Monday, April 8, 2013

G is for Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales

Welcome back! I'm talking about another one of my great loves today; another one of those things that helped make the Emily you see today. :)


I actually grew up with an Omnibus of Fairy Tales, which are the abridged, child friendly tales taken from the work above.

I still have the book, though it's missing its spine (and now held together with packing tape) and I read the stories to my own children (whenever I can get them to sit still long enough), but I purchased a copy of Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales a few years ago. 

I grew fascinated with just how much the stories had changed from one work to another. I started to come up with conspiracy theories as to why we'd make them more lighthearted and who would benefit the most from doing so. And I realized that, obviously, the villains in the stories would have the most to gain. If we forgot them and how truly horrible they were, they'd have a chance to grow more powerful.

It was actually that thought that inspired me to write my YA Contemporary Fantasy, ALMOST NIGHT (you can see more about it in the My Books page above). 

So what about you? Have you read the original tales? Or did you grow up on one of the other versions?

9 comments:

  1. Growing up, we had a series of child-friendly versions of novels. Each book was actually two novels in one, starting at opposite ends and working toward the middle (you flip the book over to read the other story, so you're always reading front to back... or middle... ok, so that's clear as mud now... did I say I'm a writer?!). I seem to recall one of the books had Hans Christian Andersen's tales on one side, and Grimm's on the other. But these were sanitized, children's versions. I've heard about the originals, but never read them. You've got me thinking maybe I should. CINDER and SCARLET by Marissa Meyer demonstrate that fairy tales can be a great well of ideas from which to draw. :)

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  2. child friendly of course. My parents cared about Me.

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  3. When I first read Grimm Fairy Tales they were scary. Now I'm lovin' the series on tv.
    Connie
    A to Z buddy
    Peanut Butter and Whine

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  4. Hello, Emily! I have a complete collection of Brothers Grimm and a complete collection of Andersen's fairy tales; they belonged to my dad when he was a kid and they're the original tales. I did a post for Halloween last year about original fairy tales: http://lauramarcella.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-weird-7-freaky-fairy-tales.html?m=0 It's amazing how dark and twisted many of them were!

    Happy A to Z-ing! from Laura Marcella @ Wavy Lines

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  5. I don't recall having a fairy tale book, but I'm familiar with all the tales. A great grandmother read to me from an old Children's Book of Verse at a young age--so maybe from her?

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  6. I think the best books are the ones that are falling apart and held together with tape.

    mood
    Moody Writing

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  7. I think sometimes fairy tales are altered to cater to certain age demographics. As a child, I remember hearing the Disney version of Cinderella and thinking it was so romantic. Then I heard the Chinese version of Cinderella, also as a child, and I freaked out hearing the part where the stepsisters cut off a part of their heel so they could fit their feet into the glass slippers. Even then, all I could think was Ewww!

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  8. Oh, I love what Moody said above! :) I'm stopping in from the A to Z Challenge, and I'm a new follower. Nice to meet you!

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