12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Fairy-stories are not necessrily for children", Mar 26 2005
By Vera - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Grimmest of Grimm (Paperback)
When I was a kid, I had that rather dog-eared, whitish book, with lots of fairy-tales and almost no illustrations. Yet I loved it, as I did the tales of The Grimm brothers.
Then I grew up, went to University and little by little, the name Grimm no longer reminded me of pretty maidens, kept in tall towers by ugly old witches or of handsome princes, coming to rescue them (or rather sneak into the maidens' room;)), but of language origins, Germanic sound shifts and linguistics.
And then I chanced to come across The Grimmest of Grimm and all of a sudden I was brought back all those years ago, to the days when I was reading about the boy playing at bowls with ghosts' skulls (only to finally learn what it is like to have the shivers, when he got himself a wife;)
The Grimmest of Grimm is a book created with lots of love; a book with a heart and a life of its own; a book which, with the simple way in which the tales are told and its plentiful illustrations, is suitable as much for kids, who hear them for the first time, as it is for adults, who have grown tired of reading books, written in a "language, which makes up in obscurity what it lacks in style".
The Grimmest of Grimm is a feast not only for the mind, but for the eyes, as well; a read which carries one over to a different time and place, a gateway to the dream-world of childhood, in which ghosts and spirits walk the earth and where everything is fresh and new; a world where good still wins over evil and virtue triumphs over vice.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Artistic, Masterful Portrayal of Original Text, Dec 23 2008
By Pyper Roe "Pyper" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Grimmest of Grimm (Paperback)
Artistically presented and masterfully portrayed, the Grimmest of Grimm stays true to the original text and intent of the tales of the Brothers Grimm.
As another reviewer states, yes, the text is large, and there is white space throughout the layout, but that is part of the artistic portrayal of these wonderful stories.
By translating the tales from the original language and presenting them as they were originally written (without the watered-down "Disney fairy tale" endings and redacted grim details), the illustrations pair perfectly with the dank, dark realities as presented the way they were meant to be.
Additionally, because the illustrations were created by several artists and were tailored to each tale, the art not only brings out the best in the stories but also brings them to life as if they could leap off the pages into reality.
Particularly pleasing is the artistic presentation of the book, which includes large text and wide borders that call attention to the details of the tales as well as the pictures and how they interrelate. This book was meant to be a work of art, not just a collection of words on a page, and it accomplishes that task with abundant finesse.
I highly recommend this book to any Brothers Grimm fan, newly initiated Grimm reader, and anyone who wants to experience the tales as they were meant to be realized.
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Almost a book, May 8 2007
By David F. Eskridge - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Grimmest of Grimm (Paperback)
This is not so much a book as a puffed up leaflet. The text is huge, and the pages are filled with what appear to be doodles done by bored ninth graders. There is no discussion or context. It is a tiny collection stories and nothing more. Shrink its margins and text to more normal size, cut the art, Cut back on white space and you ind yourself looking at maybe twenty pages. I'm being giving when I say that.