The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World [Paperback]

Jack Zipes (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312293801 | ISBN-13: 978-0312293802 | Publication Date: December 18, 2002 | Edition: 2nd

Most of the fairy tales that we grew up with we know thanks to the Brothers Grimm. Jack Zipes, one of the more astute critics of fairy tales, explores the romantic myth of the brothers as wandering scholars, who gathered "authentic" tales from the peasantry. Bringing to bear his own critical expertise as well and new biographical information, Zipes examines the interaction between the Grimms' lives and their work. He reveals the Grimms' personal struggle to overcome social prejudice and poverty, as well as their political efforts--as scholars and civil servants--toward unifying the German states. By deftly interweaving the social, political, and personal elements of the lives of the Brothers Grimm, Zipes rescues them from sentimental obscurity. No longer figures in a fairy tale, the Brothers Grimm emerge as powerful creators, real men who established the fairy tale as one of our great literary institutions. Part biography, part critical assessment, and part social history, The Brothers Grimm provides a complex and very real story about fairy tales and the modern world.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Zipes is probably the leading American authority on the fairy tale, which makes this new edition of his classic study of the Brothers Grimm (1988) especially welcome. Zipes has significantly revised and expanded his book, responding both to its earlier critics and to the wealth of new work on the Grimms to come out of East Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall. He is concerned with both the artistry and the ideology of the tales. While agreeing that the Grimms often transformed their tales to reflect the bourgeois values of their world, Zipes wishes to avoid simplistic readings, exploring the complexity of what such values actually meant. At the same time, Zipes is interested in their later reception and appropriation, including the efforts of Disney. His new chapter on the legacy of the Grimms in East and West Germany is especially illuminating. Highly recommended.
T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah, GA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Jack Zipes knows the world of the Grimms better than anyone, and his provocative and illuminating book has already made waves in the folklore and children's literature worlds in its earlier incarnation." -- Jane Yolen, author of Touch Magic

"Jack Zipes does a marvelous job of digging out the way the stories were set up." -- The Boston Globe

"Zipes' eloquent and persuasive scholarship is enough to recommend The Brothers Grimm, but it is his witty and trenchant readings of the tales that will delight even the most hardened anti-Grimm reader." -- The Globe and Mail

"...this new edition of his classic study of the Brothers Grimm (1988) [is] especially welcome." -- Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 2nd edition (December 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312293801
• ISBN-13: 978-0312293802
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #825,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A mishmash of everything, March 7, 2006

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T. Hooper "thdizzy" (Osaka, Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World (Paperback)

This book tries to cover a lot of ground, but in the end you get a sense that it has gotten you anywhere. The first impression I got was that this book was actually a bunch of journal articles thrown together because there isn't much sense of continuity to this book. It doesn't have an overall theme and the topics covered don't seem to connect well. It starts off with a short biography of the Grimms, so far so good. After that, it covers the orgins of the tales, a little dry, but not bad. After that, there's a chapter about how the Grimm tales indoctrinate children into the bourgeoisie. The Marxism seems a little dated. After that, out of the blue, you get a chapter on Henri Pourrault, an obscure writer of fairy tales. It's never explained why this writer is in this book, but I guess the author really liked this journal article and couldn't resist throwing it in.

After this, it gets really weird. You get a chapter about how fairy tales are all about childhood sexual abuse. If that doesn't kill your mood to read fairy tales, then the following chapter in which the author attacks the Grimm tales as outdated and obsolete and advocates the rewriting of the tales for more modern perspectives will. One gem that the author singles out for praise is a rewriting of Cinderella. In this version, Cinderella is a labor organizer who organizes all the workers in her kingdom. The prince, impressed by her accomplishments, falls in lover with her and proposes. However, Cinderella refuses to betray the worker and rejects the prince. In the end, Cinderella moves to America and the prince commits suicide over the heartbreak. Wow, the kids will love that one. It's not even entertaining or enlightening for adults and borders on masochistic. That's some of the nonsense that you'll run into in this book. I really recommend that you pass on this.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mandy's Review, May 6, 2008

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FSS (Panama City FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World (Paperback)

Zipes, Jack. 2002. The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

The first edition of Jack Zipes' The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World was published in 1988. So, this particular book is the second, revised version of its kind. Zipes wished to write this book to address more information that has become available about the lives of the Grimm brothers since his last edition. He describes his inspiration with the following statement. "Their hope for themselves and their people in the once upon a time of their fairy tales is the hope that has inspired my own work, and despite the critical and skeptical attitude I maintain in studying their work and legacy, it is their fairy-tale hope that keeps me going" (p. xvi).

Zipes begins the book with a reintroduction of The Brothers Grimm. He writes of the early "idyllic" life of the Grimm family. Their father was a successful lawyer and their mother was a devoted housewife. Life was going well for the family of 6 children up until the death of their father. After that, they depended heavily on the graciousness of their grandfather and other relatives, especially their Aunt Henriette, whom Zikes compares to a "good fairy". Jacob and Wilhelm, the oldest male children, were expected to become successful and take care of and retain the good name of the Grimm family. Jacob was the eldest, very bright, and was much like their father. Wilhelm was very bright also, but more prone to ill health. Jacob and Wilhelm did go on to excel in school. Jacob had planned to become a lawyer like his father, but instead he felt obligated to care for his mother and 5 younger siblings. So, he left behind the study of law and secured a job. Wilhelm did stay on to finish his law studies, but eventually Jacob and Wilhelm followed their heart in the literary world. These two brothers were very close all through their lives.

The second chapter describes the intent and process of the gathering together of tales. The brothers sought to capture and preserve the German literature and folklore. Jacob even composed a letter to request the help of the people in the gathering of this material. He writes, "Our literature, history, and language cannot seriously be understood in their old and true origins without doing more exact research on this material" (p. 27). The Brothers Grimm are often portrayed as having traveled around Germany collecting tales from the peasants. However, this isn't exactly the way it happened at all! The primary way that these famous writers gathered their material was to invite "storytellers to their home and then have them tell the tales aloud, which the Grimm's either noted down on first hearing or after a couple of hearings" (p. 28).

The third chapter discusses the symbolic subject of the forest in many of the tales. Next, the fourth chapter looks at the valued characteristic of cunning in various heroes of these tales. "The male heroes in the Grimm's' tales tend to be adventurous, cunning, opportunistic, and reasonable" (p. 95). Also, it is interesting to note that most of these heroes are not princes! The fifth chapter explores how many German people view the Brothers Grimm and the fairy tale. Chapter six shows comparisons of the work of Henri Pourrat to Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. Then, the next few chapters deal with some analysis of various aspects of these tales, such as the treatment of children, the shift of power, and the relationship between fairy tales and myths. Finally, the last chapter explores the "struggle for the Grimms' Throne". Zipes discusses the different writing styles that have developed since 1945. These new kinds of fairy tales include social satire, utopian, pedagogical, feminist, comic parody, and spiritual tales. The final part of the book includes notes on various aspects of the chapters and then a bibliography at the very end.

The Brothers Grimm certainly made a tremendous impact on the world of literature as we know it. "Highly acclaimed as the founders of the popular fairy-tale tradition in the West, if not in the entire world, the Grimm's aspired as brilliant philological scholars to glorify the greatness of the German popular tradition" (p. xi). Jack Zipes does an incredible job of bringing together a very detailed look at the lives of the Brothers Grimm and their impressive contributions. The strength of this book is the author's obvious investment in the amount of research and analysis. This book is an excellent resource for gaining a better understanding of the history behind the work of the Brothers Grimm. By understanding their work better, educators can make informed decisions about what aspects they may or may not want to include in lessons. "Educators have not been interested in motifs so much as in the morals and the types of role models in the tales" (p. 49). Teachers might use the analysis provided by Zipes to prepare lesson plans that look more closely at various elements that make up the fairy tale. After reading this book, the reader becomes more aware of the traditions and culture of fairy tales.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For serious students of European fantasy literature, January 11, 2003

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World (Paperback)

The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests To The Modern World by Jack Zipes (Professor of German, University of Minnesota) is an informed and informative examination of the lives of the famous fairy tale gatherers, writers, and preservers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. From their humble origins amidst poverty and prejudice to their ultimate contribution to literature as a whole, The Brothers Grimm is a truly fascinating account and a "must-read" for serious students of European fantasy literature and folklore.