This new edition of the beloved tales of the Brothers Grimm – selected, translated and edited by Peter Wortsman - is drawn from the 1857 edition of the German original, the last edition reviewed and approved by the Brothers in their lifetime. Over the years, the Brothers' enigmatic narratives have been sanitized by Disney and children's book editors for modern consumption; this indispensable edition restores their sting and vigor to the original prose. In Wortsman’s words, his translation is a return to "a tincture of concentrated man-eating ogre and ground hag tooth, diluted in blood, sweat and tears, as a potent vaccine against the crippling effects of fear and fury." These fortifying imaginative vaccines are accompanied by twenty-four full-color illustrations by Haitian artists, including Edouard Duval-Carrié, Pascale Monnin, and Frankétienne. Edwidge Danticat observes that many Haitian painters bring "forth another canvas beneath the one we see." These works’ imaginative scope, vitality, and evocation of the unconscious open deep channels between the two traditions, shedding new light and shadow on the classic tales.
The Tale of the Juniper Tree
It happened long, long ago, more than two thousand years gone by. There was a rich man who had a beautiful and God-fearing wife, and they loved each other very much. But they had no children, much as they badly wanted them. And the woman prayed so hard day and night, but still she had no children, not a one. Now in the yard, in front of their house, stood a juniper tree. One day in winter the woman stood beneath it, peeling herself an apple, and as she peeled she cut her finger, and the blood dripped into the snow.
The reason that most people value fairy tales, I would say, is that they do not detain us with hope but simply validate what is. Even people who have never known hunger, let alone a murderous stepmother, still have a sense—from dreams, from books, from news broadcasts—of utter blackness, the erasure of safety and comfort and trust. Fairy tales tell us that such knowledge, or fear, is not fantastic but realistic. … The Grimm tales still invoke nature, more than God, as life’s driving force, and nature is not kind. —Joan Acocella, The New Yorker
Everyone should possess and know Grimm’s Fairy Tales–one of the great books of the world. —Richard Adams, The New York Times Book Review
...this one book–other than the Bible–that has truly made Western man. —P. L. Travers, The New Republic
Frankétienne¢s work can speak to the most intellectual person in the society as well as the most humble. A very good kind of genius. —Edwidge Danticat
Duval-Carrié¢s large-scale paintings burst off The wall . . . bustling with pattern, landscape, sparkle, and mythos rooted in Haitian Voodou . . . [They] have The technical polish and scope to make a splash at any contemporary art fair. —Boston Globe
Jakob Karl Grimm was born on January 4, 1785, in Hanau, Germany. His brother, Wilhelm Karl Grimm, was born on February 24, 1786. Court librarians, linguists, scholars, translators, and writers, the Brothers Grimm collected stories told by peasants and villagers and published them in written form, forming the foundation of the most beloved fairy tales of our time.
Recipient of the 2012 Gold Grand Prize for Best Travel Story of the Year, Peter Wortsman is the author of A Modern Way to Die: Small Stories and Microtales, the plays The Tattooed Man Tells All and Burning Words, the recent memoir Ghost Dance in Berlin: A Rhapsody in Gray, and the forthcoming novel Cold Earth Wanderers. His translations from the German include Robert Musil's Posthumous Papers of a Living Author, Heinrich Heine's Travel Pictures, Peter Altenberg's Telegrams of the Soul, and Tales of the German Imagination: From The Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg Bachmann, an anthology published by Penguin Classics.
This new edition of the beloved tales of the Brothers Grimm – selected, translated and edited by Peter Wortsman - is drawn from the 1857 edition of the German original, the last edition reviewed and approved by the Brothers in their lifetime. Over the years, the Brothers' enigmatic narratives have been sanitized by Disney and children's book editors for modern consumption; this indispensable edition restores their sting and vigor to the original prose. In Wortsman’s words, his translation is a return to "a tincture of concentrated man-eating ogre and ground hag tooth, diluted in blood, sweat and tears, as a potent vaccine against the crippling effects of fear and fury." These fortifying imaginative vaccines are accompanied by twenty-four full-color illustrations by Haitian artists, including Edouard Duval-Carrié, Pascale Monnin, and Frankétienne. Edwidge Danticat observes that many Haitian painters bring "forth another canvas beneath the one we see." These works’ imaginative scope, vitality, and evocation of the unconscious open deep channels between the two traditions, shedding new light and shadow on the classic tales.
Excerpt
The Tale of the Juniper Tree
It happened long, long ago, more than two thousand years gone by. There was a rich man who had a beautiful and God-fearing wife, and they loved each other very much. But they had no children, much as they badly wanted them. And the woman prayed so hard day and night, but still she had no children, not a one. Now in the yard, in front of their house, stood a juniper tree. One day in winter the woman stood beneath it, peeling herself an apple, and as she peeled she cut her finger, and the blood dripped into the snow.
The reason that most people value fairy tales, I would say, is that they do not detain us with hope but simply validate what is. Even people who have never known hunger, let alone a murderous stepmother, still have a sense—from dreams, from books, from news broadcasts—of utter blackness, the erasure of safety and comfort and trust. Fairy tales tell us that such knowledge, or fear, is not fantastic but realistic. … The Grimm tales still invoke nature, more than God, as life’s driving force, and nature is not kind. —Joan Acocella, The New Yorker
Everyone should possess and know Grimm’s Fairy Tales–one of the great books of the world. —Richard Adams, The New York Times Book Review
...this one book–other than the Bible–that has truly made Western man. —P. L. Travers, The New Republic
Frankétienne¢s work can speak to the most intellectual person in the society as well as the most humble. A very good kind of genius. —Edwidge Danticat
Duval-Carrié¢s large-scale paintings burst off The wall . . . bustling with pattern, landscape, sparkle, and mythos rooted in Haitian Voodou . . . [They] have The technical polish and scope to make a splash at any contemporary art fair. —Boston Globe
Author
Jakob Karl Grimm was born on January 4, 1785, in Hanau, Germany. His brother, Wilhelm Karl Grimm, was born on February 24, 1786. Court librarians, linguists, scholars, translators, and writers, the Brothers Grimm collected stories told by peasants and villagers and published them in written form, forming the foundation of the most beloved fairy tales of our time.
Recipient of the 2012 Gold Grand Prize for Best Travel Story of the Year, Peter Wortsman is the author of A Modern Way to Die: Small Stories and Microtales, the plays The Tattooed Man Tells All and Burning Words, the recent memoir Ghost Dance in Berlin: A Rhapsody in Gray, and the forthcoming novel Cold Earth Wanderers. His translations from the German include Robert Musil's Posthumous Papers of a Living Author, Heinrich Heine's Travel Pictures, Peter Altenberg's Telegrams of the Soul, and Tales of the German Imagination: From The Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg Bachmann, an anthology published by Penguin Classics.
