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A review by lashlees
Grimm Tales for Young and Old by Philip Pullman
4.0
I read this on holiday, and it took me a while. The weather on the Costa del Sol rendered me incapable of doing much other than sliding gracelessly from my sunbed to my pool every ten minutes.
I was brought up on Disney films as a child, and was also often bought fairy-tale anthologies to read. I was more than familiar with the more well-known tales, and vaguely familiar with the lesser known ones. Snow White was always a particular favourite of mine, both the Disney and the more (and less) authentic versions of the story gave me the chills. As a pale and dark haired child, I absorbed the story as part of my identity, as many young girls were still known to do as part of my childhood.
I also adore Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials are some of my favourite novels of all time. His books fall into the unique category of books I cannot bear to part with because it feels important that when I re-read the story, it's the same books that I bought as young teenager.
I did enjoy this book a lot, though not as much as I have enjoyed his novels. I liked having the opportunity to read tales that I was unfamiliar with, and there were many that certainly lived up to all my expectations, notable examples include The Juniper Tree, Thousandhands, and The Goosegirl At The Spring. I also enjoyed the notes included after each story that, at times, provided a fascinating insight into the origin and evolution of the tales. Pullman is the perfect writer to present these tales, having no qualms about presenting the darker aspects of the stories in bold, unflinching descriptions that make for disturbing as well as entertaining fairy-tales, much as I suspect the original story-tellers intended.
I found it difficult to become fully immersed in the book however, and looking back through the contents page, there are more stories than I originally thought that I can recall little or no details of. I didn't at all expect that I was be equally enthralled by each tale, the beauty of this kind of book is that everyone will be differently affected by each tale and will in turn have their own personal favourites that will stay with them. That being said, when thinking about it, there is a larger proportion of the tales that left me cold, or that I felt needed a little something more, than those that did not. It could be that I am expecting an anthology of fairy-tales to draw me in the same way that a really good novel can. I nearly always favour a novel to a book of short stories or poetry, I am a greedy reader, I like an epic story that occupies me for as long as physically possible, much like Pullman's other work does.
Rated four stars, rather than three, because of my suspicions that I might be letting my reading preferences unfairly judge the quality of this book.
I was brought up on Disney films as a child, and was also often bought fairy-tale anthologies to read. I was more than familiar with the more well-known tales, and vaguely familiar with the lesser known ones. Snow White was always a particular favourite of mine, both the Disney and the more (and less) authentic versions of the story gave me the chills. As a pale and dark haired child, I absorbed the story as part of my identity, as many young girls were still known to do as part of my childhood.
I also adore Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials are some of my favourite novels of all time. His books fall into the unique category of books I cannot bear to part with because it feels important that when I re-read the story, it's the same books that I bought as young teenager.
I did enjoy this book a lot, though not as much as I have enjoyed his novels. I liked having the opportunity to read tales that I was unfamiliar with, and there were many that certainly lived up to all my expectations, notable examples include The Juniper Tree, Thousandhands, and The Goosegirl At The Spring. I also enjoyed the notes included after each story that, at times, provided a fascinating insight into the origin and evolution of the tales. Pullman is the perfect writer to present these tales, having no qualms about presenting the darker aspects of the stories in bold, unflinching descriptions that make for disturbing as well as entertaining fairy-tales, much as I suspect the original story-tellers intended.
I found it difficult to become fully immersed in the book however, and looking back through the contents page, there are more stories than I originally thought that I can recall little or no details of. I didn't at all expect that I was be equally enthralled by each tale, the beauty of this kind of book is that everyone will be differently affected by each tale and will in turn have their own personal favourites that will stay with them. That being said, when thinking about it, there is a larger proportion of the tales that left me cold, or that I felt needed a little something more, than those that did not. It could be that I am expecting an anthology of fairy-tales to draw me in the same way that a really good novel can. I nearly always favour a novel to a book of short stories or poetry, I am a greedy reader, I like an epic story that occupies me for as long as physically possible, much like Pullman's other work does.
Rated four stars, rather than three, because of my suspicions that I might be letting my reading preferences unfairly judge the quality of this book.