Grimm's Fairy Tales
Jacob and Whilhelm Grimm
Having taken a class on the Grimms in college, I was excited to revisit this astonishing collection of stories and legends, most of which are quite unfamiliar to the typical American. The stories themselves are a hodgepodge of folk tales, and they run the gamut from Aesopian animal fables to hard-core Disney fantasies to, of course, Faustian tales of Satanic bargains. Among the more interesting morsels, I think are the following: a tale about a boy committing suicide, a story that makes light of torturing an innocent Jew, a story condemning the quality of being clever, and a story in which a man (who is really a hedgehog) tells his wife to stay out of men's affairs. Yikes.
Despite these stories, which may have had a better place in their own time and stand now only as archaic amusements to the ironically-minded, the collection is an excellent crossection of German culture circa 1800. The virtue of honesty always pays off. It's interesting, though, what they do with humility: in theory, this virtue is praised (many a good poor person is described as being humble), but certain stories ("The Valiant Little Tailor") seem to glorify insane ego-padding, so long as it's accompanied by cleverness.
What's most interesting about the collection though, I think, is its translation from oral tradition to written literature. At least one story begins with a guarantee of its truthfulness, seeing as the teller's (author's?) grandfather had assured them of the truth in the first place. Many of the stories have the familiar pronoun scattered liberally throughout, and the teller (author) makes no pretence of omniscence. My favorite instances of familiarity, however, were the final paragraphs, which were almost universally amusing. I have two favorites. The first is a story that ends with the teller (author) recounting how they broke their glass shoe at the wedding of the main characters. The second is the ending that basically says, "Well, I don't know what happened next, but I'm sure they lived happily ever after." Many endings also employed the phrase "as I have not yet heard otherwise."
Simply put, this collection is a delightful display of old German humor and culture, wrapped up neatly into little vignettes that are amusing to people of all ages. They are uniquely recorded as if they are meant to be read aloud as they were in the first place, duly recorded by the Grimm brothers. I think everyone should read a good deal of Grimm stories in their lifetime.
Grade: A
Jacob and Whilhelm Grimm
Having taken a class on the Grimms in college, I was excited to revisit this astonishing collection of stories and legends, most of which are quite unfamiliar to the typical American. The stories themselves are a hodgepodge of folk tales, and they run the gamut from Aesopian animal fables to hard-core Disney fantasies to, of course, Faustian tales of Satanic bargains. Among the more interesting morsels, I think are the following: a tale about a boy committing suicide, a story that makes light of torturing an innocent Jew, a story condemning the quality of being clever, and a story in which a man (who is really a hedgehog) tells his wife to stay out of men's affairs. Yikes.
Despite these stories, which may have had a better place in their own time and stand now only as archaic amusements to the ironically-minded, the collection is an excellent crossection of German culture circa 1800. The virtue of honesty always pays off. It's interesting, though, what they do with humility: in theory, this virtue is praised (many a good poor person is described as being humble), but certain stories ("The Valiant Little Tailor") seem to glorify insane ego-padding, so long as it's accompanied by cleverness.
What's most interesting about the collection though, I think, is its translation from oral tradition to written literature. At least one story begins with a guarantee of its truthfulness, seeing as the teller's (author's?) grandfather had assured them of the truth in the first place. Many of the stories have the familiar pronoun scattered liberally throughout, and the teller (author) makes no pretence of omniscence. My favorite instances of familiarity, however, were the final paragraphs, which were almost universally amusing. I have two favorites. The first is a story that ends with the teller (author) recounting how they broke their glass shoe at the wedding of the main characters. The second is the ending that basically says, "Well, I don't know what happened next, but I'm sure they lived happily ever after." Many endings also employed the phrase "as I have not yet heard otherwise."
Simply put, this collection is a delightful display of old German humor and culture, wrapped up neatly into little vignettes that are amusing to people of all ages. They are uniquely recorded as if they are meant to be read aloud as they were in the first place, duly recorded by the Grimm brothers. I think everyone should read a good deal of Grimm stories in their lifetime.
Grade: A
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