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Grimm's Last Fairytale
In September 1863, Jacob Grimm travels through rural western Germany with his devoted niece, Auguste, who longs to learn at last the truth about her family. They are accompanied by Kummel, their new and enigmatic manservant. As relations between the three reach a crisis point, vivid flashbacks tell of Jacob's traumas and heartbreaks. Old now, Jacob resists Auguste's attempts to make him take stock of his life, but memories that are repressed have a tendency to reappear in other places, and in other guises.
Throughout Jacob's travels, he is reminded of the folktales he and his brother Wilhelm collected in their Tales for the Young and Old. Most notable is the feverish fairytale of "Sleeping Beauty," which holds a shattered mirror to a life, a country, and a history. The version recounted here is an enchanting tale that goes beyond the marriage of the Prince and Princess, to reveal the surprising truth behind the evil.
In his compelling historical novel, Haydn Middleton re-creates the life story of literature's most famous brothers. It is a history that could almost be a fairytale itself, with its fabulous changes of fortune, tests of duty and honor, arrogant princes, lost loves, and twisted family relationships-all unfolding in a world of dark forests and even darker politics.
Throughout Jacob's travels, he is reminded of the folktales he and his brother Wilhelm collected in their Tales for the Young and Old. Most notable is the feverish fairytale of "Sleeping Beauty," which holds a shattered mirror to a life, a country, and a history. The version recounted here is an enchanting tale that goes beyond the marriage of the Prince and Princess, to reveal the surprising truth behind the evil.
In his compelling historical novel, Haydn Middleton re-creates the life story of literature's most famous brothers. It is a history that could almost be a fairytale itself, with its fabulous changes of fortune, tests of duty and honor, arrogant princes, lost loves, and twisted family relationships-all unfolding in a world of dark forests and even darker politics.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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406 people want to read
About the author
Haydn Middleton
243 books11 followersHaydn Middleton was born in Reading and studied History at Oxford, where he now lives. He has worked in advertising and publishing, lectured in British myth and legend, and written a dozen works of fiction and non-fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
June 19, 2023
Il sogno di ogni germanista, super affascinante!
May 23, 2018
Interesting on many levels: the story of Jakob Grimm's life, the parallels between his life and the fairy tales, the history of the time (Bismarck, German unification, revolution of 1848, suppression of the Jews), the language and descriptions. Imaginative - makes me want to read the author's other works.
September 27, 2013
Three interwoven stories.
The main plot deals with the folklorist Jacob Grimm, nearing the end of his life and in failing health. He is cared for by his niece, Auguste, and a servingman, Kummel. The relationships between all three are fraught with tension and secrets.
In flashback-style, we also learn about the young Jacob and his (rather unhealthy, interdependent) relationship with his younger brother, Willi.
Interspersed with these two segments is a retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty, mixed with elements of other fairytales and some entirely new additions.
By an Oxford grad, the book is surely not without literary merit, but I wished that the story had focused less on Auguste's angst and more on the historical details of the Grimms' lives and work. I had hoped to come away from reading this book feeling that I knew much more about the brothers – but I didn't.
I liked the ‘fairytale' segment, but its function seemed, to me, to mostly be illustrative – to show an ‘unsanitized' version of an old story. The issues brought up thematically in that section, I felt, should have related back to the story going on in the other segments – but they really didn't.
I also couldn't help feeling that Middleton wasn't really inside the heads of his characters. A sense of time and place (Germany, 19th century) was established by throwing in stuff like gratuitous references to "schnitzels" rather than through the characters. And finally, I found Middleton's indirectly-implied thesis that German fairytales are somehow related to Nazism to be annoying and offensive (he makes a comment about how the German versions of fairytales were distinctly ‘nastier' than, say, the French versions – which I think is definitely arguable and probably untrue.) The author also uses Grimm's belief in folklore being an important part of our heritage to imply that the ‘nastiness' of the stories says something about the German people as a whole. The character of Kummel, who is entirely fictional, is included merely to give the author a chance to bring up anti-Semitism, and I found it totally irrelevant to bring up, in the afterword, that Hitler used versions of Grimm's book to promote the ‘German folk community.'
The Grimms were not anti-Semites, they died well before the rise of Nazism, and I don't believe that fairytales have any culpability for or connection to fascism in any form.
This theme is not by any means the largest part of the book, I think it's just something that I'm personally sensitive to."
The main plot deals with the folklorist Jacob Grimm, nearing the end of his life and in failing health. He is cared for by his niece, Auguste, and a servingman, Kummel. The relationships between all three are fraught with tension and secrets.
In flashback-style, we also learn about the young Jacob and his (rather unhealthy, interdependent) relationship with his younger brother, Willi.
Interspersed with these two segments is a retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty, mixed with elements of other fairytales and some entirely new additions.
By an Oxford grad, the book is surely not without literary merit, but I wished that the story had focused less on Auguste's angst and more on the historical details of the Grimms' lives and work. I had hoped to come away from reading this book feeling that I knew much more about the brothers – but I didn't.
I liked the ‘fairytale' segment, but its function seemed, to me, to mostly be illustrative – to show an ‘unsanitized' version of an old story. The issues brought up thematically in that section, I felt, should have related back to the story going on in the other segments – but they really didn't.
I also couldn't help feeling that Middleton wasn't really inside the heads of his characters. A sense of time and place (Germany, 19th century) was established by throwing in stuff like gratuitous references to "schnitzels" rather than through the characters. And finally, I found Middleton's indirectly-implied thesis that German fairytales are somehow related to Nazism to be annoying and offensive (he makes a comment about how the German versions of fairytales were distinctly ‘nastier' than, say, the French versions – which I think is definitely arguable and probably untrue.) The author also uses Grimm's belief in folklore being an important part of our heritage to imply that the ‘nastiness' of the stories says something about the German people as a whole. The character of Kummel, who is entirely fictional, is included merely to give the author a chance to bring up anti-Semitism, and I found it totally irrelevant to bring up, in the afterword, that Hitler used versions of Grimm's book to promote the ‘German folk community.'
The Grimms were not anti-Semites, they died well before the rise of Nazism, and I don't believe that fairytales have any culpability for or connection to fascism in any form.
This theme is not by any means the largest part of the book, I think it's just something that I'm personally sensitive to."
October 13, 2013
*****SPOILERS****** I was disappointed by this book. A weave of three different stories, there is some confusion as to how they do, or even should, relate to one another. The main plot revolves around an elderly Jacob Grimm and his niece Auguste travelling to the place of his birth where she hopes to learn the answer to a question that has consumed her.
The second plot describes the early lives of Jacob and his younger brother Wilhelm, their relationship, and Jacob's sense of duty to his family.
The third plot is a re-telling of the fairy tale 'Sleeping Beauty', with some elements of a few other stories blended in to create something unique.
Some of the problems lie in the author's unclear delineation between the first two plots, often switching between them (and back again) from one paragraph to the next. It took some time for me to realize that she called the younger Jacob 'Jacob' and the older version 'Grimm'.
The inclusion of the fairy tale, while interesting, also felt confusing. The end of Grimm's life is somehow intertwined with the 'hero' of the tale, but the connection is never explained. Mentions in all three plots are made of there being more than one world and people being able to slip through the map into other Germanies, but while some characters appear to do this, there is no follow-through.
It would have been nice, and interesting, to link the fairy tale even more to Grimm's life in some way - the hero's quest realized in Grimm's final journey, or maybe in Auguste's, since the main plot focused more on her than Grimm himself. The three plots never really seem to mesh though, leaving the reader with a disjointed, unsatisfied feeling and with only a vague sense of the Grimm brothers' actual history.
Mentions are made of the era's history - Bonaparte, Bismark, the Second Reich. Grimm's expulsion from the university and Hesse itself. A lot is made of Geman nationalism and the turmoil of the country and a completely fictional Jewish character is added for a hint at the growing anti-semitism that would soon make Germany infamous. I'm not sure what to make of this inclusion; Grimm himself was not an anti-semite, though his love of Germany may provide the impetus, the author wanting to fully express the full range of Germany's trouble.
The second plot describes the early lives of Jacob and his younger brother Wilhelm, their relationship, and Jacob's sense of duty to his family.
The third plot is a re-telling of the fairy tale 'Sleeping Beauty', with some elements of a few other stories blended in to create something unique.
Some of the problems lie in the author's unclear delineation between the first two plots, often switching between them (and back again) from one paragraph to the next. It took some time for me to realize that she called the younger Jacob 'Jacob' and the older version 'Grimm'.
The inclusion of the fairy tale, while interesting, also felt confusing. The end of Grimm's life is somehow intertwined with the 'hero' of the tale, but the connection is never explained. Mentions in all three plots are made of there being more than one world and people being able to slip through the map into other Germanies, but while some characters appear to do this, there is no follow-through.
It would have been nice, and interesting, to link the fairy tale even more to Grimm's life in some way - the hero's quest realized in Grimm's final journey, or maybe in Auguste's, since the main plot focused more on her than Grimm himself. The three plots never really seem to mesh though, leaving the reader with a disjointed, unsatisfied feeling and with only a vague sense of the Grimm brothers' actual history.
Mentions are made of the era's history - Bonaparte, Bismark, the Second Reich. Grimm's expulsion from the university and Hesse itself. A lot is made of Geman nationalism and the turmoil of the country and a completely fictional Jewish character is added for a hint at the growing anti-semitism that would soon make Germany infamous. I'm not sure what to make of this inclusion; Grimm himself was not an anti-semite, though his love of Germany may provide the impetus, the author wanting to fully express the full range of Germany's trouble.
December 7, 2009
Only marginally interesting. None of the three parts really resolved to my satisfaction and I'm not sure what the whole point of the book was. Style of the writing was fairly readable but the content was too puzzling for my tiny brain. Doubt I would recommend this to anyone as a "good read"
July 26, 2017
Мрачновато, загадочно и трагично.. Реальность и сказка так переплетаются между собой, что иногда и не сразу поймешь где что..
June 11, 2018
Fictionalized account of the last days of Jacob Grimm's life, interspersed with a chilling fairytale with a suitably grim ending! I love Haydn Middleton's mastery of words and lyrical writing.
February 11, 2015
FYI: This book is NOT for kids. It’s rather dark and I was a little traumatized after reading the implied narcolepsy/rape that the rose prince committed on the rose princess. Later, I read online that the original Grimm version of Sleeping Beauty does tell that the princess was impregnated and gave birth while still sleeping under the curse…Who thought it was a good idea to publish these as kid stories?
The characters are well-portrayed. I could feel the hopelessness and resignation of the rose king before he left his home. I thought his mother was very wise in what she said about him being a prince and there are other worlds than this. When she laid down in her grave, she did it fearlessly, but that’s because she knew she was going to the other world (you’ll have to read the book for that innuendo...I’m not givin’ it up). Of course, why she was eating his kids I have no idea….I wonder if she ate the rest of her own kids so she wouldn't have to feed them, anymore… I could relate to Auguste’s curiosity.
I suspect the little old man is Rumpelstiltskin, but a nice one who’s gotten so old, he doesn’t have enough fight left in him to be making deals with millers to steal babies. I liked Kummel. He was a little mysterious. Even at the end when he confessed he was a Jew. I didn't get what the big deal was about being Jewish, but maybe I've been raised in a PC world too much to understand what that meant.
The author mentions Germany’s governmental system of the time period and how all the little city-kingdoms took a long time to be united under one body and how the local folktales are collected. It’s not as cheesy as a soap opera, but still has enough dramatic twists to make it close to that level.
The characters are well-portrayed. I could feel the hopelessness and resignation of the rose king before he left his home. I thought his mother was very wise in what she said about him being a prince and there are other worlds than this. When she laid down in her grave, she did it fearlessly, but that’s because she knew she was going to the other world (you’ll have to read the book for that innuendo...I’m not givin’ it up). Of course, why she was eating his kids I have no idea….I wonder if she ate the rest of her own kids so she wouldn't have to feed them, anymore… I could relate to Auguste’s curiosity.
I suspect the little old man is Rumpelstiltskin, but a nice one who’s gotten so old, he doesn’t have enough fight left in him to be making deals with millers to steal babies. I liked Kummel. He was a little mysterious. Even at the end when he confessed he was a Jew. I didn't get what the big deal was about being Jewish, but maybe I've been raised in a PC world too much to understand what that meant.
The author mentions Germany’s governmental system of the time period and how all the little city-kingdoms took a long time to be united under one body and how the local folktales are collected. It’s not as cheesy as a soap opera, but still has enough dramatic twists to make it close to that level.
February 20, 2014
It's an engaging booK, that's really three stories in one. The frame story is somewhat slow, but that's in the nature of the story that's being told. The other two stories are more interesting, one being parts of the life of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and the other a retelling of a fairy tale.
Once things really got started, I enjoyed reading it. However, I gave it only three stars for two reasons.
SPOILER ALERT
My first is basically the structure of the modern novel vs. that of a fairy tale (or even biography). Novels tend to come to a stopping point rather than a conclusion, whereas the other two generally have a beginning, middle, and end. Not that that's a bad thing in either case, but since this book was both biography and fairy tale, the open-endedness of it detracted from the book, at least for me.
The second was the retelling of the fairy tale. While I liked it (although here, too, the ending was vague, if not unresolved), I didn't see its connection to the story. There's a vague crossover in the frame story characters' reaction to things, but as a whole I didn't see the necessity for it. In "The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars" by Steven Brust, there is also a running fairy tale, but it turns out that it is something the narrator has been telling the other artists because of his heritage, so it was as integral to the story as the other elements.
That being said, I will add that I'm glad that it was in the book! It's a hybrid of a story found in both Basile and Perrault, made both less and more gruesome. Though the end is a bit anticlimactic, it's a great retelling!
Once things really got started, I enjoyed reading it. However, I gave it only three stars for two reasons.
SPOILER ALERT
My first is basically the structure of the modern novel vs. that of a fairy tale (or even biography). Novels tend to come to a stopping point rather than a conclusion, whereas the other two generally have a beginning, middle, and end. Not that that's a bad thing in either case, but since this book was both biography and fairy tale, the open-endedness of it detracted from the book, at least for me.
The second was the retelling of the fairy tale. While I liked it (although here, too, the ending was vague, if not unresolved), I didn't see its connection to the story. There's a vague crossover in the frame story characters' reaction to things, but as a whole I didn't see the necessity for it. In "The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars" by Steven Brust, there is also a running fairy tale, but it turns out that it is something the narrator has been telling the other artists because of his heritage, so it was as integral to the story as the other elements.
That being said, I will add that I'm glad that it was in the book! It's a hybrid of a story found in both Basile and Perrault, made both less and more gruesome. Though the end is a bit anticlimactic, it's a great retelling!
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August 23, 2012SPOILER ALERT!!! horrible book. i had this book on my to read book for years. i kept checking it out and life got in the way so this year i made myself read it. the odd numbered chapters were 2 stories in one that had something to do with each other. the even numbered chapters had nothing to do with the odd chapters. i hated reading the odd chapters. they were boring. the even numbered chapters were good at first but the last few chapters were disgusting and disturbing!!! why did the mother have to put one of the twins on a spit and roast him and then eat a piece of him infront of her son? i am so disappointed in this book and am mad i even had this book on my must read book. leave this book alone!!! WORTHLESS!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 4, 2017
There’s a lot of meat to this story: a man growing old, a lifetime of responsibilities piled up behind him; a woman whose life is on pause until she gathers the courage to ask the question burning a hole in her mind; the backstory of a well-known childhood tale. And that’s not even counting the historical context that pokes through in parts of Grimm’s life, particularly as his deeply held belief in the unification of Germany’s many little kingdoms conflicts with the world events around him. Then there’s Middleton’s gorgeous, expressive writing to carry it all.
While this type of dark, multiple-storyline book isn’t for everyone, I found it highly enjoyable.
Read the rest of my review here:
https://grammarchangeling.com/2016/12...
While this type of dark, multiple-storyline book isn’t for everyone, I found it highly enjoyable.
Read the rest of my review here:
https://grammarchangeling.com/2016/12...
January 20, 2011
I was disappointed with it. It was confusing and a little slow because two stories were being told at the same time. The first was one about one of the Grimm Brothers on vacation with his neice visiting his birthplace. The other was a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story which was kinda interesting and like a typical grimm fairytale (not the disney version)kinda gruesome. There were also a few scenes I had to skip over. It did give you a sense of the Grimm Brothers and I would actually like to read more about them.
April 27, 2011
An interesting weave of three interlocking stories. Much like a twisting three pronged tree root in Grimms beloved Bavaria forests. Wide apart and then ultimately intertwined. Lovely language and visuals..."comically waving his arms for her like a spoof shaman , words the thunder, consonants the bones and vowels the very blood of the language".
June 26, 2012
I have to be honest--I didn't finish this book. I just couldn't. It went from being boring in some sections and overtly sexual in others. The section with Sleeping Beauty (still asleep) and the prince were just too disturbing for me that I had to put the book down, then decided to never pick it back up.
August 12, 2012
I picked this book up because it looked interesting and different. I had a hard time switching between the three main stories, and honeslty I was really only interested in one. I get the connection between the three stories, but it just wasn't enough to keep my interest.
In the end, 'I couldn't put it down' only to be able to move on to my next book!
In the end, 'I couldn't put it down' only to be able to move on to my next book!
October 14, 2007
Not a bad book, but not very engrossing. As soon as I settled into the writing style, I started getting distracted rather easily. Obviously distraction is an indication that the book isn't holding my interest. I probably won't ever finish it, because I was indifferent to the characters.
September 16, 2011
I really liked the book. It gave me a glimpse into German history. I also loved the fairy tale that was woven through the story. I've always loved Grimm's fairy tales. I just never thought about how and why they came to be.
February 19, 2009
I loved this. The words were beautiful, the story compelling and deep, with heavy symbolism at the end that really made you think.
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September 2, 2013Dec 21, 2009
April 10, 2016
A fascinating novel based on the lives of the Brothers Grimm. Their personal lives are told as one of their own fairy tales, scary and full of contradictory meanings.
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July 20, 2014Based on the lives of the Grimm brothers, and the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews