Grimms Fairy Tales comprises some 200 stories. The best-known tales include Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, Rapunzel, The Golden Goose, and Rumpelstiltskin.
From the land of fantastical castles, vast lakes and deep forests, the Brothers Grimm collected a treasury of enchanting folk and fairy stories full of giants and dwarfs, witches and princesses, magical beasts and cunning children. All hold a timeless magic which has enthralled children for centuries. They had started collecting fairy tales in the hope of discovering some essential truths about the cultural heritage of the common people. During the following years, the brothers began editing the tales to make them more child friendly, opening up an obvious market.
Chiltern Publishing was formed in 2018 with a vision to create the most beautiful classics. Using a perfect mix of tradition and the very latest in printing techniques, 19th Century quality has met 21st Century technology. With wonderfully detailed covers, sparkling gilt edges, creamy pages, and stitched binding they are the most beautiful classics ever published.
This is a weird one to try and rate because it has plenty of the classics and you can tell why they're classics and why they've endured and inspired so many retellings over the years. Then it has a large amount of complete tripe, so many stories that are utterly aimless, haphazard, dull stories that are a slog to get through. So it's really just a mixed bag but I don't regret reading whatsoever, there's certainly enough stories of interest to make it a worthwhile read.
Some of these stories are great. Timeless classics which is why stories such as Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Snow White, The Elves and The Shoemaker, etc are still retold today. Many of the themes are reoccurring throughout the various stories. Some of them are a little bizarre and don’t seem to translate well. Many tales are quite dark in nature and quite scary for kids.
Full of wonderful old treasures like Rumpelstiltskin, Golden Goose, Elves and the Shoemaker, and Rapunzel. It also has the Grimm’s versions of Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Snow White. I love the old engraved drawings. I also remember well the darker versions of these tales. For example, Ashputtel’s (Cinderella) stepsisters cut off parts of their feet to fit into the slipper. All in all, good fun.
There’s a surprising amount of overlap in these tales. I would expect that from different authors writing at the time, but it’s interesting that the same authors copied themselves so much.