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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
These cheerful and lovingly crafted retellings of fifty Grimm tales, both famous and lesser-known, were a joy to read. Some of the stories I have loved my whole life, and others were new to me and thoroughly entertaining. It's abundantly clear that Pullman has a great deal of affection and respect for these tales and he has given them a buff and polish that restores them to their full storytelling potential. This book has become my go-to fairytales anthology and makes a beautiful addition to my bookshelf!
Grimm's fairytales themselves are all over the place, but this collection of them made for a fascinating study. The extra notes Philip Pullman adds after each story added interesting background
Goodreads has these tagged with both 'childrens' and 'adult' genres, which I think is accurate. Nearly everyone must remember hearing these stories as a child, but these versions are a lot gorier than I recall! Hey Mr Disney, what happened to my fairytales...
Stores I'm most likely to reread and share: The Nixie of the Millpond, The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs
Tales I would skip in future: The Girl with no Hands
Goodreads has these tagged with both 'childrens' and 'adult' genres, which I think is accurate. Nearly everyone must remember hearing these stories as a child, but these versions are a lot gorier than I recall! Hey Mr Disney, what happened to my fairytales...
Stores I'm most likely to reread and share: The Nixie of the Millpond, The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs
Tales I would skip in future: The Girl with no Hands
Grimm Tales: Where the only characteristic a women has is beauty and their only job is to marry.
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
I rarely read books of short stories all in one go, so this was on my bedroom table for a few weeks as I read other things. Particularly we this book, it's best to read a story here, two tales there, otherwise the sheer formulaic repetition gets exhausting. Of course, this is part of the charm of the Grimm tales. There is a hypnotic sort of recurrence of themes: the archetypal figures of the King's daughter, the miller, the youngest son the old woman, etc., the endless tricolon (three of this, three feathers, three sisters, etc.)... Such repetition is the main factor behind the dreamlike quality of the tales, I think. Not just the use of these symbolic character types, but whole specific sequences are repeated along the way - seriously, about five different tales have a scene where an old woman tells the protagonist that they have just walked into a robbers' den.
I only rate this three stars, because to be honest I expected a lot more from Pullman. Maybe not quite an Angela Carter, 'Bloody Chamber' sort of transformation, but In trying so hard to capture the original spirit of the tales (and succeeding, largely - which is an triumph in itself) I feel that Pullman's voice was lost and so this rebelling of the stories was not really exceptional. However, I did appreciate Pullman's notes and observations at the end of each story though. Some are just cursory facts about who told the story, similarities to other folk tales etc., but sometimes he goes off on one to great effect - such as the extended "sub-Jungian analysis" of 'The Golden Bird' or the occasional hint at how Pullman himself would have improved the story, developed characters, made it more novelistic etc. the problem is, these hints seem a bit lazy - if Pullman really thinks he could improve the tale by adding a detail here, extending a part there etc., he should probably just put his money where his mouth is and do it. It would probably have made a more interesting read.
I only rate this three stars, because to be honest I expected a lot more from Pullman. Maybe not quite an Angela Carter, 'Bloody Chamber' sort of transformation, but In trying so hard to capture the original spirit of the tales (and succeeding, largely - which is an triumph in itself) I feel that Pullman's voice was lost and so this rebelling of the stories was not really exceptional. However, I did appreciate Pullman's notes and observations at the end of each story though. Some are just cursory facts about who told the story, similarities to other folk tales etc., but sometimes he goes off on one to great effect - such as the extended "sub-Jungian analysis" of 'The Golden Bird' or the occasional hint at how Pullman himself would have improved the story, developed characters, made it more novelistic etc. the problem is, these hints seem a bit lazy - if Pullman really thinks he could improve the tale by adding a detail here, extending a part there etc., he should probably just put his money where his mouth is and do it. It would probably have made a more interesting read.
This book isn't quite what I thought it would be. I was expecting that Philip Pullman would have his own unique spin on each tale, but instead he has read many versions of these tales and written what could be considered the "best" version of each, incorporating the elements that work, discarding the elements that don't.
For anyone interested in the study of folk tales Pullman has included the ATU tale type code and a bibliography for further reading.
I enjoyed reading tales I remember from my childhood and found it interesting that some tales had parallels to some Irish folk tales that I had not recognised before.
For anyone interested in the study of folk tales Pullman has included the ATU tale type code and a bibliography for further reading.
I enjoyed reading tales I remember from my childhood and found it interesting that some tales had parallels to some Irish folk tales that I had not recognised before.