This Calla Edition of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm is drawn from the mammoth collection first published in 1909 and illustrated by Arthur Rackham. His 40 full-colour plates, plus innumerable black-and-white spot elements, get sensitive treatment in a design that retains the best features of the original, including the ornate gilt stamping on the case. This is really a book to treasure and will last more than a lifetime.
Also selected by Jenny Downham, January 2011 Guest Editor:
"This was the second book I was given on my eleventh birthday. Here are sorcerers and thieves and murderers and lost children and wicked adults and buckets of blood! Many stories we know well, such as Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel and Cinderella have their roots in an ancient folk tradition which doesn’t provide a sanitised happy ending. In this version of Snow-White, for instance, the wicked queen is given burning hot iron slippers to wear as a punishment and is forced to dance to her death."
From the land of fantastical castles, vast lakes and deep forests, the Brothers Grimm collected a treasury of enchanting folk and fairy stories full of giants and dwarfs, witches and princesses, magical beasts and cunning children. From classics such as 'The Frog-Prince' and 'Hansel and Grettel' to the delights of 'Ashputtel' or 'Old Sultan', all hold a timeless magic which has enthralled children for centuries.
The German brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm spent years collecting
and researching folk tales early in the 19th century. They published Children's and Household Tales in 1812, a collection which became known as Grimm's Fairy Tales. The collection included what are now some of the world's most famous stories, including Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin.
Wilhelm married in 1825, but Jacob never wed and for most of his life
lived in his brother's home. The brothers also began a German
historical dictionary, the enormous Deutsches Worterbuch, which ran to 16 volumes when it was finally completed by others in 1954.
