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Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, a new version from Phillip Pullman

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This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Fairy_Tales_from_the_Brothers_GrimmAs a book reviewer, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.

I love fairy tales. I grew up reading them, and my mom still has my Mother Goose collection. Remember that big book with the black and white checked background? As I grew older, I created my own fairy tale collection, so when I had the chance to read Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman, I jumped at it.

Fairy tales are popular right now. Movie adaptations and popular TV series like Once Upon a Time feature reinvented fairy tales.

Philip Pullman’s Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm does the opposite. Instead of taking the fairy tales as we know them today and expanding from there. Instead, he goes back to the basics, recreating the original, bare bones tales as best he could from texts, adding only details needed to make the stories flow better – many of which needed no such assistance.

The fairy tales include many that I’d never heard before. While they include classics like “Cinderella” and “Rapunzel” and “Hansel and Gretel,” there were plenty of others from “The Three Snake Leaves” to “The Donkey Cabbage” to “The Singing Bone” that were brand new to me. It was a nice mixture, and the commentary from Pullman – usually just a few paragraphs at most – left me feeling as though I’d learned something more than just a quick dip into childhood fairy tales.

The fairy tales are never repeated, though Pullman explains that they take many forms in many cultures, in addition to the multiple versions he waded through not just in German but in the Grimm Brothers’ various publications of their fairy tales over a 40 year period. I would love to see another collection that contained four or five fairy tales with five or ten of the best variations on the theme done in a similar manner. Perhaps this could be Pullman’s next project.

For the most part, the ones in this book follow the typical fairy tale formula of a generic character – a prince or a merchant or a brother instead of a name – who is simply but fully developed without much description through fast paced action. They aren’t fables, and they haven’t been prettied up to suit our modern tastes for a happy ending. There are be-headings, plenty of villains punished by being rolled in a barrel with studded nails, and heads cut off all manner of people and beasts.

And the book is entertaining. The stories are a quick read, and they are cute. They aren’t deep by any means, but they aren’t meant to be. And while this is a book of fairy tales, I certainly wouldn’t simply hand it to Mister Man. Some of the stories aren’t aimed for today’s children. That said, there are some stories in here that I’d love to read to the wee ones at bedtime.

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Michelle only wishes her life were as simple as a fairy tale, where she could find the magic leaf that would clean the house instantly or provide her with a gold coin under her pillow each night. Instead she lives the more typical life of a mortal instead of a fairy tale character. See what her life has dealt her on her blog Honest & Truly! or follow her on Twitter where she tweets as @HonestAndTruly.

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83 Comments

  3. Well i will give to some child at church. Thre princess fairy dales like rapunzel and snow white but my 46 yr old son love this movie so id give to him.

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  9. I read a collection of the original Grimm tales in a pretty bare-bones translation not too long ago, so I’m super interested in this one. The Match Girl has always struck me… no pun… as a super-creepy story, so I hope it’s in here!

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  14. I think the Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version would be great. I would love to read some of the new stories like “The Fisherman and his Wife”.

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  17. If you pick me, just go ahead and pick someone else.
    Got the book at the library. Enjoyed it, but don’t need my own copy.
    Thanks.

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  34. I’m definitely interested in checking out all of the classics I am familiar with, especially Hansel and Gretel. The others are probably just as good.

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  38. I am interested in Hansel and Gretel. We will be going to Germany next year so this would be a great story to refamiliarize myself with.

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  41. I’m interested in all of the titles mentioned, to be honest. Though I guess I would flip to the Donkey Cabbage just because of how odd and different it sounds.

    Reading a fairy tale you’ve never read before lets you experience a little more magic than re-reading one from long ago. At least, that’s what I think. I love Pullman’s work and the Brothers’ Grimm renditions of fairy tales have also been a very interesting topic to me.

    I recently got a collection of fantasy short stories, many of them with a fairy tale vibe, called ‘unnatural Creatures’ – a variety of authors picked out by Mr. Neil Gaiman. If anyone’s out for other fantastic stories, I’d suggest picking that up. I myself am almost through with it and this would be a nice one to follow up with.

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  43. I have always loved Hansel & Gretel, Rapunzel & Cinderella. This would be an awesome thing to give to my future children. 🙂

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  44. I love fairy tales, so it would be difficult to pick one. But I guess Rumplestiltskin has always tickled my fancy.

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  68. I’m not familiar with the Donkey Cabbage, so that one sounds interesting! Cinderella’s always been one of my favorites as well, though I’m sure this book has the version with a rather gruesome fate for the stepsisters.

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