The Annotated Brothers Grimm: The Bicentennial Edition

by Tatar Maria

A book of this grade is solidly good. Rarely read. Spine is sturdy. All pages are intact. Cover is clean. No marks anywhere.

496 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long held a pleasant delusion that Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm wandered around the German countryside and took their stories strictly in the oral tradition from folks they met along the way. Turns out this is only a tiny part of the story. Sadly, my romanticized misconception that the Brothers Grimm were to fairy tales what Alan Lomax was to folk music was oversimplified and just plain wrong.
In the Bicentennial Edition of The Annotated Brothers Grimm, Harvard scholar Maria Tatar’s section on the origins and cultural effects of reading the Grimms’ collections offers a feast of historical detail underscoring how complex and contradictory fairy tales in general, and the Brothers’ Grimm in particular, actually are. Ms. Tatar’s scholarship in the realms of the imagination is profound. Her language is beautiful and she is thoroughly grounded in the study of fairy tales. Her observations about the intertwining of the Third Reich and the Brothers Grimm are one example of the kaleidoscope of connections that exist among these tales in history.
Fairy tales can be counted on for certain things beyond entertainment: for example, they preserve history or, in the case of the Grimms, they try to recover or create a particular way of life. They generally aren’t parables; their characters are flat rather than developed; and their actions are essentially predictable within the context of each character. And, although this is generally left unsaid, there aren’t many fairies in fairy tales. There’s plenty of magic, though.
Tatar cites poet William Auden as claiming that the Grimm brothers were next to the Bible in importance. And to think of all the fuss when Lennon said that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus!
The annotations contributed hugely to the meaning and history of the 52 stories here. The illustrations are grand, the appendices add even more depth to this remarkable collection. The stories always resonate with the narratives of our lives.
Even Mae West identified: “I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.”

[Gable Roth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because my ten year old checked it out from the library and read it and I had heard about how some of these children's fairy tales might not be kid friendly... For the most part the fairy tales are ok. However, I asked my son if he read much of the annotation and he said no. That was good because the notes get into more adult topics. This would not be the best book to get if you wanted a collection to read to your kids. But it is very interesting reading through the notes to learn more about the stories.

It is very cool to see how these tales have worked their way into most of our modern stories even big name stories like Harry Potter. One set of stories that are mentioned as not having made it to the common era are the many stories about three men who go on a quest and the first two fail and the third succeeds. The closest I can think of for that is the three little pigs. But other than that I can't think of any others... Except of course for the Harry Potter story of the deathly hallows.

[A'Mya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the original fairytales in this book. It was interesting to read all the different manuscript versions of the Frog King. I also read a lot of tales that I'd never heard of such as The Little Brave Tailor.

[S]

great illustrations, very good quality materially speaking.

[Grace Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never be able to look at the Princess and the Frog in the same way again