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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
Even though I like some of the Disney movies they're mostly watered down and fluffy versions of these incredibly imaginative, dark and grim folk tales that the brothers Grimm collected. Even though not all the tales are interesting I would happily get this to my bookshelf anyway.
And finally, I would like to thank you my Finnish teacher who introduced the morbid world of the Grimms to my class when we were 13. She read the most memorable fairy tales to us under a red lamp and it made me travel back in time to dark woods in the heart of Europe with buckets of blood.
And finally, I would like to thank you my Finnish teacher who introduced the morbid world of the Grimms to my class when we were 13. She read the most memorable fairy tales to us under a red lamp and it made me travel back in time to dark woods in the heart of Europe with buckets of blood.
Look, I know these are supposed to be "beloved classic," but...no.
The two stars are for creative violence (pounding nails through a barrel, putting victim in barrel, pulling barrel via rope behind horse until victim is dead of nail punctures), but most of the stories are some variation of the same theme or amalgamations of parts of the other stories.
And the real downfall comes via the heavy misogyny of the time. Every female character is either young, beautiful, and sweet or ugly, duplicitous, and generally evil. Fuck that shit.
The two stars are for creative violence (pounding nails through a barrel, putting victim in barrel, pulling barrel via rope behind horse until victim is dead of nail punctures), but most of the stories are some variation of the same theme or amalgamations of parts of the other stories.
And the real downfall comes via the heavy misogyny of the time. Every female character is either young, beautiful, and sweet or ugly, duplicitous, and generally evil. Fuck that shit.
Read this a few years ago, but I'd forgotten most of it. Great bunch pf stories, most og which are quite different from the ones we're used to hearing. This is a treasure for any age.
Read by a full cast, including some of my favorites such as Jim Dale and Julia Whelan, Grimm's Fairy Tales are the stories you know and love but with their original dark twists. So don't be shocked when
Rumpelstiltskin rips himself in half out of anger or the evil queen in Snow White dances herself to death in red-hot iron shoes. Obviously, there are some problematic aspects, particularly where gender roles are concerned, but they are interesting to read all the same.
Rumpelstiltskin rips himself in half out of anger or the evil queen in Snow White dances herself to death in red-hot iron shoes. Obviously, there are some problematic aspects, particularly where gender roles are concerned, but they are interesting to read all the same.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ok, so well known and famous for being children’s tales, but this is some seriously dark and flawed shit. All princesses are beautiful, all stepmothers are wicked, all stepsisters are ugly and jealous, and apparently all women would welcome being carried off to wed the prince (who is always handsome)… and some of the punishments are macabre and twisted…
My Recommendation: It was a quick read and it’s freely available to anyone who wants to read it (on Amazon, Open Media and Project Gutenberg). I’m glad I read the Lucy Crane translation with Walter Crane illustrations, it was fascinating to see what they focused on and how they chose to highlight the works.
My Response: I haven’t written about it yet, but I will in the near future, but I signed up for my first Coursera course! It is called Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World and so far I’m enjoying it. Household Stories was our first reading and looking at Goodreads, EVERYONE who reads the Lucy Crane/Wlater Crane version seems to have taken that same Coursera course! I’m seriously looking forward to the other books and stories we’ll read for the course and this was a great start.
What I found most interesting about the collection was the obsession with food and with fallen females. Every story was somehow related to food (needing food, wanting food, having too much food, etc.) or dealt with a female character (human or anthropomorphic) who caused troubles for other characters (the adulteress Mrs. Fox and the numerous wicked step-mothers among others).
Continue reading on my book blog at geoffwhaley.com.
My Response: I haven’t written about it yet, but I will in the near future, but I signed up for my first Coursera course! It is called Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World and so far I’m enjoying it. Household Stories was our first reading and looking at Goodreads, EVERYONE who reads the Lucy Crane/Wlater Crane version seems to have taken that same Coursera course! I’m seriously looking forward to the other books and stories we’ll read for the course and this was a great start.
What I found most interesting about the collection was the obsession with food and with fallen females. Every story was somehow related to food (needing food, wanting food, having too much food, etc.) or dealt with a female character (human or anthropomorphic) who caused troubles for other characters (the adulteress Mrs. Fox and the numerous wicked step-mothers among others).
Continue reading on my book blog at geoffwhaley.com.
The most important thing these tales can do is make you step out of the narrow monovision that fashion and news perpetuate as the only way to live. These tales are often random. They are completely open to magic, violence, unfairness, and heroism. They come from a time when people's lives were much simpler, but their minds were in some ways more complex. If you are a thinking person, these tales will make you laugh and wonder, and you will want to have them on hand to refer to again and again.
Grimm's tales are more grim than some adults may remember - with extravagant deaths and punishments. But, still very fun to read to kids, and talk about. I still remember reading this myself as a little one.
This collection of tales is world renowned and for good reason. The tales themselves read very much like an oral telling passed down through generations and the amount collected is impressive. However, the Grimm brothers realized that this was a very rough copy as they have edited and published many many more versions. I really wanted to read the original stories that were told to the Grimms before they infused much of their influence. That being said, there were quite a few stories that repeated one another, which makes sense as a collection of tales from around the country, but didn't make for a very fast paced or intriguing read. My biggest problems with this book probably could have been solved by reading the physical copy rather than listening to the audio version. I recognized/enjoyed some classics but was actually rather appalled by some of the lesser known stories. Most of the stories were fantastical and filled with extraordinary magic, but unfortunately laced with backwards ideas about general roles, class distinctions, and character that just hindered my appreciation.