this is a wonderfull book it is written by my family and feel special to be a part of the family if you get a chance read it please email me at emreald@hotmail.com I will feel fourtanate to here your resopns

Like most children, I grew up with the stories of Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretal, Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White and a host of other Grimms Fairy Tales. Now I am grown, my children are grown, and I just happened upon this book and decided to treat myself, to bring back memories of a past childhood maybe. Well, it didn't completely do that, as the stories are certainly not, for the most part, the stories that I knew as a child. They are not the glossed over, perfect happy endings that we think of when we think of 'Fairy Tales'. This book has the tales the way they were originally written, complete with enough violence, blood-shed and gore that would make even Freddie Kreuger cringe. But they are also full of humour, life lessons and morals that we could all learn from. The notes at the back of the book are also very informative. Each story title is given it's original German translation, with information on when it was first published and the source from whence it came. The section of Omitted Tales is particularly interesting. These tales were originally ommitted due to either their gruesomeness, similarity to other tales or for other reasons stated in the notes at the back. For those people who want the 'real stuff' and not the 'sugar coated variety' then this is for you. Highly recommended.

Being a great fan of the brothers grimms fairy tales, this book was one of the best investments I ever made. It has countless stories to read for both adults and children. This book translates really well and also has the original german titles in the back. It covers all the famous tales by the brother grimms ever made with great detail. It even has some drawings among a few tales that add well to this wonderful book.

True, some (but not all) of the Brothers Grimm stories are gruesome and parents would find it unesay reading them to their children as fairy stories, but then they were never intended to be read predominantly by, or to, children. The Brothers Grimm wrote down their collected oral tales mainly for the bourgeois audiences of 19th century europe, and Jacob Grimm said that whilst the stories were mainly for an adult readership, the fact that children were also beginning to read them was just a bonus. Certainly many of the tales are different to the sweet and innocent versions portrayed by Disney. Don't expect to find cute little animals here! However, expect to find tales with a moral and a recipe for living, as prevelent today as they were nearly 200 years ago. It's a great book, especially with the added bonus of Zipes' introduction which details the history of the Brothers Grimm and their reasons for writing down the tales. Buy it to read to yourself, not your children!

My first note is that the editorial reviews attached to this book by Amazon seem to apply to a different illustrated volume of Hansel and Gretel, not the one illustrated by Monique Felix.

I ran across this on a search for the perfect edition of Hansel and Gretel. The illustrator does an excellent job, but her illustrations are far too frightening for young children. At times, Hansel and Gretel's eyes seem to glow, and the witch is horrifying... her long tangled hair has bones in it. You can almost hear shrieks and groans as you look at the pictures. I showed the picture to a friend of mine (a graphic artist), and she found it very disturbing.

I cannot give the book fewer than three stars, because it is so well done. But I cannot give it more than three, because I think it would scare the daylights out of young children. Granted, Hansel and Gretel is a scary story, but I remember coming across less frightening versions when I was a kid.

This is a very good book. It is amazing the way all the characters and story line comes together in the end. It is easily a book you can fall into and read in one night. Tiffany is an amazing little girl. Even though no one pays a single mind to her, she holds the key to all the secrets. There are a lot of things in this book that are on the sad side. Such as the Terry and Eddie incident. It just shows how powerful evil really can be.