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The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm
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The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

by Jacob Grimm

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Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Peter Glassman are not the original tales as told by the Grimm brothers. This book is a collection of re-told classic tales, such as Rapunzel, The Valiant Tailor, Rumpelstiltskin, Tom Thumb, and many more. The stories are accompanied by vivid illustrations that enhance the content of the stories.

I’ll admit that I have a skewed outlook on fairy tales as I was brought up on Disney as a child. I was used to the very sanitized, heart-warming classics accompanied by feel good music and loveable characters. I did not realize what fairy tales used to be until I took a Folktale and Fairytale literature class in University. I was horrified by the true nature of the stories, but understood where they were coming from and developed a strange fascination with them. When I chose this book to review, I was hoping that the stories inside would be closer to the originals than to Disney, if that is the self-made spectrum that I am placing them on. Unfortunately, Glassman’s version of these well known tales disappointed. Though not as “fluffy” as some versions, these stories were still highly sterile and lacked the grit that really grabs the reader. In fact, the illustrations show more about the original nature of the text than the actual text does. I would recommend this book as an intermediate introduction to fairy tales, meaning that it is a little heavier than Disney but less graphic than the originals so would be more appropriate for a middle school audience. ( )
  adriannebaker85 | Nov 25, 2009 |
Excellent book. Read it and think how many current books/movies are based on these tales...
  RavRita | Oct 13, 2009 |
I decided to read the original Grimm's Fairy Tales, possibly the world's first set of collected fairy tales, shortly after finishing The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I loved Grimm's Fairy Tales for their darkness and originality. Although some of the fairy tales have become ubiquitous in our culture, such as "Hansel and Gretel," I enjoyed reading the original version. ( )
  06nwingert | Jul 25, 2009 |
I have a confession to make: I find it more convenient to acquire the collected works of an author long after they're dead. That gives the experts plenty of time to wage their wars on authenticity, and translators the time to properly translate all the ancient idioms into today's slang, and so forth.

Now, I don't wish any authors dead, as I'd rather they generate as much work as possible before I finish collecting it, but I just love it when I can get a copy of EVERY JOT AND TITTLE BY AUTHOR A, so I don't have to have too many books on my shelf.

Because of this quirk, The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales is a wonder for me. Within this work, I discovered a very interesting thing that the Disney generation would probably miss: The fairy tales were not intended solely for children (and at times, probably weren't suitable for children), but were instead intended for the people. The children's stories, however, are not fairy tales, per se, but are more religious morality tales featuring Jesus or the Apostles.

If you've been raised on Disney and colorful picture books, then reading the collected, uncut works may be a shock to you. They're pretty gruesome. And everybody had lice.

But, within its pages, we have all the great tales: Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding-Hood, and so forth. And unless you're a Grimm scholar, there will probably be a story in there that you've never heard of before.

I would probably not recommend this book for your children. Other people's children, maybe, but not yours, unless you don't want to molly-coddle them until they're 36. But, don't give it to your children expecting it to be the brightly-colored, sanitized version of all your favorite fairy tales. It is, instead, the grim (was that pun intended?) tales as originally written, and well worth the read. ( )
1 vote aethercowboy | Jun 11, 2009 |
Started reading these for book club, but they really got too repetitive to get through the whole lot. They were mostly a lot shorter and less detailed than I remember these stories being. The same themes come up again and again - three brothers, lots of gold, princesses, talking animals, wicked step parents. Of course they are classics in their way, but I didn't find these versions of the stories particularly engaging.

They weren't as gruesome or sexually charged as I'd hoped either! The intro makes clear these are still quite edited from the versions they originally collected. So while they can be a bit nastier than the disney versions they are still a bit cleaned up. ( )
  Honto | Jun 8, 2009 |
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
In olden times, when wishing still helped, there lived a king whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so beautiful that the sun itself, which had seen so many things, was always filled with amazement each time it cast its rays upon her face.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales is not at all equivalent to selections and editions intended for children.
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Book description
Intermediate and up. The stories in this comprehensive collection include very well-known tales to the more obscure. They are somewhat graphic in places (e.g. Cinderella’s stepsisters cutting into their feet to fit into the slipper, and being found out because of the inevitable trail of blood), but authentic. Good for an adult perusing the collection with a young reader, because picking and choosing might be important – though they are definitive, this is not the best collection for a young child just learning fairy tales.

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0394709306, Paperback)

For almost two centuries, the stories of magic and myth gathered by the Brothers Grimm have been part of the way children—and adults—learn about the vagaries of the real world. Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow-White, Hänsel and Gretel, Little Red-Cap (a.k.a. Little Red Riding Hood), and Briar-Rose (a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty) are only a few of more than 200 enchanting characters included here. Lyrically translated and beautifully illustrated, the tales are presented just as Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm originally set them down: bold, primal, just frightening enough, and endlessly engaging.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:57 -0400)

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