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gabyk_lib 's review for:
Grimm Tales for Young and Old
by Philip Pullman
This book is hard to pin down. On the one hand it is a fun collection of traditional tales retold by a current author on the other there's the commentary. The tales themselves are what they are, sometimes a bit odd or shapeless, formulaic but also, fun and intriguing glimpses into what interested people in the past.
After each one is the source that the Grimm brothers got the tale from, tale type and a list of similar tales and then we get to Pullman's commentary. Some is straightforward comparisons to similar tales and story analysis. I enjoyed that but the bit I found bewildering was on the one hand he kept talking about having tidied or improved things and on the other that he didn't interfere with their flaws. So which was it? What exactly was he changing in the stories? This is not an entirely literary exercise - it's not designed for full on academics. Why not go the whole hog and adapt further? Or be clearer about what changes have been made? Even so, I thought this was an interesting book and I was glad to have read it.
After each one is the source that the Grimm brothers got the tale from, tale type and a list of similar tales and then we get to Pullman's commentary. Some is straightforward comparisons to similar tales and story analysis. I enjoyed that but the bit I found bewildering was on the one hand he kept talking about having tidied or improved things and on the other that he didn't interfere with their flaws. So which was it? What exactly was he changing in the stories? This is not an entirely literary exercise - it's not designed for full on academics. Why not go the whole hog and adapt further? Or be clearer about what changes have been made? Even so, I thought this was an interesting book and I was glad to have read it.