Grimms' Fairy Tales

About the book

This English selection from the Grimms includes familiar narratives such as Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, and the Frog-Prince alongside animal stories, comic reversals, and less familiar adventures. Repeated tasks, prohibited actions, unexpected helpers, and exacting bargains give the tales memorable shapes. Their worlds can be severe as well as marvellous: hunger, abandonment, rivalry, and punishment often stand close to ingenuity and good fortune. The collection's variety matters, since no single moral or tone describes every story. Some reward patience, others quick thinking, and others seem most interested in the strange logic of a wish or transformation. Based on translations by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes, this edition offers a particular English presentation of the tales rather than the whole evolving German collection.

• Transformation
• Ingenuity
• Justice and fortune

Why read it

For the striking variety behind familiar fairy-tale patterns, from household danger to animal comedy and unlikely bargains.

Selected tales · English versions based on Taylor and Edwardes