured and I am entranced by these tales. The translator explains in his preface that this was the first time that the tales were translated from German to English by one person who was reading the original Grimms' manuscripts. This was first published in 1977. Manheim explains how earlier translations by other translators were muddled and errors made which changed some words, and at worst enough of the content was erroneous that the reader was really missing out on the true flavor and intent of the story. Manheim claims his edition is the most pure English translation. I compared this with my copy of the Pantheon edition edited by James Stern, as I was reading both copies at the same time. I found that the Manheim edition made more sense, that is, that some words were correctly translated to English while the other book had some words that I had just never heard of and could not understand. What fun to read these tales! Reading this book has been more fun than reading some recent fictional works. I have a renewed interest in reading about the old folk tales and fables now. Indulge yourself and read this book!