Pretty cool book of fairytales. I really enjoyed the ones that I have not heard before. Although, I would have appreciated a more thorough analyzation of the fairy tales.

Having read Bruno Bettelheim's "Uses of Enchantment" over a decade ago, I was impressed to see a few internal references to it. I was also glad that Pullman included his end notes to each story giving the story type, similar tales from other cultures, as well as his own personal notes about the stories as well as how they either worked or didn't work. Not having read any fairy tales in several decades, however, I'm mostly reminded how terrifically graphic these stories are and that they're not generally the type of things I would read to any child under the age of 12. Perhaps as a society we shelter our children (especially from graphic images in tv and video games) in a way that previous cultures just didn't. I imagine part of it stems from the fact that these stories were told in the 1800's for a very different audience - one in which he village "knacker" was a regular presence. (I have to think that it wasn't a very common profession given that I know lots of people with the name "Miller" or "Fletcher", but almost none who go by "Knacker".) It's only mentioned very tangentially in relation to the German translation into English of a few words in the notes, but Pullman does remind us that the Brothers Grimm collected these stories, in part, as a philological exercise for their research into the evolution of language. Having heard references to this in Seth Lerer's work on the English language which I came across recently makes me want to delve more deeply into these roots. Rereading these stories certainly gives me a better appreciation of the culture in which we live. I highly recommend them to all.

¿Qué se puede decir de los cuentos de Grimm? Que son imprescindibles, y Philip Pullman, muy buen editor. Solo he echado en falta tener una edición ilustrada.

I've not read a lot of the Brothers Grimm, but have read a lot of Philip Pullman, so a deep dive like this was absolutely wonderful.

I have little to say about this book. At one point I added all of Pullman's works to my to-read list although I am unsure why because I have never though much of the Golden Compass series. This was the last of those books on my list. Pullman adds nothing worthwhile to the traditional fairy tales. In fact, I think he mades a few of them more sadistic than they already were. The brothers Grimm had a very appropriate surname for the work of literature that made them famous.