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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
This was a fun collection of stories, some I've heard and others I hadn't. It is much darker than then modern movie counterparts and a few I could only think wtf does that even mean?
Contains classics like Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood! What I enjoyed most about these stories as a child, and again as an adult, is the more violent aspect given to the tales. These aren’t sugar coated for young readers. These could potentially give your kid nightmares. I love it.
Since Marisa Meyers bases her Lunar Chronicles books on the tale of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White I thought that I re-read these classic fairy tales so I am not in the dark so much about who some of the characters are supposed to be in the books.
My version has twenty-five fairy tales which are
The Goose-Girl
The Little Brother and Sister
Hansel and Gretel
Oh, If I Could But Shiver!
Dummling and the Three Feathers
Little Snow White
Catherine and Frederick
The Valiant Little Taylor
Little Red-Cap
The Golden Goose
Bearskin
Cinderella
Faithful John
The Water of Life
Thumbling
Briar Rose
The Six Swans
Rapunzel
Mother Holle
The Frog Prince
The Travels of Tom Thumb
Snow-White and Rose-Red
The Three Little Men in the Wood
Rumpelstilskin, and
Little-One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes
I recall watching most of these stories as a kid on Nickelodeon's Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics.
Opening Theme to Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, my link text
They actually for the most part kept pretty faithful to the majority of the stories. My favorite of these cartoons was definitely "Bearskin" though, my link text
So I read all of these stories and for the purposes of this post I plan on just focusing on Little Snow White, Little Red-Cap, Cinderella, and Rapunzel.
Characters
I think my main comment for each of these stories are that many of these young women (except for Cinderella) do not seem that intelligent.
Snow White does not seem that bright. After being told repeatedly by the seven dwarfs to not open the door to anyone. There are two incidents that happen until The Queen finally in her mind does away with Snow White.
Little Red-Cap gets eaten up by the Wolf even though one wonders how great her eyesight was that she totally did not realize a Wolf was sitting in her Grandmother's bed.
Cinderella I was happy to see that actually is more close to the live-action Disney movie more than I thought since we get her mother telling her to be good and kind.
Rapunzel chose to marry a guy after he climbs her hair and she realizes he is handsome.....yeah.
Plot
The plot for Snow White is a young Princess trying to escape a Queen who is fixated on being the most beautiful in the land. One wonders why it is so important for the Queen to be deemed the fairest. Snow White escaping and living with the seven dwarfs does make one wonder how her taking care of seven dwarfs was better than going someplace else to hide away from the Queen. Snow White hides away from the Queen and is cautioned against going out and talking to anyone in case it is the Queen looking to harm her.
Little Red-Cap in the first half of the story is just on her way to her Grandmother's house and comes across the Wolf who decides to make a meal of her and her Grandmother. There really is not a lot of meat to this story at all. There is one version that is told and another shorter version that we hear about after the unhappy ending to the first version.
Cinderella is told by her dying mother to be a good girl and that she will watch her from heaven and watch over her. Unlike with the Disney version Cinderella's father does not die. Instead the guy lives and watches how his new wife and two stepdaughters treat his daughter. In my head that is actually worse, so at least if her father was not around you would hope that he would actually step in and stop having people treat his only daughter like a servant. Cinderella is so good and kind she plans a hazel tree and due to her tears it grows and a little bird comes and lives in it.
Rapunzel is taken away as a baby to live with an Enchantress after her father was caught stealing rampion from the Enchantress's garden to feed his pregnant wife. Apparently her father deemed it okay to give away his child to someone who was quite willing to murder him for stealing some herbs. In case you didn't notice it, I am not that fond of the parents in any of these fairy tales. Rapunzel grows up and is locked away in a tower when she is 12 years old. Two years later a passing Prince (why are Princes always passing through?) comes through and sees the Enchantress calling up to Rapunzel so he lies in wait and does the same thing.
Writing and Pacing
The writing for all of these stories is pretty simplistic. They are children's stories so it is written for them to read and understand. The pacing for all of them were pretty much straightforward since all of the stories, except for Cinderella were very short.
Setting
Honestly there is not much details to any of the settings. The stories are pretty short so you don't get a lot of detail about that.
Endings
I think you have to decide for yourself what constitutes a happy ending.
For Snow White she wakes up and finds out that a Prince has carried her off who tells her that he loves her more than anything in the world. She consents to be his wife. The Queen after hearing about a new-made Queen that is more beautiful goes to see her becomes ill with passion and becomes choked and dies afterwards. Could this be a potential spoiler to the Lunar Chronicles?
Little Red-Cap was quite grim actually. In version one she and her Grandmother are eaten and a passing huntsman shoots the wolf in the head and both Little Red-Cap and the Grandmother presumably die. I think that the Brothers Grimm realized that was not really a happy ending and had another version where the Wolf falls off the wolf into a trough and drowns.
Cinderella really does have the best ending. She has a magical tree that provides her with gowns and shoes for a ball and eventually after her stepsisters disfigure their feet goes off and lives with the Prince. You don't really hear about Cinderella's father or the stepmother so one imagines they did not live happily ever after.
Rapunzel also had a bleak story-line until the happily ever after. Rapunzel "marries" the Prince when according to the story-line she had to be about 14 years old. Rapunzel makes a not intelligent comment about how heavy the Enchantress is compared to the Prince's son. Due to that the Enchantress flies into a rage, cuts her hair, and leaves her in the desert. The Prince is blinded by thorns when he throws himself out of a tower window. After wandering the desert for years he finds Rapunzel again who heals his eyes with her tears. I I totally prefer Disney's Tangled.
All in all these were fast paced stories that I do have to wonder how appropriate some of them were for children. Most of them had stories about children being treated horribly by their parents or just ignored. Heck Hansel and Gretel had a father who didn't want to leave his kids to starve to death in the woods, but does so since he is henpecked by his second wife. He does feel bad though (eyeroll).
A lot of the stories barely resemble the Disney counterparts. For example, Briar Rose made me laugh since there is no dragon in this story. Instead the thirteenth fairy is just angry she was not invited and throws a curse that Briar Rose would die upon her fifteenth birthday. A twelfth fairy changes it so that everyone will fall asleep for 100 years. So a Prince passing through on the day of the 100th year is there at the right place and time for Briar Rose to wake up and they marry. That's it. No epic fight with a dragon.
My version has twenty-five fairy tales which are
The Goose-Girl
The Little Brother and Sister
Hansel and Gretel
Oh, If I Could But Shiver!
Dummling and the Three Feathers
Little Snow White
Catherine and Frederick
The Valiant Little Taylor
Little Red-Cap
The Golden Goose
Bearskin
Cinderella
Faithful John
The Water of Life
Thumbling
Briar Rose
The Six Swans
Rapunzel
Mother Holle
The Frog Prince
The Travels of Tom Thumb
Snow-White and Rose-Red
The Three Little Men in the Wood
Rumpelstilskin, and
Little-One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes
I recall watching most of these stories as a kid on Nickelodeon's Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics.
Opening Theme to Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, my link text
They actually for the most part kept pretty faithful to the majority of the stories. My favorite of these cartoons was definitely "Bearskin" though, my link text
So I read all of these stories and for the purposes of this post I plan on just focusing on Little Snow White, Little Red-Cap, Cinderella, and Rapunzel.
Characters
I think my main comment for each of these stories are that many of these young women (except for Cinderella) do not seem that intelligent.
Snow White does not seem that bright. After being told repeatedly by the seven dwarfs to not open the door to anyone. There are two incidents that happen until The Queen finally in her mind does away with Snow White.
Little Red-Cap gets eaten up by the Wolf even though one wonders how great her eyesight was that she totally did not realize a Wolf was sitting in her Grandmother's bed.
Cinderella I was happy to see that actually is more close to the live-action Disney movie more than I thought since we get her mother telling her to be good and kind.
Rapunzel chose to marry a guy after he climbs her hair and she realizes he is handsome.....yeah.
Plot
The plot for Snow White is a young Princess trying to escape a Queen who is fixated on being the most beautiful in the land. One wonders why it is so important for the Queen to be deemed the fairest. Snow White escaping and living with the seven dwarfs does make one wonder how her taking care of seven dwarfs was better than going someplace else to hide away from the Queen. Snow White hides away from the Queen and is cautioned against going out and talking to anyone in case it is the Queen looking to harm her.
Little Red-Cap in the first half of the story is just on her way to her Grandmother's house and comes across the Wolf who decides to make a meal of her and her Grandmother. There really is not a lot of meat to this story at all. There is one version that is told and another shorter version that we hear about after the unhappy ending to the first version.
Cinderella is told by her dying mother to be a good girl and that she will watch her from heaven and watch over her. Unlike with the Disney version Cinderella's father does not die. Instead the guy lives and watches how his new wife and two stepdaughters treat his daughter. In my head that is actually worse, so at least if her father was not around you would hope that he would actually step in and stop having people treat his only daughter like a servant. Cinderella is so good and kind she plans a hazel tree and due to her tears it grows and a little bird comes and lives in it.
Rapunzel is taken away as a baby to live with an Enchantress after her father was caught stealing rampion from the Enchantress's garden to feed his pregnant wife. Apparently her father deemed it okay to give away his child to someone who was quite willing to murder him for stealing some herbs. In case you didn't notice it, I am not that fond of the parents in any of these fairy tales. Rapunzel grows up and is locked away in a tower when she is 12 years old. Two years later a passing Prince (why are Princes always passing through?) comes through and sees the Enchantress calling up to Rapunzel so he lies in wait and does the same thing.
Writing and Pacing
The writing for all of these stories is pretty simplistic. They are children's stories so it is written for them to read and understand. The pacing for all of them were pretty much straightforward since all of the stories, except for Cinderella were very short.
Setting
Honestly there is not much details to any of the settings. The stories are pretty short so you don't get a lot of detail about that.
Endings
I think you have to decide for yourself what constitutes a happy ending.
For Snow White she wakes up and finds out that a Prince has carried her off who tells her that he loves her more than anything in the world. She consents to be his wife. The Queen after hearing about a new-made Queen that is more beautiful goes to see her becomes ill with passion and becomes choked and dies afterwards. Could this be a potential spoiler to the Lunar Chronicles?
Little Red-Cap was quite grim actually. In version one she and her Grandmother are eaten and a passing huntsman shoots the wolf in the head and both Little Red-Cap and the Grandmother presumably die. I think that the Brothers Grimm realized that was not really a happy ending and had another version where the Wolf falls off the wolf into a trough and drowns.
Cinderella really does have the best ending. She has a magical tree that provides her with gowns and shoes for a ball and eventually after her stepsisters disfigure their feet goes off and lives with the Prince. You don't really hear about Cinderella's father or the stepmother so one imagines they did not live happily ever after.
Rapunzel also had a bleak story-line until the happily ever after. Rapunzel "marries" the Prince when according to the story-line she had to be about 14 years old. Rapunzel makes a not intelligent comment about how heavy the Enchantress is compared to the Prince's son. Due to that the Enchantress flies into a rage, cuts her hair, and leaves her in the desert. The Prince is blinded by thorns when he throws himself out of a tower window. After wandering the desert for years he finds Rapunzel again who heals his eyes with her tears. I I totally prefer Disney's Tangled.
All in all these were fast paced stories that I do have to wonder how appropriate some of them were for children. Most of them had stories about children being treated horribly by their parents or just ignored. Heck Hansel and Gretel had a father who didn't want to leave his kids to starve to death in the woods, but does so since he is henpecked by his second wife. He does feel bad though (eyeroll).
A lot of the stories barely resemble the Disney counterparts. For example, Briar Rose made me laugh since there is no dragon in this story. Instead the thirteenth fairy is just angry she was not invited and throws a curse that Briar Rose would die upon her fifteenth birthday. A twelfth fairy changes it so that everyone will fall asleep for 100 years. So a Prince passing through on the day of the 100th year is there at the right place and time for Briar Rose to wake up and they marry. That's it. No epic fight with a dragon.
medium-paced
This book just make the fairytales come alive all over again. As a child I went through a period of only wanting to read Grimm's fairytales - these of course being the child-friendly versions in the children's books, I also loved (and still love the Disney films of some of these). Rediscovering these tales, being older and getting hold of the darker, grittier originals just makes my heart so happy.
It is fun to read some of the annotations by Maria Tater but for most of them, they are unnecessary and treats the reader like they can't read and make connections for themselves. The introduction essays are boring and a complete slog to get through, my advice is to skip them and go straight to the fairytales.
It is fun to read some of the annotations by Maria Tater but for most of them, they are unnecessary and treats the reader like they can't read and make connections for themselves. The introduction essays are boring and a complete slog to get through, my advice is to skip them and go straight to the fairytales.
Have to admit, I enjoy the original versions much more than the Disney ones. Does that make me a sick person?
I think this is an absolutely important book for everyone to read. The story tropes are important for appreciation of other later works in all forms of entertainment.
So why did I give it three stars?
Because so many of the stories in here are not ones that you have heard before, and for good reason, they are either boring, a copy of an earlier story in the same work (there about seven stories of Clever So-and-So that all follow nearly the same story path), or don’t really teach anything. Also, have you ever noticed that about half of these stories involve some sort of cannibalism? I don’t remember that particularly as a child, but then I was normally reading flowered up abridged versions. I’m starting to wonder if this is where my neurotic fear of zombies was originally born.
If you want to gift this book to a child, then more power to you, but depending on their age I might go with simply and more energetic translations. As an adult, I wouldn’t plan to sit down and read this in one go, but a few stories here and there is a good way to enjoy this work.
So why did I give it three stars?
Because so many of the stories in here are not ones that you have heard before, and for good reason, they are either boring, a copy of an earlier story in the same work (there about seven stories of Clever So-and-So that all follow nearly the same story path), or don’t really teach anything. Also, have you ever noticed that about half of these stories involve some sort of cannibalism? I don’t remember that particularly as a child, but then I was normally reading flowered up abridged versions. I’m starting to wonder if this is where my neurotic fear of zombies was originally born.
If you want to gift this book to a child, then more power to you, but depending on their age I might go with simply and more energetic translations. As an adult, I wouldn’t plan to sit down and read this in one go, but a few stories here and there is a good way to enjoy this work.
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s hard to rate this for a few reasons.
(1) I DNF’ed it. It’s a 760page book— I sat and read the first half but it all started to blend together so I needed to Marie Kondo it and put it down. I never DNF so it was wild.
(2) there are so many tales. It’s crazy because while I liked reading the most famous ones (aka the ones that turned into modern movies and shows— see HBO’s Happy Ever After: fairytales for every child for reference), most of them are actually religious parables that focused on two key redeeming qualities of humans: beauty and piousness. The morals of these stories is highly questionable and while it makes sense in historical context, it is not great today.
(3) most of the stories seem to propagate problematic things e.g. racism, anti-semitism (very Shakespearean with the stories of Jewish thieves etc.), sexism…
(4) this edition is quite good… in the sense that the illustrations are fun and the translation is quite readable. Also it has a lot of bonus stories for the original 210…. 210!! And that’s not including the bonus stories.
Basically this book has inspired me to only read books that bring me joy…guess I’m adding that to my 2024 reading goals.
It’s also a fun reminder that I no longer have to read things to completion like I did at university. I’m sure there are lots of fun academic analyses of the historical relevance of these tales but I think I’ll stick with my Disney movies instead.
(1) I DNF’ed it. It’s a 760page book— I sat and read the first half but it all started to blend together so I needed to Marie Kondo it and put it down. I never DNF so it was wild.
(2) there are so many tales. It’s crazy because while I liked reading the most famous ones (aka the ones that turned into modern movies and shows— see HBO’s Happy Ever After: fairytales for every child for reference), most of them are actually religious parables that focused on two key redeeming qualities of humans: beauty and piousness. The morals of these stories is highly questionable and while it makes sense in historical context, it is not great today.
(3) most of the stories seem to propagate problematic things e.g. racism, anti-semitism (very Shakespearean with the stories of Jewish thieves etc.), sexism…
(4) this edition is quite good… in the sense that the illustrations are fun and the translation is quite readable. Also it has a lot of bonus stories for the original 210…. 210!! And that’s not including the bonus stories.
Basically this book has inspired me to only read books that bring me joy…guess I’m adding that to my 2024 reading goals.
It’s also a fun reminder that I no longer have to read things to completion like I did at university. I’m sure there are lots of fun academic analyses of the historical relevance of these tales but I think I’ll stick with my Disney movies instead.