Grimm’s Fairy Tales

by Jacob Grimm, Kevin Colden (Artist), Wilhelm Grimm

Often thought of as children's tales, the original stories from the Brothers Grimm are nothing of the sort. Dark, vindictive, and full of hard-to-swallow life lessons, this collection of Grimm's Fairy Tales re-presents these lasting works with contemporary illustrations by Eisner Award-nominated artist Kevin Colden.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Classics

204 pages, Hardcover

Published November 30, 2010

About the author

German philologist and folklorist Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm in 1822 formulated Grimm's Law, the basis for much of modern comparative linguistics. With his brother Wilhelm Karl Grimm (1786-1859), he collected Germanic folk tales and published them as Grimm's Fairy Tales (1812-1815).

Indo-European stop consonants, represented in Germanic, underwent the regular changes that Grimm's Law describes; this law essentially states that Indo-European p shifted to Germanic f, t shifted to th, and k shifted to h. Indo-European b shifted to Germanic p, d shifted to t, and g shifted to k. Indo-European bh shifted to Germanic b, dh shifted to d, and gh shifted to g.

This jurist and mythologist also authored the monumental German Dictionary and his Deutsche Mythologie .

Adapted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keep in mind that I don't know much about the history behind Grimm's Fairy Tales. I was so excited to read this book and it did not disappoint! I love seeing all the original stories and see how they have changed over the years to the one we know today. I love how most of the stories had a deeper meaning to scare kids into behaving. Others stories were completely off the wall having characters that were inanimate objects. I think the egg was my favorite character. I did not realize how much of our culture has been effected by these stories until I read them. It is a light fun read where you go on many small adventure. It is really must read book.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, this version I read only had 31 stories so I found out it was missing some stories. Makes me sad.
Some of the fairy tales weren't as gruesome as I thought they would be, but there were some disturbing ones with dogs being ran over and killed, and horses having hatchets thrown at them because a bird tried to peck at them (The Dog and the Sparrow). I think my favorite was The Old Man and his Grandson. Please be kind to the elderly!

[Marcus Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was really great, a lot of recognizable stories Disney stole and new stories that Disney didn't stole. But other than that, the illustrations were great and I commend the Grimm brothers for making such engaging and fun stories.

[Vera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Echt prachtige illustraties, de verhalen zijn trouw aan die van de gebroeders Grimm, maar met een modern tintje (vrouwelijke jager, geen wakkermakende kus, etc). Maar toch vooral gekocht vanwege de illustraties

[Jolene Layne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not your ordinary fairy tale no, no, no. This is how the real fairy tales are told

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book at Barnes and Noble - one of their classics with a nice cover, colorful illustrations and book mark ribbon. I thought it would be a fun read and rather educational since I had never read a Grimm’s Fairy Tale collection book before. This book includes 55 tales which in the end was about 25 more than I would like to have read. I found the book rather tedious at times and surprisingly, not a fast read as I had expected. A lot of the same themes are read over and over in these tales. Some of them of course were familiar to me including “Sleeping Beauty,” “Tom Thumb,” “Hansel and Gretl,” “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” to name several of them. Most I had never heard of before. Some were rather entertaining but others downright silly. I did some online research and read that the Grimm Brothers didn’t actually write these stories but collected them as oral folk tales handed down through generations.

[Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great collection of Grimm's Fairy Tails, the illustrations are beautiful. There is just something that I want to point out to anyone that is interested in purchasing this edition of the book. It is only a small selection of the fairy tails that are included.

[Jeff Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

The original versions are a little more messed up than the watered down crap we get today.

[Jayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice volume of "grimmy" fairy tales, haha, and the illustrations were really good.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a while to read at one story a night. Definitely worthwhile. It's interesting to see the original stories and names compared to my limited knowledge of modern adaptations.

[Littlesin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good compilation of the classic Grimm's Fairy Tales. It really is easy to forget how messed up and twisted these stories were!

The artwork by Kevin Colden was a very nice touch!

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the warm and fuzzy variety but closer to the originals.