First published in 1997, Grimm's Grimmest now has a blood-red, gothic cover to ensure these gruesome fairy tales will chill a whole new audience of adults. Nineteen of the darkest tales collected by the Grimm Brothers are presented unedited as originally recorded. Illustrated throughout, 14 of the stories also open with a colour oil painting commissioned for this book.
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A scholar of fairy tales, Maria Tatar, provides a fascinating introduction about the history and meaning of the stories assembled by the Brothers Grimm. She writes, for example, "We now know that the stories collected in the nineteenth-century folktale anthologies ...had their origins in an irreverent peasant culture that arose in conscious opposition to the feudal state's ruling class. By overdoing it in the realm of storytelling, these narrators were able to alleviate--if only temporarily--some of the tedium that marked the daily life of their audience ... [These tales] can be seen as the ancestors of our urban legends about vanishing hitchhikers and cats accidentally caught in the dryer or as the preliterate equivalents of tabloid tales describing headless bodies found in topless bars. But in many ways, it is the horror film to which the matter and manner of these folktales has most conspicuously migrated. Like horror films, folktales trade in the sensational--breaking taboos and enacting the forbidden with uninhibited energy."
The text of the 19 tales in this collection is based on the 1822 edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Nursery and Household Tales) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm--before the tales were expurgated and rewritten to make them more "suitable" for children. It's bound in a handsome faux-antique format, and lavishly illustrated by Tracy Arah Dockray (15 full-page color paintings, and a black-and-white drawing on nearly every page). Most of the tales will be unfamiliar to American and English readers, who may be surprised by the graphic descriptions of incest, murder, mutilation, and cannibalism. Chronicle Books has done us a service in helping restore to our adult culture these vivid, evocative folktales. --Fiona Webster --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
About the Author
Maria Tatar (Cambridge, Massachusetts) is one of the world's foremost Grimm scholars and is professor of Germanic languages and literature at Harvard.
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First Sentence
A LONG TIME AGO there was a rich man who had a beautiful and pious wife. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
A LONG TIME AGO there was a rich man who had a beautiful and pious wife. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By Ash
Format:Hardcover
It was exactly what I was looking for. Arrived just before Christmas and in great shape. Thanks you so much!
By Lynne Shaney
Format:Paperback
Liked the illustrations to this volume of the darker tales, especially Juniper Tree, which was an amazing story that makes you realize just how awful the stepmothers of fairy tales are. Some of the stories are familiar but quite a few were new to me, so this was something of an adventure.
By K. Roman
Format:Paperback
Maria Tatar introduces the stories and some of the variations in different editions. She also delves into the politics that have helped some stories become well known and helped keep others obscure. There is a table of contents, but the stories are in no discernable order.
This collection takes readers closer to the original tales and include incest, sex, and graphic violence. The stories are rough and sometimes hard to understand. For example, I could not understand why the daughter who had fled the castle and the incestuous advances of her father, the king, later purposefully let her identity be known to him.
These stories are excellent reading that should help tellers understand these folk tales better. They may be tellable as written to an adult audience. However, I feel that an audience that is not well-versed in the oral tradition my need some help in understanding them or putting them into context.
The illustrations have a lurid quality that intensifies the feeling of uneasiness.
Source Notes: Selected stories from the 3rd ed. (1822) of Kinder- und Hausmärchen by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
Reviewed by Karen Woodworth-Roman, MS Library Science
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wow
This book contains the collection of the Grimm's brothers original fairy tales, and mostly gruesome in nature, involving cannibal and gruesome acts. Read more
Published on Feb 22 2004 by Norliza Ismail
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful and fascinating read
I received this book as a Christmas present last year, and it has quickly become one of my all-time favorites. Read more
Published on Aug 31 2003 by JoJo Lesher
2.0 out of 5 stars
Far from Horror Tales. 2 Stars **.
I grabbed this for free out of a bookclub: and that's about all I'd tell you to do and save your money. So why the two stars, instead of only one? Read more
Published on May 8 2003 by SpacegrassMan
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bring in Vincent Price
These are original, bloody tales collected by the Brothers Grimm. Very few end with "they lived happily ever after" and even less beginning with "once upon a time". Read more
Published on Mar 2 2003 by D. K. Atkinson
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Good
About the only fairy tale we will notice is the Cinderella story called Aschenputtal in this book. It is very different from the Cinderella we know. Read more
Published on Jan 28 2003 by "x_opp"
5.0 out of 5 stars
THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK
If yo enjoy ny type of horror thi book is worth reading. I loe this book, it is my faveorite book
Published on Jan 6 2002 by Desi
3.0 out of 5 stars
Don't believe the hype.
From the editorial review: "Most of the tales will be unfamiliarto American and English readers, who may be surprised by the graphicdescriptions of murder, mutilation, and... Read more
Published on Jun 21 2000 by B. Coleman
3.0 out of 5 stars
I tried to like it...
I thought this book wouold have been much much different. I thought I would be scared beyond the point of being scared. I was dead wrong. Read more
Published on May 7 1999
3.0 out of 5 stars
I prefer the sanitized versions
At least they were readable and the style of writing is more appropriate for young readers. And by that I don't mean these weren't readable because of their content, but rather... Read more
Published on April 19 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must-Read For Any Lover of ORIGINAL Fairy Tales
As a devout reader of fairy tales, I was ecstatic to find an anthology as complete as this one. These are not the toned down fairy tales Disney puts out; these are violent yet... Read more
Published on Mar 15 1999
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