I was glad to find this volume, which offers different versions of popular fairy tales and shows their cultural variation. Commentary is helpful and to the point, with good bibliographical resources. I needed to find a guide to Cinderella stories and this gave me just what I needed and more. A good antidote to Bettelheim's overly Freudian interpretations of fairy tales.

A good mixture of browsability and serious reading. For the storyteller this book is a godsend - several variants of each story compiled for easy comparison, with an authoritative commentary for background research. And the variants are often not obvious or well-known, so giving real discoveries and delights. The scholarly essays cover a fair range of subjects, but for those just interested in the stories there is plenty in the rest of the book to satisfy. If this book interests you, try 'The Classic Fairy Tales', by Iona and Peter Opie - same title, similar approach, except that variants are only discussed rather than given in full.

An excellent collection which highlights the grislier, taboo aspects of fairy tales that are often sanitised for today's consumption. As well as traditional versions of the most popular fairy stories, editor Maria Tatar has also included feminist re-tellings of "Bluebeard" and "Beauty and the Beast" by Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter. This fascinating anthology helps to deepen our understanding of the cultural implications of the fairy tale form, and includes essays from important contributors to the field such as Vladmir Propp, Bruno Bettelheim and Marina Warner. If you thought that fairy tales were just for children, then you'll find this collection an eye opening experience.

Maria Tatar's book, while excellent lacks focus. She needs more information in some areas, while in other areas, she needs entirely new sections. It is an excellent book, but you may not find all the information you're looking for. For instance, I was reading the sex and violence section, and she would go on for pages about the sources the Brothers used. While this can pertain to the section title, she strayed to much, and I felt the section was lacking information on sex and violence.

I can't say how long getting this book as been on my mind. I'd tell my friends about this book I've seen, and we'd all giggle, unsure of what it actually was about. Seriously, I thought it was just some lady bashing fairy tales and digging up all the dirt on them.

Well, it's certainly the latter, but nothing was bashed. Tatar obviously has done a lot of research in creating this book. Many venerable references were used. Tatar dives into the world of fairy tales; their history, their content, the truth behind them. It is fascinating. I've been aware of some X-rated material behind Disney's works, but my eyes were still opened at the horrors hidden. Now I KNOW why all the *step*-mothers were jealous of the beautiful daughters.

A delightful addition were the several tales and prefaces at the back of the book.

"The Hard Facts of Grimm's Fairy Tales" is an fascinating, educational book for any student or lover of fairy tales. My one qualm is how Tatar seemed to be doing some name-calling and finger-pointing in several incidents. An unbiased approach would have been better.

It was really interesting to find out about how the Grimm's collection was put together and how it was rewritten. I was surprised to read that the Grimms added violence in order to make the stories more parent-friendly--I guess parents in those days really believed that punishments would produce virtue. Loved the stories at the end, which are pretty hair-raising.
I was surprised to learn that these stories went so far back in time and that they were originally for adults.

I bought this book hoping that it would plunge me into the decadent, violent world of Weimar Germany but I was EXTREMELY disappointed. First of all, there's actually very little about Kurten and Haarmann, so do not buy this if you're a fan of true crime books. They are discussed only briefly before Tatar launches into a poor psychological exploration of Otto Dix and George Grosz, two of Germany's most disturbing artists of this century (or any other, for that matter). Tatar tries to draw lots of obscure parallels between the horrors of WWI and violence against women in Weimar society, seemingly forgetting that violence was affecting EVERYBODY at the time, not just women. Germany was a homicidal mess after WWI- women were not the only victims, although Tatar would have us believe so. She then turns around and seems to praise the artistic merits of Dix and Grosz. Her arguments are inconclusive and frankly, the book is about as entertaining as someone else's bath water.

The only redeeming quality (for which I gave this book two stars) is that Tatar included numerous sketches and paintings (albeit in black and white)by Dix and Grosz, whose works are not especially easy to locate. Some of these illustrations, one of which depicts a butcher selling pieces of dismembered women in his shop, are enough to disturb even the most fortified of minds. The pictures themselves give the reader at least a hint of what Weimar society must have been like; Maria Tatar's rambling text just induces sleep.

I picked this book up at a used bookstore on a whim and found it rivetting. It is an incredible read becuase the author doesn't try to sensationalize the material. She has found some incredible material and makes it relevant to what is going on today. Some of the pictures are really upsetting but I think the author wants to make a point about what we accept as art.

Fascinating book that looks at the art of Germany after World War 1 and discusses the implication of the sexually violent images that increased dramatically at that point in history. This is a sociological look at the connection between the culture of the times and the idiosyncrasies that produced such a mindset. Pat Brown/Director/Investigative Criminal Profiler/The Sexual Homicide Exchange, Inc.