The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

The message in this book is mixed. The farmer wants to take his dog out back and shoot him the next day as the dog (Sultan) has become old and lost his teeth. Overhearing this, Sultan is of course sad, and laments his fate to his friend, the wolf. Wolf comes up with a plan, and the farmer deems that Sultan indeed does have a purpose and takes good care of his dog.

However, this is a wolf we're talking about, and when the wolf says he wants one of the farmer's sheep, and suggests that Sultan turn a blind eye to this, Sultan refuses to as he is loyal to the farmer (the same ass who wanted to take him out back and shoot him) so the wolf turns on him.

However, through luck and determination, good old Sultan perseveres and overcomes adversity. show more But this story, looked at critically, does caution against blind loyalty and trust. show less

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

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.

Absolutely bloody fantastic. In the early 1800's, a couple of linguists put together this collection of fairy tales and folklore, and in doing so, they gave the Western world a huge book. Collecting various tales, these stories remain classic even centuries later, immortalized in Disney movies, novelizations and modern-day retellings, graphic novels, plays, television shows, etc etc.

If you're into collecting classics or are a fantasy enthusiast, this is a wonderful book for your collection.

211 wicked stories that are purely awesome.

I was very surprised at the content. Mostly, the good guys won, but not always. The organization was great. Similar stories are found together and that makes it easier to navigate. I was surprised at how many stories with clear religious messages were there, though it does make sense when you think of the time that it was written in. Also, there were many tales that surprised me. From every other character being named Hans to dresses coming from walnuts, it was hard to guess what would come next.

I was surprised to find a new favourite fairytale. While I still adore Anderson's The Snow Queen, Grimm's The Juniper now has a place in my heart. I love how similar it is to Snow White and how newer show more adaptations have taken elements from it, but them how drastically different it is.

I never knew that it was the Grimm Brothers who wrote the story about the couple who did it greet their old father with respect and made him eat out of a little plate until they found their son whittling a little wooden plate so that they may eat out of it when they grew old. I've heard many people recount it but I never knew where it came from until I read this. 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.

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