A review by diaryofthebookdragon
Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman
5.0
Philip Pullman is one of my favorite authors. If you haven't read His Dark Materials trilogy you better correct that mistake soon. The first book [b:The Golden Compass|119322|The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)|Philip Pullman|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333617993s/119322.jpg|1536771] has also a movie based on it. (You can check out the trailer here.)
I was very excited when I saw that Pullman did a retelling of Brothers Grimm fairy tales, I knew that he would do them justice.
This anthology consists of 50 fairy tales handpicked by Pullman from a larger collection of stories that Brothers Grimm collected. Currently, there is one free story from this book on Penguin's website, "The Fisherman and his wife": you can read it here.
I must shamefully admit that I liked Pullman's retellings even more than the original. He did not edit out strange and odd parts of the stories but his versions are much easier to read, without archaic language constructs. Also, one thing that I most appreciated, he shortened out sometimes boring repetitious parts.
At the end of each story we have notes where Pullman explains what changes he made to the original story. He even treats us with a little bit of historical background: when it was first published and a list of similar stories and adaptations. These notes were very interesting to me, but if you don't like them you can always skip them with no harm done.
This book has something to offer to everybody. It can be savored a tale a day or devoured in one afternoon. You can read it to your kids before bedtime or you can read it alone.
Whatever pace you set or audience you choose, if you are a lover of classic fairy tales you will definitely enjoy this book.
Disclaimer: I was given a free eBook by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. This text is also posted on Amazon and my blog (here you can find the longer version with some of my rambling not related to the book).
I was very excited when I saw that Pullman did a retelling of Brothers Grimm fairy tales, I knew that he would do them justice.
This anthology consists of 50 fairy tales handpicked by Pullman from a larger collection of stories that Brothers Grimm collected. Currently, there is one free story from this book on Penguin's website, "The Fisherman and his wife": you can read it here.
I must shamefully admit that I liked Pullman's retellings even more than the original. He did not edit out strange and odd parts of the stories but his versions are much easier to read, without archaic language constructs. Also, one thing that I most appreciated, he shortened out sometimes boring repetitious parts.
At the end of each story we have notes where Pullman explains what changes he made to the original story. He even treats us with a little bit of historical background: when it was first published and a list of similar stories and adaptations. These notes were very interesting to me, but if you don't like them you can always skip them with no harm done.
This book has something to offer to everybody. It can be savored a tale a day or devoured in one afternoon. You can read it to your kids before bedtime or you can read it alone.
Whatever pace you set or audience you choose, if you are a lover of classic fairy tales you will definitely enjoy this book.
Disclaimer: I was given a free eBook by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. This text is also posted on Amazon and my blog (here you can find the longer version with some of my rambling not related to the book).