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This selection contains sixty-two of the tales collected by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, including the best known in English: Hansel and Gretel…
This selection contains sixty-two of the tales collected by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, including the best known in English: Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red-Cap (Red Riding Hood), Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty), Snowdrop (Snow White), Ashputtel (Cinderella), The Frog-Prince, The Elves and the Shoemaker and The Valiant Little Tailor. Alongside them are less familiar stories, such as the dark 'Juniper-Tree' and 'The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was', with their clever youngest sons, cruel stepmothers, talking animals and magic objects.
Context and significance
The Grimms, scholars of the German language, published the first volume of their Children's and Household Tales in 1812, and over seven editions until 1857 they enlarged it to about two hundred tales, smoothing and softening them as they went. Many came from women storytellers among their friends and neighbours in Kassel. For the literary fairy tales of a single author, read Andersen's Fairy Tales.
About the author
Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859) were brothers from Hanau in Germany who studied law and became librarians and scholars of language. In an age of national awakening, they began collecting folk tales told by friends, relatives and storytellers, publishing the first volume of their Children's and Household Tales in 1812.
They revised the collection through seven editions, and Grimms' Fairy Tales became one of the most read books in the world. They were also great linguists: Jacob described the sound changes of the Germanic languages, and the brothers began the great German dictionary.