The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

As a child, I loved to read fairy tales more than anything else. My grandmother had a collection of Grimms’ fairy tales and Andersen’s fairy tales, and I grabbed one or the other off of her bookshelf at the first opportunity on each visit. I had never read anything like Ralph Manheim’s translation of Grimms’ fairy tales. It reads like exactly what it is – a transcription of oral stories and legends, with the voice of the teller unobscured by an editor. Some stories have multiple variations with slight differences between them. This collection makes it clear that the stories had a social purpose and were used to encourage positive character traits and discourage negative character traits. Manheim’s translation belongs in the show more libraries of all readers with more than a casual interest in fairy tales and legends. show less

I started reading this book on January 2 of this year and I’ve been slowly, slowly working my way through it. It’s 752 pages and contains 211 stories. I think, if I had tried to read this book all at once, I probably would have given up on it. As it is, I’m not sure finishing it is the wisest thing I’ve ever done. It was entertaining at first, but it grew increasingly repetitive and tiresome. It was tolerable in small portions, though. It also made pretty good bedtime reading. I usually started off reading my regular book before bed but, if I wasn’t feeling tired as bedtime approached, I’d pull up this one and read a couple stories. More often than not, I was feeling quite sleepy after that. :)

The repetition cannot be show more understated. There were some stories that were nearly identical, with small changes to the details. In other cases, part of one story was cobbled together with part of another story to make a new story. In yet other cases, the story was more changed, but the underlying plot elements were very similar to that of other stories. As far as general themes and character types went, those were repeated constantly. Similar stories tended to be grouped together, which made the repetition that much more obvious.

I’m probably making it sound a little worse than it actually was. There were some entertaining stories and some funny stories. It was particularly interesting to see older versions of some of the modernized fairy tales that are well-known today. A few of the stories were so bizarre that I just started at my Kindle in puzzlement for a while before shrugging and moving on.

The stories are over 200 years old, and they very much reflect the morals and attitudes from that time. In particular, there is an awful lot of racism. Although I never lost sight of the fact that this was a product of the times in which the stories originated, I think the repetition made it more difficult for me to just acknowledge it and then move on.

I would like to leave you with a handful of the oft-repeated lessons that I “learned” from this collection:

• Pretty girls are always pure of heart.
  
  
• Ugly girls are always wicked.
  
  
• Princes are randomly wandering around all over the place, particularly in the forest, and they’ll marry the first pretty girl they see. Immediately.
  
  
• Your chances of being married by a prince are greatly increased if you’re poor or if you’ve been mistreated by your family.
  
  
• If you’re one of three brothers and you’re not the youngest, you’re arrogant and you’ll likely fail miserably at everything you do because you’re rude to people.
  
  
• If you’re one of three brothers and you are the youngest, your family will think you’re stupid and make fun of you. On the bright side, you’ll likely obtain a kingdom or at least great wealth just by accurately and politely answering nosy questions from random people you meet.
  
  
• There’s no need to plan ahead for any quest or trip you take. Just take off when the mood strikes, and you’ll meet creatures along the way who happen to have exactly what you need, sometimes before you even know you need it.
  
  
• If things aren’t going well on your quest, just stand around and look despondent. If you’re a girl, maybe shed a tear or two. Somebody is bound to show up and do all of your work for you.

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For the longest time, this old, beat up copy of Grimm’s fairytales was just sitting around and my dad finally decided to get rid of it. I intercepted him in horror and said that I would keep it instead. I was like 12 years old and didn’t really know anything about it, but I would not stand for what was obviously such a special book to be trashed so disrespectfully.
I still remember how attached I was to that thing. I read it on the stairs, under the covers, and my most prominent memory is reading it laying on the floor of my living room while my entire family was visiting for Christmas Eve. I could not go to my room, but I could bring my book with me.
I read every single demented story and I loved it. I think my mom didn’t really show more know what I was reading and might have been slightly horrified to find out, but that’s besides the point: I was enchanted. That battered copy still sits on my bookshelf to this day and I will never get rid of it. show less

I notice in a fair amount of these Grimm stories, a princess is offered as the prize for whatever task the hero is supposed to perform. I know these are just folk/fairy tales but seeing it pop up again and again is just eye-rolling.

And then in this particular tale, a older brother murders his younger brother so that he can take credit for the task his little brother completed (killing a boar) and gets away with it so far as to actually marry the princess.

And the younger brother remains dead, never to enjoy the fruit of his labors, alas. His bones sang their sad tale all too late.

This is a reread for me, as I read a volume of these when I was nine or ten. What always resonates for me is the violence that was in these stories and how lessons were always to be learned for the reader/listener. Stories of comeuppance and knowing ones’ place in society are in many of the tales, but so are stories of “happily ever after.” For me, it’s the sheer volume of stories that is intriguing. It’s easy to pick a favorite story for however one might be feeling at the time and get a lift or feeling of vengeful satisfaction in the misfortunes of the bad characters that remind us of terrible bosses or the guy who cut us off in traffic.

Ok, so this was partially a nostalgia-inducing read. Can't believe so many of the stories I had encountered in my childhood are from the Grimm Brothers' collection. This compilation has many popular favourites in their original complete form. Some of the stories are absolutely beautiful while others are really gruesome. I had heard that the cruelty and violence in original versions of some of the tales led to the Grimms eventually sanitising them. So this book really made me wonder how much darker or gorier the original folk tales would have been.

Of course, the stories are really imaginative and do hold your attention. For a collection that is more than 200 years old, it's a big achievement to be remembered and read even when the world show more has changed so much since its original publication.

Then again, the problem with the stories remains the same today as it was originally: most of the stories are chauvinistic. The female characters hardly ever have a voice of their own, their only purpose in life is to be married off, and those women who do speak their mind are evil witches or vamps. So this isn't a collection that has adapted to the mentality of the 21st century.

Read it only for a glimpse back into your childhood and nothing else. This is a just-for-fun nostalgic experience, no morals or life lessons to be found here.

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Join me on the Facebook group, Readers Forever!, for more reviews, book-related discussions and fun.

Follow me on Instagram: RoshReviews show less

Ok, so this was partially a nostalgia-inducing read. Can't believe so many of the stories I had encountered in my childhood are from the Grimm Brothers' collection. This compilation has many popular favourites in their original complete form. Some of the stories are absolutely beautiful while others are really gruesome. I had heard that the cruelty and violence in original versions of some of the tales led to the Grimms eventually sanitising them. So this book really made me wonder how much darker or gorier the original folk tales would have been.

Of course, the stories are really imaginative and do hold your attention. For a collection that is more than 200 years old, it's a big achievement to be remembered and read even when the world show more has changed so much since its original publication.

Then again, the problem with the stories remains the same today as it was originally: most of the stories are chauvinistic. The female characters hardly ever have a voice of their own, their only purpose in life is to be married off, and those women who do speak their mind are evil witches or vamps. So this isn't a collection that has adapted to the mentality of the 21st century.

Read it only for a glimpse back into your childhood and nothing else. This is a just-for-fun nostalgic experience, no morals or life lessons to be found here.

***********************
Join me on the Facebook group, Readers Forever!, for more reviews, book-related discussions and fun.

Follow me on Instagram: RoshReviews show less