| Title | : | Grimms Fairy Stories |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 144 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1812 |
Contains stories such as "The Goose Girl", "Hansel and Grethel", "Cinderella", "The Golden Goose", "The Frog Prince" and many more.
Grimms Fairy Stories Reviews
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Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm is a 2014 Open Road Media publication. (Originally published in 1812)
This compilation is a sampling of Grimm’s Fairy Tales- featuring some of the more well-known stories like ‘Rapunzel’ and ‘Briar Rose’- aka ‘Sleeping Beauty'. However, I didn’t know well over half of the stories included in this book.
So, it was fun to read ‘new to me’ Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
While some of my favorite stories as a child came from the Disney adaptations, which were seriously toned down, I do remember hearing the original versions of some of these tales.
One of my favorite stories is the ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker'. I read that story over and over as a child. So, it was fun revisiting some old favorites, and discovering ones I’d never read before.
Some of the stories are similar, and some were far better than others. Some were barely a page long, while others were several pages in length. Some readers, younger than I am, who may be discovering these tales for the first time, might be taken aback by the dark and violent nature of some of the stories, and some may find some attitudes off putting. Some younger children could find a few of these tales disturbing.
However, keep in mind the time frame in which the books were written and try not to judge them too harshly. Frankly, I appreciated the moral of many of these tales- and everything always works out in the end.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the books in this collection, bringing back a few childhood memories and providing me with a nice change of pace, as well. -
Sometimes, you just have to hand it to people based on sheer innovation alone.
For example, the buttered popcorn jellybean may be disgusting on a level previously undiscovered by man, bringing together an unholy combination of unexpected texture and profoundly unpleasant taste in a way that should be reserved solely for punishing our society’s most reprehensible criminals, but don’t you have to acknowledge the sheer evil genius of those whimsical folks at the Jelly Belly corporation for making history?
Same goes for this book, which manages to make some of the most fantastic tales of all time straight-up boring.
This is hands down the worst and most tragic translation of the Grimm tales I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a lot of those glorified gentrifiers.
Where is the SPARK. Where is the FUN. Where is the OVERWROUGHT LANGUAGE and the REPETITIVE DESCRIPTIONS OF PRETTY GIRLS and the ADVENTURE.
This book sucks, but you kind of have to give it props just for managing to take something like “guy who doesn’t know what fear is gets up to hilarious hijinks in a haunted house and is handed a princess for it” or “girl highkey needs to get laid and so she accidentally discovers her husband is a bear and then it’s like oh sh*t we have to save this guy from the world’s ugliest woman”...and making it boring.
It is so unimpressive that it actually comes full circle and is impressive again.
Bottom line: Read literally any volume of fairy tales other than this one.
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the brothers grimm want what andrew lang has!!!
review to come / 2 stars
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going to be offline for a couple days. i'm trying to learn how to shudder and this king guy said if i stay in a haunted castle for three nights i can marry his daughter -
”Monti e valli non s'incontrano, ma s'incontrano gli uomini, buoni e cattivi che siano.”
- Incipit dei “I due viandanti”-
C’era una volta... un mondo dove i sogni appartenevano al mondo del possibile.
Un mondo che si reggeva sugli opposti estremi della miseria e della ricchezza e quindi sulle grandi ingiustizie.
Erano i giorni dell’inaspettato:
una parola, un gesto potevano avere conseguenze che avrebbero cambiato il corso delle cose.
C’era una volta... un mondo dove gli opposti s’incrociano spesso cambiandosi di posto.
Bello /brutto -Ingenuo/ furbo- Buono/cattivo- Sciocco//intelligente- Temerario/pauroso -Fedele/traditore...
Queste le caratteristiche dei protagonisti delle fiabe spesso radicate in antiche leggende tramandate di bocca in bocca, raccontate davanti al cammino con la cornice dell’oscurità.
C’era una volta ...un mondo dove non esistevano i confini tra animali ed uomini e tra reale e magico.
Animali e uomini, infatti, concorrono allo stesso modo (e molte volte intersecandosi) a dipingere questo affresco della fantasia dove, spesso la morale insegna che per avere una svolta, un cambiamento, occorre affrontare delle prove a volte velate altre volte più esplicite.
Strani personaggi s’incontrano sul sentiero di un bosco o bussano all'uscio malandato di una cadente catapecchia e basta un attimo perché si compia la propria sfortuna oppure, al suo opposto, si realizzi la maledizione che spesso trasforma il malcapitato imprigionandolo in un corpo animale.
Gli uomini molto ricchi sono perlopiù di alto rango mentre tutti gli altri se non sono semplici contadini si caratterizzano per professioni artigianali (falegnami, sarti..).
Il messaggio è chiaro: ragazzi imparate un mestiere!
La pigrizia non porta a nulla!
Per chi conosce la “Morfologia della fiaba” di Propp, lo schema delle interazioni e delle tipologie dei personaggi è cosa chiara.
Mi vorrei, tuttavia, soffermare su due aspetti che mi hanno, in particolar modo, colpita.
Riguardo le punizioni che vengono assegnate e che caratterizzano i finali delle fiabe, colpisce molto la crudeltà.
Forse perché siamo figli del condizionamento disneyano che comunque ha addolcito i castighi ma
fa una certa impressione un finale siffatto (per rimanere nel noto) della famigerata “Cenerentola”:
”Quando stavano per essere celebrate le nozze con il figlio del re, ecco che arrivarono le due false sorelle, volevano entrare nelle sue grazie per poter godere della sua fortuna. Quando la coppia entrò in chiesa, la maggiore si trovò alla destra di Cenerentola, la minore alla sua sinistra.
Allora le colombe cavarono loro un occhio a testa. Poi, all'uscita, la maggiore era a sinistra e la più piccola a destra e le colombe cavarono loro l'occhio che era rimasto.
Così rimasero per tutta la vita cieche, come punizione della loro cattiveria.”
Il secondo aspetto riguarda la figura del soldato che torna in alcune fiabe.
A volte come protagonista, a volte come comparsa ma con una sorprendente costante: è sempre fresco di congedo e il servizio dato al governo e sempre mal ripagato e dunque si ritrova con le tasche vuote.
Ci sarebbero tantissime annotazioni da fare sul mondo delle favole e questa raccolta (pubblicata per la prima volta nel 1812), di 208 tra fiabe e leggende, sicuramente è uno scrigno letterario della cultura europea.
"Ci fu un tempo in cui ogni cosa aveva un senso, un suono ed un significato. Il martello del fabbro risuonava e gridava:
«bat-ti-lo, bat-ti-lo». E la pialla del falegname, frusciando faceva: «tru-cio-li, tru-cio-li». E quando il mulino con la sua ruota cominciava a battere, ciò voleva dire: «Aiutami-buon-dio, aiutami-buon-dio».
E il mugnaio era un imbroglione e lo metteva in moto, il mulino parlava chiaro e diceva:
«chi-è-là, chi-è-là». Poi in fretta rispondeva: «il mugnaio, il mugnaio». E poi in frettissima: «ruba svelto, ruba svelto, di un ottavo tre settimi». A quel tempo anche gli uccelli avevano un linguaggio, e tutti li capivano. Òggi si sente solo cinguettare, squittire, zuffolare, e qualche volta una musica senza parole"
- Incipit de “Il re di macchia”- -
Warning -
If you read these stories too close together they get a little repetitive
If you read them to very young children they will probably have nightmares
Things I have learned from this collection of fairy tales-
All Princesses are beautiful
All step-Mothers are wicked
All step-sisters are ugly
Luckily Kings are unable to tell the difference between beautiful princesses and their ugly step-sisters
Animals can talk
Magical transformations are normal
Princesses are saved by their natural goodness
Wicked people meet their downfall with an abrupt and grisly death
Bonus thought -
Little Red-cap is not as catchy as Little Red Riding Hood -
4.5
I love Fairy Tales, and usually can't resist different lavishly illustrated versions. However, what attracted me to this copy was that is a light paper back with no illustrations and a nice selection of stories (45 of them). It made for a literal light read, in comparison to my enormous illustrated editions, which are undeniably stunning but also not practical to read outside of the house.
It was fun to judge the Fairy tales on the story alone, to revisit old favourites such as Cinderella and Briar-Rose, as well as reminding myself of some the lesser known yet just as enjoyable tales - The Valiant Little Tailor, The Lazy Spinner, The Three Army Surgeons. The oddest story in the collection may have been The Mouse, the Bird and the Sausage, which is about a mouse, and bird and a sausage who all live together, dividing the chores, then the bird revolts, insists they swap chores and inadvertently causes them all to die. It is two pages long and escalated quickly! -
As is usual with many short story collections, there were some stories I thoroughly enjoyed, and there were some I didn't like in the slightest. It's took a little longer than I'd hoped to get around to reading this, but I'm happy I finally have. It is a classic read, but there were some stories I could relate to more than others. There were some I remember being read to me as a child. To be honest though, these versions of the fairy tales are somewhat dark, and one could even go as far as calling them chilling.
All of these stories contain some sort of message and a purpose, and I thought that it was a good deal of fun to figure those out. -
I think my only exposure to the Grimm brothers’ stories has been the Disney-fied version. I think I prefer Disney’s.
Stories:
1. Hans in Luck – Hans is a fool who wouldn’t know a good bargain if it punched him in the face.
2. The Goose Girl – Trickery and ambition get you thrown naked into a barrel of nails and dragged to your death.
3. The Frog Prince – He’s the original “nice guy”. Accept help from a nasty toad and you will wind up with a Prince who feels he has the right to your time, your food, and your bed
4. The Wolf and the Seven Goslings – “If you don’t do it,” cried the wolf, “I’ll eat you up!” And the miller was afraid and did as he was told. And that just shows what men are.
5. Faithful John – Abducted princess suffers Stockholm Syndrome, parents willingly decapitate their own children to save their faithful servant, wtf is this story?
6. Rapunzel – If the prince loved her so much, why didn’t he just bring a ladder to help her escape, instead of visiting every night to have sex with her in prison?
7. Hansel and Grethel – For once in these stories a girl takes action and saves herself and her brother.
8. The White Snake – A princess has fun setting impossible tasks for her suitors and killing them when they fail. Until a servant boy’s animal friends help him pass all the tasks, and he and the princess live HEA. Yay?
9. Mother Hulda – Helpful and industrious girls are rewarded. Lazy and mean-spirited girls are tarred and feathered.
10. Tom Thumb – He’s a tiny psychopath.
11. The Elves - oooookaaaayyy
12. The Robber Bridegroom – Girl keeps her head, brings justice to man who chops up and eats women.
13. The Almond Tree – Wicked woman decapitates and dismembers her stepson and feeds him to his father. All is HEA when stepmother is crushed by a millstone and the boy is resurrected by the almond tree.
14. The Six Swans – More wicked stepmothers and abducted girls “willingly” married to their captors
15. The Sleeping Beauty – Two beautiful privileged youth find each other and live HEA without a thought of the many boys with poor timing who died an agonized death impaled in the thorn hedge. This may be the best one, with the wonderful imagery of the kingdom asleep in suspended animation.
16. Snow White – Snow White is TSTL but is such a beautiful corpse that a prince marries her, and the evil queen is an incompetent murderess, but gets death by red-hot iron shoes.
17. Rumpelstiltsken – I think Rumpelstiltsken got a raw deal here. The greedy 1% stole his gold and welshed on the trade.
18. The Golden Bird – Another story where some dolt gets to own a beautiful princess as a contest prize.
19. The Golden Goose – I’d be a sourpuss too, if my father announced he’d give me away as a contest prize.
Hardcover copy with the text translated from the original German and with intricately detailed illustrations.
I read this for the 2018 Halloween Bingo square A Grimm Tale: -
Taken from the East European oral tradition, and first published in 1812, these stories were originally collated and published in Germany by
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
Although softened to appease Christian sensibilities of the day, this compilation still became a sort of cult horror anthology for children. Indeed, returning to these gruesome little tales as an adult, I can see that they are indeed 'grim', and make curious bedtime reading.
Even allowing for the Grimm brothers sanitisation of the stories, they remain far removed from Disney's cinematic versions of Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and all the other fluffy, uplifting animations so popular with modern movie-goers. Here, incest, cruelty, starvation, torture and violent death vie for space with the happily ever afters. (Decapitated gee-gee anyone?)
Thankfully my seven-year-old self was far less squeamish, and I dwelt not at all on the many sadistic happenings, but simply enjoyed reading about talking bears, heroic giant-slayers and sharp-witted wolves in red bonnets. In short, I was a typical child reader.
NB I don't wish to appear a pedant, but surely the title, Grimm's Fairy Stories, is grammatically incorrect. Shouldn't it be Grimms' Fairy Stories? I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. -
It's always a good time for some Grimms' stories ✌️
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Note: I am reading a kindle version of the 1922 publication of this collection titled Grimm's Fairy Stories. It is equal to 144 pages long and has 28 of the Grim Brother's tales. The Kindle version does not have the illustrations so obviously I can not comment on them.
This is the first time I've actually read Grimm's fairy tales. I know a lot of them, as does everyone else, but only through the watered down Disney version, various children TV shows (Does anyone remember Shirley Temple Theater?) and children story books that bowdlerized many of the endings. So I thought it would be nice to check out the originals. This 1922 book which is in the public domain and available free on Amazon for the Kindle seems to be a nice place to start; having 28 of the more known stories. There is also a Kindle version titled Grimm's Fairy Tales that has 60 tales for those who want to dig deeper.
The first thing you hear is that Grimm's stories are much darker than what we are used to. Some of them are quite dark but others read like farces, like "Catherine and Frederick" or "Tom Thumb". I can''t help thinking they may have had some kind of sociopolitical ribbing in them that has mellowed through the ages. Others are dark any way you look at them. I seem to have missed out on some of the fun as a child. For instance, why did Disney leave out that delightful scene in "Cinderella" where the evil step-sisters cut off their toes so the slipper would fit? Or what about all those burnings and dismemberments. In "Little Red Cap" aka "Little Red Riding Hood", the wolf wins and has a very nice meal. Other tales are simpler and too easy. Example: In "Briar Rose" aka "Sleeping Beauty", the prince just walks in and revives the unconscious damsel. No fighting dragons or witches as in the modern versions. Here is a tip to all you princes: When rescuing a damsel, simply wait the seven or so years until the curse is over then be the first in line. It will save you a lot of trouble.
But I did find these stories much more interesting than I suspected. As I've said, always go to the source. Of the lesser known tales, I especially enjoyed "Bearskin" "The Six Swans" and "Faithful John". This is a nice little sample of the Grimm Brothers' 200 plus tales. -
OK, so if someone wants you to do some almost impossible things in exchange for a kingdom and/or a princess, ask yourself is it really worth it? Wicked people will probably die a gruesome death but there should be a happy ever after for the good guys. We're also not in Disneyland anymore...
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A good collection of stories if a little bit repetitive at times. Some tales were familiar, others not so much. I knew they were going to be dark but I was surprised how very dark a few of them were. -
Video review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rrab...
As with any short story collection, there were some I really enjoyed in here and others I wasn't so bothered about. I felt glad to have finally read this collection because it is a classic and it was interesting to see the traditional fairy stories and compare them with my previous knowledge of newer versions. The originals are a lot more gruesome and at times chilling. I'm glad I listened to this on audiobook because it made the stories more accessible and fun. I can highly recommend you try the audiobook version if you have tried to read these stories in the past and found them difficult to read. -
I'm really glad I finally got round to reading these.
I liked how these all had a gruesome twist and but still felt fantastical. However, I think the stories were really condensed in this version so it did take away from some of the stories. I would definitely liked to read the full versions! -
This edition is one of the most aesthetically pleasing books I own, but it is not a book you read in one go. The stories get quite repetative; I've lost count of all the evil stepmothers, young men called Hans, talking animals and cursed princesses in need of saving... Overall, there were a couple of stories that stood out to me, perhaps a dozen that I really enjoyed, but most of them have turned into an indistinguishable blend in my mind.
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En rigtig fin samling😊
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I've always been a huge fan of fairy tales and this book brought me so much joy to relive my childhood all in one morning
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It is very interesting to see how different the tales are when compared to the Disney versions I know. Thank you Lillie for gifting this to me!
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My version of Grimm’ Fairy stories has lovely illustrations by Anne Anderson.
All up the stories were a mix of interesting, tedious, macabre and nightmare inducing. -
Loved the narration, liked some of the stories too, though some of them weren't familiar.
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I enjoyed this selection of stories and found several aspects particularly interesting: the mention of God, the rules of the worlds created, and noticing repeated themes. These stories were gruesome in parts, but not as gory as I was expecting.
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I was surprised by the way the lines are blurred between the sacred and other supernatural elements. I had expected there to be fairies and magic etc. but had thought this would be kept separate from mention of the Christian God. However, Hansel, in 'Hansel and Grethel', assures his sister that "God will not forsake us" and he prays for help, saying "Dear good God, help us now!". There is also mention of "the Evil One" (e.g. in 'Catherine and Frederick' and 'Bearskin'), however this seems to be more of a dubious character and not necessarily the devil as understood biblically.
I found the explanations of the natural and moral rules of the constructed worlds interesting and entertaining how they were so matter-of-factly stated. Here are some favourites:
Natural:
• "Witches have red eyes, and cannot see very far; but they have a fine sense of smelling, like wild beasts, so that they know when children approach them." (Hansel & Grethel)
• "No," they replied; "for we can only lay aside our swan's feathers for a quarter of an hour each evening, and for that time we regain our human form, but afterwards we resume our changed appearance." (The Six Swans)
• "heavy shower of golden rain" (Mother Holle)
• "but the youngest was so exceedingly beautiful that the Sun himself, although he saw her very, very often, was delighted every time she came out into the sunshine." (The Frog Prince)
• "When his master was changed into a frog, trusty Henry had grieved so much that he had bound three iron bands around his heart, for fear it should break with grief and sorrow." (The Frog Prince)
Moral:
• "Go your way; you will be wiser when you have suffered for your foolishness." (The Golden Goose)
• "As you have a kind heart, and have been willing to share everything with me I will bring good to you." (The Golden Goose)
Random quotes which amused me:
• "Then all their sorrows were ended, and they lived together in great happiness. My tale is done. There runs a mouse; whoever catches her may make a great, great cap out of her fur." (Hansel & Grethel)
• "But one day, as the queen was walking by the side of the river, a little fish lifted its head out of the water, and said," Your wish shall be fulfilled, and you shall soon have a daughter."" (Briar Rose)
Recurrent themes & motifs:
Good vs. evil
Beauty vs. ugliness
Good work ethic vs. laziness
Parents longing for children
Evil stepmothers
Jealously
Victims of cruelty
Sharing food
Rewards & punishments
Wishes granted
Deception
Weddings
Questions:
• Did the negative stigma around stepmothers in fairy-tales originate with the tales by the brothers Grimm? Or was it an existing theme developed by them?
• Why is parents' wish for children such a strong theme?
• How do the stories of Thumbling and Tom Thumb compare? And why are they two separate stories?
• Was the King's trickery in 'The Three Men in the Wood' inspired by the story of Nathan and David in the Bible? -
So I imagine that everyone comments on this, but first off it's worth saying that this collection of tales is a real eye-opener when set beside the Disney canon. I was aware of the major differences in some of the stories, like Cinderella with the fur slipper instead of glass and the sisters doing some fairly terrible things to themselves but I never imagined for example that Disney deleted Snow White's sister from the story altogether.
In terms of writing style, most of these tales are short and sharp, very little, if any space is generally given over to expanding the backgrounds of the myriad worlds that the Grimm brothers have offered fleeting insight into. There are no explanations for the existence or workings of magic, because these tales come from an age less sceptical than our own where magic worked because the author said so and no further reason was needed, and the notion of character development is seldom paid more than lip service unless an Aesop is involved about someone mending their wicked ways and benefiting from it. That said these tales are timeless and well known throughout the Western world. They also offer the source, or at least the most prominent examples, of some of the most well known story motifs out there in the fiction world.
It is difficult to comment on the characterisations or the settings because there are so many presented here, but suffice it to say that very little effort is wasted on them, they are unfolded exactly as far as they need to be to allow the story to work, and no further. The Grimm brothers were also clearly not afraid of simply ending a piece in mid-air, the words and they lived happily ever after or some variation thereof finish a goodly portion of these stories, unless there is some anecdote about the fate of the villains of the piece.
All in all therefore, this is a very spartan read, but still very interesting. The backgrounds and characters may not be as rich as a modern novel, but there is still something compelling about the terse and to the point narratives of these stories. Moreover it is worth the time to get to know the 'real' story behind some of the most well known children's stories out there. -
Taking into account all the ratings for each individual tale, the final rating would be of 3.5 but I'm upgrading it to 4 because this edition is astonishingly beautiful. The artwork inside makes the reading experience even better. From the 27 tales this edition has, my absolute favourites are: Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs, Snow White, The Golden Goose, The Goose Girl and Puss 'n Boots.
Cinderella was quite a surprise to be honest. I knew some of the gore details beforehand but my, my... those stepsisters did some nasty things :/ And Snow White was also great. It has nothing to do with the Disney movie and I was quite pleased with it .
The tale that disappointed me the most was Sleeping Beauty. I prefer the Disney version because the villain is scarier. I remembered watching the movie when I was a kid and being utterly terrified whenever Maleficent showed up. In the Grimm's version, there is nothing like it. It wasn't scary at all. It was all very underwhelming really. But, besides that, the whole collection is a great one to read. It also has a little introduction at the beginning of each tale to explain it a little better and sometimes compare it with other versions. -
This took me way too damn long to read. A WHOLE MONTH! And this book is short ugh. I think it was the language at first. While it wasn't particularly hard to read, it was very different from the language I typically see in high fantasy/sci-fi books I read.
I think I was disconnected from the stories in this because some of them were so short. By the time I'd decide yeah I do like this character, their story would be over! It's kind of hard to be invested in a book when that is constantly happening. I did like seeing the original stories where we get our fairytales from.
However, there is so much ingrained misogyny that I wanted to puke. It was so frustrating because there was basically only two options for girls. The good ones married princes or kings because they were beautiful and "good". While the evil ones (and probably ugly) died horrible deaths. I'm not saying that marriage is good or bad, but don't these girls have more aspirations than to just marry??? Idk after reading Snow White, I see that story very differently now and I am not really a fan of it. -
The edition is beautiful! Purple cloth cover, beautiful illustrations, nice thick shiny paper, just gorgeous.
First time I've read the Grimm's fairy tales in English, the translations certainly seem very true to the original. It's a great selection with classics such as 'Snow White' and 'Cinderella' and lesser known ones like 'Jorinde & Joringel', 'The Golden Goose' or 'Mother Holle'. I was thrilled to discovered that two of my all time favourites, 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses' and 'Snow White and Rose Red', were included.
Each fairy tale is prefaced by an introduction by the editor, explaining its origin and spread in other cultures and countries. The introductions are all printed on golden paper, hard to read at times because it's so very shiny but looks just gorgeous. -
Fun read! Lots of short fairy stories to enjoy. Some classics which I was brought up with. Moral of the stories: always be kind, always share your food, wealth and home with those in need and maybe a handsome Prince or King will whisk you away and you will live happily ever after!
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DNF.
I guess fairy-tales are not my thing. I gave it my best try. I can't bring myself to care for this book. Ugh. -
Good book.
Loved reading these stories to my son. I love reading old fairy tales. Good read and I would recommended it to everyone. -
this book is really amazing
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You know them in lots of media, but the book is worth a read and re-read. Enjoy!
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Full of witches, evil step-mothers, royalty, and much more, I truly loved these tales (though I was surprised how violent some of the stories are considering these were written for children.) However, with that said, I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a little fun fantasy. Great book!
