This book is what it says on the tin; a collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, illustrated by Arthur Rackham. You have, of course, your old standbys; Rapunzel, Hansel and Grethel, The Bremen Town Musicians, Briar Rose, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Fisherman and his Wife, The Goosegirl, The Valiant Tailor, Red Riding Hood, The Robber Bridegroom, Tom Thumb, Rumpelstiltskin, Ashenputtel (aka Cinderella), The Elves and the Shoemaker, Snowdrop (also known as Snow White) and The Golden Goose. And some rarer ones: The Youth Who Could Not Shudder, King Thrushbeard, The Old Man and His Grandson (also known as “How A Small Child Shames His Parents Into Better Elder Care”), The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean, just to name a few.
None of the stories are overly long; they would be perfect for a one story before bed kind of bedtime routine with your children. True, the stories have your usual non-bowdlerized Grimm’s flair; plenty of murder, cannibalism, cutting off of body parts, talking severed heads, and gruesome retribution for the evil and guilty. So maybe you might want to scan them ahead of time for toddler-appropriate ones if you think they can’t handle them. Even saying that, this book is slightly cleaned up; Rapunzel does not get her children the same way she does in other versions of Grimm’s Fairy Tales I have read.
Reading several fairy/folk tale books in a row, I find it interesting how many of them overlap, even if the books are collecting tales from differing countries. And each country has their own variation on the tale; “King Thrushbeard” of Ireland is not the same “King Thrushbeard” of Germany based on this book. I’ve read at least six different versions of Cinderella, two of Snow White, three of Sleeping Beauty, and two of Rapunzel. Sometimes it’s a minor tweak to a small plot point here or there, sometimes I only realized it was the same story because of the title and the broadest stroke of the plot.
As usual, Arthur Rackham’s illustrations are fantastic. The pictures all have this very delicate line work and soft, almost watercolor tint to them that makes them really suitable for illustrating fairy tales. He does an illustrations of an irate black cat and an owl that I’m tempted to blow up and make into Halloween decorations.
Pick this up if you collect fairy tales; you won’t be disappointed.