Title: 101 Fairy Tales
Author: Brothers Grimm
Series: Word Cloud Classics
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Easy reading, Fairy tales, Short story collections
Pace: Slow
Format: Collection
Publisher: Word Cloud Classics
Year: 1812
5th sentence, 74th page: All the people grieved for the handsome youth; then they went away, leaving him alone by the sea.
There was once upon a time a fisherman… and everyday he went out fishing. And once as he was sitting with his rod, looking at the clear water, his line suddenly went down, far down below, and when he drew it up again he brought out a large flounder. Then the flounder said to him, “Listen you fisherman… I am no flounder really, but an enchanted prince.”
This was a fantastic collection. I’ve always wanted to read the Brothers Grimm stories, and although I have no idea whether these are close to the original versions or not. I will probably never truly know since they were originally German tales. Plus, there have been so many rewrites of these tales that I have no idea where the beginning really is….
Some of the fairy tales in this collection were just downright weird. Not just the endings or beginnings, but the middles too. A sausage, mouse and bird all living together? Yeah, that’s weird and not even remotely what I had expected from the story. But then there’s the slightly more recognisable tales, like Cinderella. It definitely doesn’t have the Disney version that we’re all used to, but I loved the more vindictive, vengeful ending to this tale anyway. (I’m not entirely sure what that says about me…)
Although it is an odd choice, reading the Grimm fairy tales before bed every night for the past month or so has been thoroughly enjoyable. I’ve had some slightly abnormal dreams, but not only has this helped to give me an insight into the world as it was for the Brothers Grimm. It also gave me a fun and enjoyable story series that made me smile with every turn of the page.
Earth and Skye 
5 thoughts on “101 Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm”