'Cock-a-doodle-doo!Our dirty slut's come home again!'Thanks to the Grimm brothers who loved research and philology, they brought together the entire oral tradition of Germany and compiled it into written form.Tales of dwarves, elves, witches, and wolves. Some we're very familiar with. Did you know one of Cinderella's sister's cuts off her big toe to fit into the slipper only for the prince to notice the amount of blood loss!Some tales are moral based: warning against gullibility or showing kindness to strangers. Others, well...not so much. A father orders fairs ladies to be thrown into the sea to be drowned in Cherry, or The Frog-Bride. I love The Three Sluggards which tells of a king who decides the fittest of his three sons to take control of his kingdom when he dies must be the laziest. A fantastic mix of surreal, fantasy, and arguably horror. Well, I bought this collection because I grew up with Grimm's Fairy Tales... some were bed stories, others were movie adaptations, and they are pretty much a staple of pop culture. Yes, it's amazing to read the classics and find new meaning in them. The author made a detailed collection of every story (and other versions of the same story). This book also includes some detailed analysis of the tropes in the body of work of the Brothers Grimm. However, when you read five versions of the same story... you end up hating it. It doesn't add much to the story unless you are going to use this for a research paper. In the end, it was dreadful for me to realize I was reading the same story for the tenth time, with some minor differences that do not seem relevant. Actually, my favorite fairy tales were those that I found only once, and were wickedly clever (often, they were short). I recommend this book as a consulting material, but I wouldn't advise you to try to read it in a single stretch.Summary: The content is great, but the editor could have saved herself some pages by not including every single version of the same story, which makes this collection a drag.
What do You think about Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales (1901)?
I read and re-read this book as a child. Best gift that was ever given to me by my mother.
—Elle
My favorite story was the fisherman and his wife.Great read.
—vanila16
The BEST collection of Grimm's Tales EVER!
—Bigapple
