Selected Tales

Once upon a time in the middle of winter, when the snowflakes fell from the sky like feathers, a queen sat by the window and sewed. The fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm are at once familiar, fantastic, cozy, and frightening. They seem to belong to no specific time or to a distant feudal era of fairy tale fantasy. Magnificent palaces, humble cottages, and a threatening forest form their backdrops, populated by kings and princesses, witches and robbers, millers and golden birds, stepmothers and talking frogs.

Originally regarded as uncomfortable children's stories as well as raw material for folklorists, the tales were indeed compositions collected by educated storytellers and shaped into a distinctive type of literature. This new translation reflects the apparent simplicity of the Grimms and fully represents the range of lesser-known fables, moral tales, and comic stories, as well as the classic fairy tales. It takes the stories back to their roots in German Romanticism and includes divergent tales and stories that were considered unsuitable for children.

In her fascinating introduction, Joyce Crick explores their origins and literary development in the hands of the Grimms. About the series: For over 100 years, Oxford World's Classics has offered the largest selection of literature from around the world. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship by providing the most accurate text along with a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading specialists, helpful notes to clarify the text, current bibliographies for further study, and much more.