Grimms' Complete Fairy Tales

by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm

Book Overview

For over a century, the Grimm brothers' fairy tales have captivated the popular imagination. Their enduring magic and wonder have led to countless adaptations in film, theatre, opera, and animation,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568650477
• ISBN13: 9781568650470
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 648 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Age Range: 4 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 7

Customer Reviews

Am absolutely in live with this book. Inrecieved the Blue leather with gold writing on the cover. It

I will be passing this book down to my children, who I hope will pass it down to theirs.

The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

I am excited to read the original versions of these timeless stories.

Disappointed

I received my book yesterday and opened it today to see that 7 pages were ripped out of it. I am truly disappointed and upset.

A great book for your bookshelf!

I’m so happy with my purchase! I got the bonded leather version and it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s navy blue bonded leather with gold writing and gold foiling on the pages, along with a gold book ribbon. Happy i went with this edition so it’ll hold up when i read it to my children

Love the book

Had a lot of different dark story mix and even some of my favorite was in it like little red riding hood, Cinderella, etc.

Book condition

Received as described

i love this book!

i loved it, much bigger than i thought it would be. 😍

Thrilling

Great book for people to understand the classics rather than the glorified disney versions of everything.

Classic

I loved it!! I think it's great the way it's written. I can truly appreciate the morbid backdrop of most of these stories as opposed to the more refined versions.

Fairy tales, rated PG 13

Standing in a children's book store, I read my first Grimm's fairy tale and I was hooked. I was attracted by how odd the stories were to my modern eyes - I never knew that the wicked sisters' feet were cut up, and their eyes pecked out in the real Cinderella! Obviously the tales can be violent and gory, some of them have also been marked anti-semetic. This may not be a book for small children, but it is over 800 pages of wonderful storytelling. These are fairy tales that will live on forever in your heart.

Grim, Entertaining, and Strangely Insightful

The brothers captured much about the German spirit in theircollection of fairly tales, including those aspects of it thatresonate with human nature in general. Most of the tales have German folk origins, some are remakes of French tales, and a few, well... may have been invented by the women who supplied the brothers with fairy tales. The Grimms were academics. Cultured and urban, they did not hang around the villages, pestering peasants for fairy tales. Rather they obtained their material from middle class and aristocratic women who visited their home and related the stories. The women themselves got their material from their mothers or nannies. Wilhelm and Jacob, however, produced an inspired collection of tales with their own distinctive character and flavor. Perhaps they were prodded by the erotic impulse to do that. The tales have certainly withstood the test of time.There is a lot of good natured, blue-eyed German innocence in these tales; strange, dark, and grotesque imagery and symbolism can surely be found; and of course, anyone reflecting on these tales, cannot help by think of all the grusome violence. For some of the most graphic examples of violence check out "Fichter's Bird" and "The Robber Bridegroom" in the first volume. Strangely enough, children do not seem to be disturbed by the violence of these tales. I read this book for the first time when I was seven or eight, and I was fine--perhaps I wasn't old enough to realize what was really happening. Of course, my experience is typical of the way children respond to these tales. I am more disturbed by Grimm's tales as an adult. Their violence, combined with dark imagery and symbols of darkness (ubiquitous forests), irrational behavior (read "Clever Hans" or "Katy and Freddy"), strong pagan themes ("Gambling Hans"), all this combined with certain naivte and matter-of-factness makes you fear that culture and people a bit."The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm" is a masterpiece, as revealing of the times and culture, as they are imaginative and grim in their images and storylines.

Fairy tales:unwatered and uncensored

An excellent collection of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Its good to find collections of their tales out there that are not just watered down versions. Jack Zipes, who has also translated wonderful editions of the thousand and one nights and a collection of French Fairy Tales(both highly recommended) does an excellent job with the Grimms and provides interesting commentary about the orgins of the tales. My favorite story in particalar was one about a tailor, I can't remember the name.(Yes, I know there are a million stories about tailors but this was the one where the tailor gets blinded and his traveling companion treats him horribly) This edition even includes all of the stories that were even too violent for the Grimm Brothers. One called "How Some Children Played at Slaughtering" is especially unappetizing. All in all I recommend this book to anyone who would like a little enchantment in their lives. By the way, the cover of this book is just gorgous, nice illustrations inside also.

An Old Family Favorite

I remember having these Fairy Tales read to me at bedtime when I was little. I bought the same book to read to my son. The stories are bit anachronistic and may not meet modern standards of being politically correct, but we love them anyway.