Publisher Description

'Once upon a time in mid-winter, when the snowflakes were falling from the sky like down, a queen was sitting and sewing at a window ...'The tales gathered by the Grimm brothers are at once familiar, fantastic, homely, and frightening. They seem to belong to no time, or to some distant feudal age of fairytale imagining. Grand palaces, humble cottages, and the forest full of menace are their settings; and they are peopled bykings and princesses, witches and robbers, millers and golden birds, stepmothers and talking frogs.Regarded from their inception both as uncosy nursery stories and as raw material for thefolklorist the tales were in fact compositions, collected from literate tellers and shaped into a distinctive kind of literature. This translation mirrors the apparent artlessness of the Grimms, and fully represents the range of less well-known fables, morality tales, and comic stories as well as the classic tales. It takes the stories back to their roots in German Romanticism and includes variant stories and tales that were deemed unsuitable for children. In her fascinating introduction, JoyceCrick explores their origins, and their literary evolution at the hands of the Grimms.

Author Biography

Joyce Crick taught German at University College London until her retirement. She has written on Kafka's first English translators, Willa and Edwin Muir, and, for Oxford World's Classics, she has translated The Metamorphosis and Other Stories and A Hunger Artist and Other Stories by Kafka, and Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, winner of the Shlegel-Tieck Prize in 2000.

Table of Contents

Introduction Note on the Text Note on the Translation Select Bibliography A Chronology of the Grimm Brothers THE TALES CHILDREN'S LEGENDS Appendix A: Selected Earlier Versions Appendix B: Selected Tales from the First Edition, Removed for the Second and Subsequent Editions Appendix C: Circular Letter Concerning the Collection of Folk Poesy Appendix D: Wilhelm Grimm's Last Reflections on the Marchen Notes

Review

"The book that afforded me deepest pleasure is 'Selected Tales' by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (trans Joyce Crick). What a joy to meet Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel and Ashypet again in these sparkling new versions." - Paul Bailey, The Independent"terrific new edition...forcefully translated and brilliantly analysed, by Joyce Crick." - The Independent"Joyce Crick, a fine scholar of German literature, has set out here to rescue Grimm's Tales both from children and folklorists and to help us see it as a major work of literature... she has done a magnificent job, and both she and OUP are to be congratulated." - TLS

Promotional

This selection of Grimm fairytales includes fables, morality, comic stories, and their best known 'fairy' tales, as well as variant stories that were deemed unsuitable for children.
This selection includes fables, morality, comic stories, and their best known 'fairy' tales, as well as variant stories that were deemed unsuitable for children.

Long Description

'Once upon a time in mid-winter, when the snowflakes were falling from the sky like down, a queen was sitting and sewing at a window ...'The tales gathered by the Grimm brothers are at once familiar, fantastic, homely, and frightening. They seem to belong to no time, or to some distant feudal age of fairytale imagining. Grand palaces, humble cottages, and the forest full of menace are their settings; and they are peopled bykings and princesses, witches and robbers, millers and golden birds, stepmothers and talking frogs.Regarded from their inception both as uncosy nursery stories and as raw material for thefolklorist the tales were in fact compositions, collected from literate tellers and shaped into a distinctive kind of literature. This translation mirrors the apparent artlessness of the Grimms, and fully represents the range of less well-known fables, morality tales, and comic stories as well as the classic tales. It takes the stories back to their roots in German Romanticism and includes variant stories and tales that were deemed unsuitable for children. In her fascinating introduction, JoyceCrick explores their origins, and their literary evolution at the hands of the Grimms.

Review Text

"The book that afforded me deepest pleasure is 'Selected Tales' by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (trans Joyce Crick). What a joy to meet Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel and Ashypet again in these sparkling new versions." - Paul Bailey, The Independent"terrific new edition...forcefully translated and brilliantly analysed, by Joyce Crick." - The Independent"Joyce Crick, a fine scholar of German literature, has set out here to rescue Grimm's Tales both from children and folklorists and to help us see it as a major work of literature... she has done a magnificent job, and both she and OUP are to be congratulated." - TLS

Review Quote

"The book that afforded me deepest pleasure is 'Selected Tales' by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (trans Joyce Crick). What a joy to meet Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel and Ashypet again in these sparkling new versions." --Paul Bailey, The Independent "Terrific new edition...forcefully translated and brilliantly analysed, by Joyce Crick." -- The Independent "Joyce Crick, a fine scholar of German literature, has set out here to rescue Grimm's Tales both from children and folklorists and to help us see it as a major work of literature... she has done a magnificent job, and both she and OUP are to be congratulated." -- Times Literary Supplement "Definitely a collection aimed at adults and students, but with all the pleasure of story telling flourishes which make it a joy to read. I'm delighted with this edition." -- Desperate Reader

Feature

An original translation of Grimms' tales, including animal fables, tall tales, comic peasant stories, and religious magic and morality tales.Alongside some seventy-nine tales, including all the best-known fairy tales, this edition includes earlier versions of some stories, as well as stories removed after the first edition.Prize-winning translator Joyce Crick's introduction places the work of the Grimms in the literary and historical context of German Romanticism, and demonstrates how the brothers adapted the tales which were not necessarily from the peasant sources they implied.Includes Wilhelm Grimm's preface to the second edition (1819) in which he described their methods of collecting and admitted their intervention.

Details