This is such an amazing book. It's part of what lead me into my research into looking at strong female characters in folk tales. This book is a must for people who don't want to read stories about wishy washy princesses waiting for the prince, and scholars alike. I reccomend this book highly.

this is an excellent book. The stories are well written and varied in theme. I was captivated by the stories for young readers as well as the stories for old readers. buy this book for your children!

I read this first as a little girl, before i knew how to spell feminism let alone define it. The stories captivated me then for their ability to lead my mind into another land more fantastical than my own. Later in life, re-reading this book i was compelled by the issues, thoughts and questions Zipes raised in my mind. It is not feminism that kills you with its anger, it is feminism that makes you think. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes daring, and sometimes blatant, it always stands there to be read and re-read. A constant delight.

This delightful, informative book will give great enjoyment to anyone who loves fairy tales. You'll find an in-depth entry on just about any fairy tale, old or new, you can think of. Among the profiles of authors, I was pleased to find excellent write-ups on three of my favorites, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Diana Wynne Jones. Other writers from the past covered here include E. Nesbit, Hans Christian Andersen, Oscar Wilde, A.A. Milne, George MacDonald, Beatrix Potter and L. Frank Baum; others from the present include Robin McKinley, Lloyd Alexander, Vivian Vande Velde, Terry Pratchett, Astrid Lindgren and Patricia C. Wrede.

There are also entries on composers, opera, operetta, ballet, illustrators, film, television and science fiction. Generously scattered throughout are full-page (and smaller) illustrations by artists such as Gustav Dore, Kay Nielsen, Walter Crane, W.W. Denslow and Arthur Rackham. And special sections trace in detail the development of fairy tales in various countries.

This well-written, well-edited guide is a must for anyone with an interest in fairy tales.

This is an excellent first edition of a resource book which has carefully limited its scope "Western", "literary" "fairy tale". Imagine my amusement, however, that I picked up at the same time as this volume The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse tranlated by Jack Zipes - and there is no entry for Hesse in the Companion.

This volume is especially strong. however, in that it recognizes the contributions of composers, artists and film directors and their work to the fairy tale tradition. The entries are fascinating and do not require any expertise in the field. Items are indexed in a manner that it is easy to find what you are looking for - "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is under "Snow White" - that may seem self-evident but with the number of varients of fairy tales that is not always so simple.

There are longer articles on the various regions and the general flavor and history of fairy tales in the region. These provide a broad overview that is most useful.

Opening at random to give a flavor of the entries: Charles Kingsley for his The Water-Babies; Rudyard Kipling for Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies; Sarah Kirsch for her retelling of Grimm tales in prose and poetry; Kismet the musical; Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen author of 15 children's books; Janusz Korczah for a recent utopian fairy-tale novel.

This book is a significant contribution. I should hope for a second edition to close some of the holes. [Of course, I'd like a similar volume for the rest of the world AND a volume for animal fables ...]

If I were to choose an editor for a reference tool like this, Jack Zipes would be one of my first picks. Fortunately, the publisher agreed with me. The book is highly readable and accommodates many levels of scholarship. It offers a wide range of information, but still falls short in some places. For example, I am disappointed that some important entries are missing, such as one about Terri Windling who has been a major influence in the modern fairy tale publishing industry. I was surprised she was forgotten. Still, this is an excellent book despite the few glaring omissions. The emphasis is on the European folklore that is still the most popular area of the field. Zipes is always a great buy if you are interested in folklore and fairy tales. Hopefully this book will appear in most library reference sections soon.

Not only is this collection of fairy tales entertaining reading, Zipes goes into the history of the French literary salon and the backgrounds of the fairytales. Wonderful book.

This paperback collection is an abbreviated version of the original hardbound which is now out of print. Even with some of the material missing, this collection is well worth the money. It can be hard to find fairy tale collections that contain the work of the women (such as Beaumont and d'Aulnoy) in the French salons that influenced Charles Perrault. This is one of the best collections, and it includes many of the tales that are mentioned by scholars but hard to locate. None of the stories are watered down and they paint a picture of why fairy tales are an important part of literature. In the end, they are entertaining stories and can be read just for fun, too.

I really love Jack Zipes, and this is one of his helpful books for folklorists, and amateurs who enjoy reading fairy tales. It presents a variety of 'radical' theories about the meaning and construction of fairy tales. Many of the theories are no longer quite so radical. The book also gives you a good overview of feminist theories about the tales, some of which will surprise. Among other things, that fairy tales are not always about the subjugation of silly blond princesses. I reccomend this book as an intro to folk and fairy tale theory.

The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests To The Modern World by Jack Zipes (Professor of German, University of Minnesota) is an informed and informative examination of the lives of the famous fairy tale gatherers, writers, and preservers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. From their humble origins amidst poverty and prejudice to their ultimate contribution to literature as a whole, The Brothers Grimm is a truly fascinating account and a "must-read" for serious students of European fantasy literature and folklore.

Zipes' qualifications for writing about this subject are impeccable, and his years of teaching show easily here. Chapters include stuff about traditional fairy tales, sure, but also writeups on Disney animation (hint: he's not real thrilled at some ways Disney has "tidied up" fairy tales). You'll never watch "The Little Mermaid" in quite the same way again.

This is more of a philosophical treatment than anything else. There isn't extensive hard history here; they're writeups of lectures, not papers, though sources are cited. Consider these ruminations on fairy tales and their relevance to modern culture -- how they are treated, how they are disseminated, how they've changed in the past couple hundred years. The book isn't very long, but it has a lot of good observations in it.

I found it invaluable for its insights; Zipes has found a sincere admirer in me. If you are interested in fairy tales in modern culture, this is definitely somewhere you might enjoy playing.

Zipes is always interesting, thought provoking and he knows a lot, though his essays always seem to promise more than they deliver. These essays range widely across the field of his interests. Having said that, i wish someone had done a better job of proof-reading the book. The essay on the French fairy tale, in itself a fascinating and informative piece of work, is spoilt by the bizzarre dating. If Louis 14 died in 1715, how could he be waging war in 1788? On one page you read that Madame D'Aulnoy published four volumes of fairy tales between 1697 and 1698, on the next page you read that she wrote her first fairy tales in 1790. If you're trying to use the information for study purposes it's frustrating and makes you wonder how reliable the other facts in the book are. End of grumble. If you're looking for a good, readable introduction to the study of folk and fairy tales, this is a good place to start.

This book is a collection of introductions and such fromprevious books Zipes has published, usually his collections of fairytales. The texts have been somewhat reworked and it is great to have them all gathered into one place for reading. Since this is a smaller volume, it is easier to carry around than his Grimms, Beauty and the Beast, Aesop's Fables, etc. if you are just wanting to read the scholarly works and not the primary texts of the tales. Zipes has made great contributions to this field and this volume serves as a reminder of the breadth of his work.

This small collection of fairy tales written by different authors in Germany in the 1920s is an intriguing study of modern life. These writers used an older literary form prominent in their shared German heritage to express their ambivalence in contemporary society--gone are the millers, kings, and spirits of Grimm, replaced with the automobiles, noisy cities, and social conflicts of the 1920s and 1930s.

The insights here are few and far between. Zipes labors much too hard twisting these tales to fit his own political agenda. In a typical chapter, Zipes tries to explain how fairy tales demonstrate that cats are better than people. Many better books have been written on the subject.

I really disagree with the previous review of this book. Zipes doesn't distort the tales meaning at all. Instead he avoids the facile, obvious surface reading, and goes deeper into the many varied meanings of what any one tale can mean. I especially enjoyed the sections on how tales were twisted and edited to reinforce our ideas of childhood and what is appropriate for children to read. For instance, the Grimms' tales were heavily edited over time making them less violent, adding in strict moral messages, and generally making the female characters more annoying (see Bottigheimer's Grimms Bold Boys and Bad Girls for a great analysis of this). I highly reccomend this book.

Dumbed down "politically correct" post modernist bed-time stories. Not a hint of fairy tale delight, magic or wisdom exists in these stories. In one story, Little Polly (a/k/a Little Red Riding Hood)lives in the city yet even in this urban environment is being pursued by a wolf. Nonetheless she cleverly escapes by such tactics as taking the bus to her grandmother's house (No really.). In another story with a feminist subtext, a princess rescues a prince then decides he is a jerk (he is) and abandons him for the evil sorcerer. Then there is the tale of the knight that does not want to hunt dragons but prefers to read. Fortunately when pressed into service the dragon is friendly and harmless and actually helps the knight rescue a princess from a "Huff" by outwitting it. No violence please. If you are looking for bed-time stories worthty of your child's intelligence, try "Italian Folktales" by Italio Calvino.

I loved the stories. Most of them were simple and easy to read but lots of fun. Good for people of all ages.