About this title: Merry, dark or magical, these classic tales never fail to inspire and enthral. From the land of fantastical castles, vast lakes and deep forests, the Brothers Grimm collected a treasury of entrancing folk and fairy stories full of giants and dwarfs, witches and princesses, magic beasts and cunning boys. From favourites such as "The Frog-Prince" ...
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Date Published: 1963
Description: Fair. 1963 Grosset & Dunlap hard cover. Heavy edge wear and spine creases. No marks in text. Prior owner info on end papers. Ship same or next day. More Companion Library books in our store. read more
"Now before you make fun of me for a. reading fairy tales, and b. liking them so much....well, I don't really have a defense. For anyone who likes mythology and folklore (as I do, very much), this is about as good a collection as it gets. It contains all the more famous folk tales of the German tradition, and all the usual motifs and modes, i.e-wicked stepmothers, transformations, etc.
I realize not everyone will be interested in reading these stories as an adult, but keep in mind folk tales are a pretty effective, and often unfarily disregarded, narrative style. Also, keep in mind this collection is basically Ovid's Metamorphoses in prose, and English. So if one is regarded as one of literature's greatest works, the other must also be worth reading.
Anyway, great stories, and strongly recommended. A caveat to anyone who's Jewish and is thinking about reading these. About 20% of the stories deal with jews being greedy and evil and getting punished for it. Might not be your thing."
"It was quite entertaining to read these stories with out them being softened or disneytized. My favorites from my edition which is not a complete collection are Clever Grethel, Hans in Luck, The Three Spinsters, The Gallant Tailor, and King Thrushbeard. I of course enjoyed the classics like Snow White, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Aschenputtel (Cinderella). Some of them are just odd, like The Rabbit's Bride,Prudent Hans, and Clever Else. The Frog Prince ended a little differently than expected which was interesting.
It is fun to think about the lessons and themes of the stories. Here are some: Watch out for Step-Mothers b/c they are usually prideful and only love their own lazy, ugly, or mean children.
Husbands don't seem to have much say over how the wife treats the kids.
Always share your food with strangers in need and help animals that can talk and listen to their advice.
Watch out for Kings having challenges to win their daughters hand in marriage. They don't easily give it.
Be careful what you promise because you might not like to be held to it.
Princes and Princesses tend to fall in love at first sight.
Never trust a cat if you're a mouse.
Don't steal from a witch.
Don't talk to wolves and watch out if one has talked to you recently.
Little elves and dwarves are usually helpful.
I need to find a copy with the complete collection so I can read the others."
"Sorry to be repetitive if you read my former review of Grimm's Fairy Tales, but I decided to find the edition I actually read. I think this Gramercy edition is good enough, but not spectacular. There are no endnotes or extra information, and the illustrations, though nice, are sparse. So my five star rating is based on the tales themselves, as opposed to this rendition. Still, I think this is a fine basic edition of the fairy tales. If you read the earlier review, you've already read what follows, other than that now I'm declaring myself to be of European descent, though I think I'm pretty decent too.
I decided it was time to conquer this. As a person of European descent, it seemed like I really should read all of these tales to have a better understanding of my heritage or something. I read pretty much straight though all 200, and it was kinda cool, but I don't know that I'd recommend that method, as a lot of the tales sorta bled together in my memory.
Wild tales. Magic. Romance. Heroism. Tailors. A fair bit of gore. Morals that seem right and good. Morals that seem very off. More than a few stories that just left me thinking, "Oookay...is there a point, or am I just missing it?" Anyway, reading all of them was an interesting experience and one I would recommend, though I might suggest spacing it out a little. I'm thinking I might like to find a copy with footnotes/commentary and read the stories at a leisurely pace."
"I used to read this book all the time, for a while--like it was the Family Bible! Religiously.
And it really meant that much to me. It's great, right? Of course.
(And do you guys remember: Heath Ledger was in some movie, as one of the brothers Grimm? It wasn't the best movie ever, but neither was it the worst. Could have got a tad more press.)
So...
My favorite one--or one of...Some little tiny one.
About standing around one of those hoboe garbage cans. There's an old woman there. (I like how they call people they don't know "Hello there, Grandmother.")
So, maybe it's the little kid's fault?--but somehow the old woman's rags catch in fire.
Then it says something like: If you were there, you would cry all the tears out of your head, to put out that fire.
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