babs_jellymuck's review against another edition
3.0
Some of these were grueling, and some of them were hilarious. I especially love the one about Prince Hyacinth and his enormous nose.
*Donated to the Little Free Libary in the cat alley
*Donated to the Little Free Libary in the cat alley
rosekk's review against another edition
4.0
This isn't my favourite of the Fairy books. There were still some great stories in here, but also some odd ones - like the inclusion of part of Gulliver's Travels.
katmystery's review
2.0
While I enjoyed familiarizing myself with fairytales as a whole, I didn't actually enjoy many of these individually. Extremely monotonous.
teri_loves_books's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
girljames's review against another edition
3.0
The introduction describes how these fairy tales were collected and transcribed and translated by a few people, Lang being the sort of head editor. There's a wide variety of stories here, some familiar and some not, and some surprises (the giant's rhyme I had expected to appear in "Jack the Giant Killer" showed up in "The Red Etin" instead). They're mostly from the European canon, and even the ones from further afield have been exoticised a bit, showing that the stories are definitely for a European audience. (I learned recently that "Aladdin" was originally a Chinese story, though character and setting were always Middle Eastern. Unsure of the origins of the ostensibly Indian story in here, "Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou".) The whole volume is very evocative of that classic mediaeval world.
These stories are entertaining, although sexist and racist and weird as hell, and useful as a sort of primary source, although now I want to read analysis of them. Like why do fairy tales always involve silly choices and arbitrary parameters - e.g., you can take the whole cake with a curse or half the cake with my blessing; you must never use this one key but you can use the rest of the whole bunch; the magic fades at midnight; etc? Reminds me of the Garden of Eden story. Definitely want to keep thinking about that.
These stories are entertaining, although sexist and racist and weird as hell, and useful as a sort of primary source, although now I want to read analysis of them. Like why do fairy tales always involve silly choices and arbitrary parameters - e.g., you can take the whole cake with a curse or half the cake with my blessing; you must never use this one key but you can use the rest of the whole bunch; the magic fades at midnight; etc? Reminds me of the Garden of Eden story. Definitely want to keep thinking about that.
drjohnbrown's review
I have too many books I want to read to finish a book that I'm enjoying simply because it's different, and for no other reason.
kiramke's review
3.0
This was fun to read through, to see variations and retellings of older stories and some new-to-me pieces.
marinuchi_goo13's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
poplartears's review
3.0
A nice collection of fairy tales. We did not read it straight through but read selected stories. The kids kind of got a kick out of the grim nature of some of the tales. Fairy tales in their original form.