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Feb 13, 2008

Jacob rated it:

I was originally was going to give this a 3 because it is uneven strange, and sometimes surprisingly amoral, but then i realized how much I acutally had to say about it, and just how much I enjoyed reading these goofy stories. So bear with me while i recount some of the best and worst stories and some of the strange themes of grimm's fairy tales. (I have to admit, I write these reviews almost entirely for myself)

Some themes/things you should know:
-If you are an evil stepmother More...

2 comments like (26 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2010

booklady rated it:

The Brothers Grimm get a bad rap, their stories are anything but grim. And to make matters worse, their name in German means, "fury, rage, wrath"!

The truth about these stories, however, is they are about justice. In story after story, the kind and/or good guy (or girl) is given, or shown, a way to overcome the evil which has befallen him/her. This is why the stories have endured for as long as they have and why they are so beloved by our children. Our children don't kno More...

11 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 30, 2008

Maureen rated it:

The original Grimm's Brothers fairy tales were a far cry from the Perrault collection of many of the same stories, the Green Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, or, God forbid, Walt Disney. The Brothers Grimm told stories with meat on their bones, where the good people were heroes and the bad people were really, really bad. The outcome of a particular story rose and fell on the consequences of the actions of the characters. The evil stepsisters in Cinderella, for example, did not go to the wedding of More...

3 comments like (13 people liked it)

Sep 18, 2007

Megan rated it:

Do you know kids today don't know how gory fairy tales are? This is a travesty and will not stand while I am a teacher. While we were discussing Paul Bunyan this week I got sidetracked and started talking about how everything in fairy tales happens in threes. Like how in the original Cinderella the stepmother tries to trick the prince by cutting of portions of her stepdaughters feet to fit the shoe. The kids were all riveted and many asked "Where's that book with all the gross stories in it More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2008

Sir Miles rated it:

I want to read this book so much! it has the real fairy tales. not the dysney kind.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 29, 2007

Christopher rated it:

I’ve been meaning to read this one for a while. It is fascinating to see how all of the fairy tales which we have grown up with in a sanitized Disnified form, originally came to take their shape. The tales are in as enjoyable a form as any cheerful animation. Whatever translation was done is seamless and there are no ridiculous schisms between the meanings and implications of terms that have different connotations in German (a common trait when words do not match exactly in two different lang More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 14, 2009

Megan rated it:

I love the stories... but dislike the edition. I bought it because it is a nice hardback that looks good on the shelf. Unfortunately, Barnes & Noble doesn't include any forward, afterward or footnotes ~ just presents the stories. Again, I love the stories, but would have also liked a little more information about their origin, etc. But I suppose this is how Barnes & Noble is able to publish such a pretty book for such a low price.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 08, 2012

Tristy rated it:

I was so ready to read these "original" fairy tales, but in the very thorough and interesting introduction by Jack Zipes, I discovered that the Brothers Grimm re-wrote all the original oral stories they collected from the German people they interviewed. The Brothers added Christian morals, removed all the lusty sex and dis-empowered all the female heroines of the stories. Once knowing this, I could not stomach reading very many of these fairy tales. These may be "original" Br More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2009

Richard rated it:

Knowing what we do now, I guess it shouldn't be surprising that 18th-century Germans had a really twisted sense of morality and justice. Still, some of the stuff in this book is shocking.

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2008

Christina rated it:

This is one of those seminal books of my childhood (alongside the King James Bible), and in conglomerated form, always served to remind me that at least my stepmother never tried to have me chopped into pieces and planted beneath a juniper tree, or had me married me off to bloodthirsty robbers. And I can also ask myself "What is the Real?" and wonder about it for at least forty-five minutes.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 13, 2008

Suvi rated it:

Even though I like some of the Disney movies they're mostly watered down and fluffy versions of these incredibly imaginative, dark and grim folk tales that the brothers Grimm collected. Even though not all the tales are interesting I would happily get this to my bookshelf anyway.

And finally, I would like to thank you my Finnish teacher who introduced the morbid world of the Grimms to my class when we were 13. She read the most memorable fairy tales to us under a red lamp and it mad More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 13, 2010

Ólafur Sverrir rated it:

Öll frægu ævintýrin í þægilegri og stílhreinni útgáfu!

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 19, 2011

Caitlin rated it:

For my Folklore book review, I chose to read "Aschenputtel" which is one of the Grimm's Fairy Tales. "Aschenputtel" is the German version of Cinderella. Aschenputtel's mother dies and her father remarries. The woman he married has two daughters. One day the father goes into town to a carnival and gets the three girls gifts that they asked for. One of the daughters wanted nice clothers, the other wanted diamonds, and Aschenputtel wanted a twig. Aschneputtel planted the twig ne More...

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Oct 19, 2011

Nicole rated it:

(I read Hansel and Grethel for my Folklore book review.)

Hansel and Grethel tells the story of a brother and sister who are left to die in the woods numerous times by their evil stepmother and father. The evil stepmother convinces her husband that it is better for the two children to die then to have the entire family die of starvation. Hansel and Grethel overhear the conversation and Hansel decides to take action. They are both lead into the woods by their parents and told to re More...

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Oct 16, 2011

Miayruffah rated it:

This is a magical fairytale which has become worldwide with different versions. Cinderella is a girl who becomes an orphan early in her childhood. Her father re-marries which becomes her evil stepmother and brings two nasty daughters with her. Cinderella grows up and during her teenage years her father dies. Her evil stepmother quickly inherits every last fortune from her husband, leaving Cinderella fatherless, empty and disheartened. The stepmother and her daughters treat Cinderella like a serv More...

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Aug 10, 2011

Rodrigo rated it:

Muy interesante. Primero, aprender que los hermanos Grimm no eran cuentistas sino estudiosos del folclor oral alemán, casi lo que hoy llamaríamos sociólogos o antropólogos. Y después, leer las versiones originales de cuentos clásicos, algunos de los cuales sólo conocemos en su versión Disney. Los temas se repiten sin cesar, así como algunas historias que simplemente se cuentan de diferente manera: la traición, la maldad, el premio a la bondad, la necesidad de una misión, la ayuda de los poderes More...

0 comments like

Jul 20, 2011

Lauren rated it:

I'm glad to have read this, simply because fairy tale plots and themes are used so often in modern literature that it felt good to become acquainted with old versions of the tales and get closer to the original folklore. I also enjoyed picking up on some of the values of the time that come across in the stories.

That said, most of them are terribly boring. The method of storytelling is something I just could not get comfortable with - rapid, perfunctory, repetitive, bizarrely irratio More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2011

John rated it:

Grimm’s Fairy Tales has been sitting on my coffee table for well over a year. Some weeks I picked it up a few times, some months not at all. But finally it is finished.
I am surprised at how few of the stories I knew. Growing up my family read all kinds of stories and I thougth I knew a lot of fairy tales. But I guess not. The stories seem quite antiquated and obscure. They seem to be full of random events.
I was struck by the mixed messages that about. Frequently a “clever” char More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 28, 2010

Chibineko rated it:

I've always loved fairy tales & everything about them. There's so much we can learn from them. Not only do they sometimes teach life lessons (such as "don't talk to strangers" in Red Riding Hood), but they also show us things about the culture that thought them up. For example, some of the stories passed around have hints of anti-semitism in them, while other stories are luridly written up to have wider appeal.

Like others have said, the tales that the Grimms collected were More...

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Oct 28, 2010

Lacey is currently reading it

I feel as if I've always known the Grimm's fairy tales having grown up reading and watching various adaptations. However, reading The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales, I've realized that many of the original versions of these popular fairy tales are foreign to me. Many of these tales (for children!), in fact, are surprisingly dark and frightening. It's interesting to see which parts of these tales have changed through years of retelling, and which parts have remained the same.

Reading More...

1 comment like

Apr 09, 2010

David rated it:

Most of us were raised listening to the Grimm fairy tales being narrated by parents, teachers, grandmothers or tapes and even if we never knew the origins of the tales, we still loved them.

It took me quite many years and a revisiting to the classic fairy tales by the Grimm Brothers to realize that they are mostly antediluvian and they should stop being published and read to children so they can finally fade in the passage of time so that we can be left with the modern tales which ac More...

8 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 01, 2009

Sarah rated it:

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 e More...

0 comments like

May 31, 2009

Weg! is currently reading it

The short stories of Karen Russell and my stay in Berlin have prompted my reading of the Brothers Grimm. I bought this edition, as opposed to the Virage complete collection of tales, as I wanted to read them as I might of as a child, with illustrations and larger print.

I've read the first 12 tales and have encounted many of the morals the Brothers are known for expounding. Two examples: "That which thou hast promised must thou perform"; "He who repents his sin and More...

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May 03, 2009

Angie rated it:

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 f More...

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Jan 04, 2012

Mang rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Aug 01, 2011

Erika rated it:

It's one of those times when you can't help feeling a bit too harsh when reviewing a classic. I know I shouldn't expect the best narrative from a book written 200 years back, specially when it's basically a compilation of folktales told by peasants and such. The other aspect I didn't like about the book is that some of the stories were too much alike and it made you feel you already knew what would happen (which in most cases was true). There's also the fact that almost every story has the same More...

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Apr 24, 2011

Ashley rated it:

Reading "Grimm's Fairy Tales" has long been on my list of must read books, because it is such a classic and has inspired so many films, both Disney and otherwise. The edition I read, courtesy of Barnes & Noble, had all the stories except for the two most controversial ones due to their anti-semitic bent and the fact that Hitler used them as part of his oratory against the Jewish people. Not needing to read these two missing stories, I rather enjoyed this collection of the Grimm's Broth More...

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Dec 16, 2009

James rated it:

This is an excellent compilation of the original Grimm's Fairy Tales. As a collection of stories in no particular order, it is the perfect bedside or bathroom reader. Every once in a while, you will find a fascinating gem that has been turned into a well-known modern tale, but is completely different in the original - like the original "tortoise and hare" story whose moral was "stick to your own kind"!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 08, 2010

Tee rated it:

The copy that I owned as a child had Anderson's stories on the reverse - UPSIDE-MOTHERFUCKING-DOWN. I know, right? Too rad for words? Why don't I own it anymore? I presume it just fell apart from the rapacious love affair that I had with it. Rapacious means that I wanted to molest it right? Because I did, I just wanted to climb in between the covers and love it good. With or without it's permission. Maybe rapacious simply means greedy, which does just as good because I was greedy for it, like a More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 20, 2011

Gabrielle rated it:

The stories themselves are fine but the morals in them I'm not sure I appreciate. Some of them are are also rather gruesome. Many I was already familiar with, whether fro Disney's adaptation of it or my own childhood books containing some of the stories. Many seem to reward the "dumb" child over the more intelligent ones. And while the more intelligent ones don't use their intellect and skill and are often times cruel I don't know that the dumb child deserves to win the princesses hand More...

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