Do not... I repeat, DO NOT read these to children. These are some seriously messed up stories. This is how I imagine Hitler would instill values in his children.It's a GREAT book!!!!LOL

Very enchanting and gory.

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" Brothers Grimm (transl...

Although their tales are famous, reading all of the Grimm's tales can become a slog. One begins to see variations on a theme, and after a hundred tales all the ones featuring princes and princesses become a blur, and going through a new tale becomes a recitation of a laundry list of plot points. However, this is always a problem with folk tales as opposed to literary tales, which writers craft with more of an eye toward originality, dramatic effects, and exploration of issues. For someone who wa...

Man, these stories are messed up. Disemboweling wolves, birth, death, sexual imagery abounds. Okay, they're interesting to read as an example of ways to incorporate a sub-text. Not your kiddies' Mother Goose rhymes or the Disney versions. :)

Lots of stories are the same with just a couple different paragraphs

First time reading fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm and I must say they are much different than the way I heard similar tales growing up. Very interesting reading.

I did not read even close to all of the fairy tales in this book, but what I did read, I liked. Especially with the popularity of the Grimm Brothers' stories in TV and movies right now, I wanted to see what the originals (or, rather, English translations of the originals) were like. The stories are usually no more than a page or two. If anything, the motives of the characters make even less sense in the originals than in the many popular retellings we hear. Kings and princes were proposing to po...

If you like fairytales and have always wanted to know where they originate, here’s your chance. For the first time, a complete edition of the fairytales of the Brothers Grimm has been published in paperback form at an affordable price. A handy reference tool, pleasant reading, and a book you can always turn to to read to your kids, all in one!With an introduction on the Brothers Grimm and this specific translation, the book then launches into the countless fairytales told in their virgin form (w...

I've had this on my currently reading list forever now, because I thought I would pick it back up every once in a while to read a couple tales, but that hasn't been the case. I read about a third of the stories last year, but they got very repetitive. It's definitely time to officially dnf.

Summary:In this original version of Cinderella. The story is about a young girl who is being raised and mistreated by her step mother and step sisters. She goes to the grave of her mother where a tree is growning and prays to her mother. When there is a ball to see who will marry the prince, Cinderella goes to the tree and she is transformed into a beautiful young girl. She goes to the ball and the prince falls in love with her. As she is leaving the ball in a hurry she drops her shoe and it is

Not nearly as good as I remember it from reading it when I was a kid. I actually read the exact physical book from my childhood (it now smells a little musty :) I read it nightly out loud to my 10 year old son. In any case, even my son started to say, "Oh, not again!" when we read the fifth repetition of a slightly different story (3 kings sons go out to rescue a maiden, the youngest is called Stupid Hans, the eldest goes first, a magical being gives him instructions to which he doesn't listen,

This volume is worth it if you are interested in fairy tales. With Disney's adaptation, we have forgotten that the original Grimm stories are actually way more gruesome. Furthermore, it is interesting to see that those fairy tales, considered "for the house and family" as stated in the introduction -that I absolutely recommend before the read- reflect the morals of the Bavarian/German bourgeoisie of the time, all in an educative purpose, purpose that is filled using folkloric elements as a mediu...

From what I understand from the introduction in my edition by Jack Zipes, the Grimm brothers were constantly editing the tales that they collected, and it shows. There is a definite style to the tales, even though the different tales have several different sources. Although the voices of the individual tellers may not come out, many of the details of the stories seem fairly consistent within certain families. For example, the Family Hassenpflug stories tend to wend around a bit, sometimes having...

you can't get any more thorough than this. All the stories, including the omitted tales, with wonderful translations by Zipes, also the introduction about the brothers is extraordinarily informative. Zipes also has several other books on the brothers grimm, covering their lives which are also very good. The best part of this edition, to me, is the back index saying when each tale was collected, and by whom it was told. If your a scholarly type and need to research the tales, this is the one to b...

Unless you specifically have a scholarly interest 19th century Fairy Tales do not read this book. I especially won't read it to children because any half decent current children's literature would be far more appropriate. By today's standards, this book it's full of very poorly written stories, mainly about how to obtain wealth by deception, often involving mutilation of children and the subjugation of women, all set in very socially conservative and strictly patriarchal social structures. There...

a bit traumatic

This is some seriously messed up shit! But I LOVE the book... just don't read it to your 5 year old! Why? Scary step moms who cut off their step kids heads and serve them in stews to their husbands, wizards with bloody basins full of body parts... I mean, the "good guys" always win, but back in that day, if ALL bad guys were dealt with in the ways the Brothers Grimm wrote about it? NO thank you, I'll stay in the 21st Century!!I have the "All-New Third Edition," which I'm not sure this tag is for...

A collection of Grimm's tales, you read these over and over through the years in many different versions, yet the true essence of the tale remains

Enjoyed the illustrations by the artist who created the Raggedy Ann stories.