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Summary: Fairy tales:unwatered and uncensored
Review: An excellent collection of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Its good to find collections of their tales out there that are not just watered down versions. Jack Zipes, who has also translated wonderful editions of the thousand and one nights and a collection of French Fairy Tales(both highly recommended) does an excellent job with the Grimms and provides interesting commentary about the orgins of the tales. My favorite story in particalar was one about a tailor, I can't remember the name.(Yes, I know there are a million stories about tailors but this was the one where the tailor gets blinded and his traveling companion treats him horribly) This edition even includes all of the stories that were even too violent for the Grimm Brothers. One called "How Some Children Played at Slaughtering" is especially unappetizing. All in all I recommend this book to anyone who would like a little enchantment in their lives. By the way, the cover of this book is just gorgous, nice illustrations inside also.
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Summary: A great investment!
Review: Being a great fan of the brothers grimms fairy tales, this book was one of the best investments I ever made. It has countless stories to read for both adults and children. This book translates really well and also has the original german titles in the back. It covers all the famous tales by the brother grimms ever made with great detail. It even has some drawings among a few tales that add well to this wonderful book.
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Summary: Who Should Read Grimms' Fairy Tales?
Review: I believe anyone who wants to discover the origins and roots of their favorite fairy tales should read this book. Many stories, such as Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, are in this collection. But there are some differences in the content. Many stories are more violent and gruesome than the stories we are used to. Many tales end in a horrid death. Some stories are nothing like the ones known today. Hansel and Grettel has nothing to do with a candy house and a children-baking witch! Therefore, I would not recommend this book to young children or to parents who would read this to their children. Also, if you are looking for lots of pictures, this book is not for you. Out of the 55 stories, there are only about 15 pictures, which are hard to make out. Most of the stories run with the same theme of princesses and magical creatures. Therefore, I would have to recommend Grimms' Fairy Tales to avid readers who do not get easily disturbed by bloody descriptions or get bored by same-concept stories.
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Summary: Fairy Tales
Review: I do like this book but I really didn't think they needed a third edition, when the second one is perfectly fine.
This is the book to get for these classic wonderful fairy tales that we all have grown up with.
There the few stories that many people know all over the world and something that we all can enjoy, no matter how old we get.
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Summary: Things were different back then...
Review: In regards to a previous review, there are a few things to consider when reading the Brothers Grimm. They are not stories for today's children, nor were they intended for children when they were written. If you read the review given above, it clearly states that this collection is more of a nostalgic indulgence. I love to reread my favorite fairytales and see what Disney was hiding from us. It's fun! Not to sound too "Gore is cool," but I'm older now-- I can handle the evil stepsisters cutting off their heels or toes to fit in to the glass slipper. And the beheadings, while gruesome, simply reflect the time period of the stories. Also, let us remember that while there may be a reference to God here and there, this is NOT a religious book. For example, the story "Peasant in Heaven" struck me as one big joke! While some feel it is teaching the wrong lesson, I read it a timeless punch line-- the angels celebrated because hardly any rich men get in to Heaven. Ha! It's like a stupid man getting into Harvard or Yale. With Eve's children, the same basic principle applies. It's not that the Grimms were saying, "Beauty is everything, and ugly children deserve a beating." Sometimes to learn a lesson, you must make a mistake. This story is put here not to learn the what to do, but what NOT to do. Lessons can be learned more effectively sometimes by negative reinforcement. The writing is good, I think, for a translated text. repeated text in a fairytale is necessary, I think, to drive home a point. Some characters need to say the same exact thing in different situations in order to reveal the irony and the comedy behind some stories. The endings might be predictable to some people since we know the basic theme behind most of them and the fairytale pattern is repeated for all the stories. ...well, what's that? (If you don't know what I mean, read the other reviews and figure it out). To sum it up, Grimms is not for kids, but for adults who like to revisit their childhood. Sometimes the stories will make you, laugh, perhaps even cry or cringe, and sometimes you'll learn a lesson or reinforce an old one. Either way, this book is part of history. ...
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Summary: A Fairy Tale book for adults
Review: Like most children, I grew up with the stories of Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretal, Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White and a host of other Grimms Fairy Tales. Now I am grown, my children are grown, and I just happened upon this book and decided to treat myself, to bring back memories of a past childhood maybe. Well, it didn't completely do that, as the stories are certainly not, for the most part, the stories that I knew as a child. They are not the glossed over, perfect happy endings that we think of when we think of 'Fairy Tales'. This book has the tales the way they were originally written, complete with enough violence, blood-shed and gore that would make even Freddie Kreuger cringe. But they are also full of humour, life lessons and morals that we could all learn from. The notes at the back of the book are also very informative. Each story title is given it's original German translation, with information on when it was first published and the source from whence it came. The section of Omitted Tales is particularly interesting. These tales were originally ommitted due to either their gruesomeness, similarity to other tales or for other reasons stated in the notes at the back. For those people who want the 'real stuff' and not the 'sugar coated variety' then this is for you. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Wanted book with larger text possibly more illustrations.
Review: Not quite as much a book I will reach for because type is fairly small-- wanted more of a richly presented illustrated (perhaps one per story) treasury. If you are looking for visually interesting text or illustrations-- better keep looking. If you want a record of stories for reference-- of for adult reading-- perhaps this will suit you.
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Summary: Love it!!
Review: One big fat collection of Grimm's fairy tales all wrapped up in one inexpensive compendium. Who could ask for more. Now I something to read to my kids that isn't all buttered & Disney'd up.
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Summary: :>
Review: These are actually quite hillarious! So many are quite random and seem to make no sense, and will provide hours of laughter for all you bored people out there.
Forget Disney--these are uncensored and not apologizing to anyone. And little kids will get used to them. It's not an especial problem to all you new-age "don't scare the children!" types. Besides...you can talk about them with the kids afterwards;)
Ah, German fairytales:>
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Summary: The student's dream edition
Review: This book not only comes with almost 300 stories, but a introduction that covers the Grimm brothers lives and their gathering of the stories. In the end it also has a very thick glossary that covers the credits of each story, most even say who the exact source the story came from. It's a literary masterpiece full of the Grimm's collected folklore and almost thirty new stories that I myself have searched for everywhere and couldn't find exept in this copy. Don't let the different names of a few of the stories through you though, every story had origanaly abuot five names and are referred to by anyone in different editions and company's prints. This is truely a grand buy for anyone who just wants to have a book with some illustrations and tons of stories for thier kids, or wants to reseach them. If this is for kids, I'm sure you know to be careful, some of the stories are very gruesome.
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