The Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition of Original Folk and Fairy Tales

Woeful Dragon: Looks like the picture. Wanted this book for a while now!

Netherlands on May 02, 2023

Robb Lowe: I bought it as a gift for my daughter and she loves it. The stories caught her off guard so I loved her reaction when I heard her holler out loud

United States on Feb 23, 2023

Julia Shaw: This is an excellent and complete compendium of Grimm’s original fairy tales. It’s exactly what I wanted.

United States on Nov 03, 2022

A. Erickson: This book is very detailed but it is not recommended for younger children it is very morbid in most of the story’s they talk about being devoured by beasts and murder it is better for you to give it to older age groups and not younger.

United States on May 29, 2022

BeladolBeladol: The media could not be loaded.  Love this, stories are great. Well organized and out together. You can pick it up and almost start from anywhere.

Canada on Apr 22, 2022

DT: It was on teenager's wish list. Totally thrilled with the book

Canada on Dec 27, 2021

Sarah M.: PROS:
- Es mas fácil voltear las paginas.
- Cuentos bastante raros y entretenidos
- El inglés que se usa no es confuso o complicado
CONS:
-El texto si esta acomodado algo cercano al lomo del libro... sin embargo compré la versión tapa blanda, así que puedo abrir el libro un poco más (el lomo es muy resistente) para leer mejor.
-El libro está algo pesado.

Mexico on Oct 29, 2020

Martin: The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition arrived on time and in acceptable condition. Packaging wasn't optimum (plastic bag in a box... containing other items... really...) so book cover suffered some during shipping (minus one star). But this book in what I expected it to be so five stars for it. I acknowledge the review concerning how "practically" impossoble it is to perfectly translate art in a foreign language but, still, no other translation seems to contain as many of the original stories. So, yeah, I bought it after doing quite a bit of research and I am in deed quite happy I did.

Canada on Jan 03, 2019

wiredweird: New for me, at least. This wide-ranging collection has a somewhat raw feel to it. It's not what I'd look for in ordinary narrative, but makes it clear that that this study presents the data as it was collected, not prettied up for publication, or only slightly. For example, many stories, especially the shorter ones seem like fragments - perhaps all that the Grimm's subject could remember of a much longer story. And, although terrible fates for the bad guys have always been part of the fairy-tale canon, some of the fates drawn here are not what I'd present to small children.

The illustrations (like that cover image) add visual interest, as clever summaries of the stories they depict. At the same time, these clever cutouts honor  Prince Achmed , another work of German fantasy, and the first feature-length animation. Reiniger's 1926 film also used paper cutouts as stop-animated shadow puppets. Although the Grimm tales would have been just as interesting without the illustrations, I enjoyed them (and their homage to Reiniger) immensely.

I'm not sure I'll come back to this book, but I'm very glad I've read it.

-- wiredweird

United States on Aug 14, 2015

Steven Peterson: This is a wonderful volume. As it were, this represents the first version of the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale collection. The author is Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota. As such, he wondered at the lack of a published version of the original volume put together by the Brothers Grimm. Consequently, Dr. Zipes translated and edited the 1812/15 version and it was published by Princeton University Press.

The Introduction by Zipes places the volume in context; he discusses the goals of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; he notes the changes in the tone and tenor of the stories over multiple editions of the collected works. If one is familiar with the story of Rapunzel, the changes are rather stark. I(n the original version, she becomes pregnant by her visiting male friend. In later versions, pregnancy did NOT occur.

The Grimm brothers' prefatory comments on Volume 1 and Volume 2 are provided in this collection, adding their own personal observations to the picture. Their desire to bring the collective tales told and retold by people is manifest in the publication of their original version.

But it is the stories that are the...

United States on Nov 27, 2014