Customer Reviews

The Classic Fairy Tales

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I first read this book in 1983, and was amazed with it then. It's unique and extremely interesting. Iona and Peter Opie have the original tales as first printed in the English language. Added to that is the history and the actual gruesome origins of what we now consider children's stories! For example, Sleeping Beauty is not awakened by a kiss. Her Prince Charming violates her while she sleeps (and since she doesn't wake up, we can only imagine how mediocre he was...). She only awakens 9 months later, during the birth of twins! He eventually returns to her, and then the story gets more complicated with his ogre mother who wants to canibalize the children. The story of the Frog Prince is even stranger. Since these are the actual tales, we can see how we've changed the stories to fit in with our culture. This is not a book for young children. The history part was the most fascinating to me. In addition, litle details such as learning that Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of squirrel fur, not glass. Both words in French are spelled similarly (vaire, verre...I'm not sure of the spelling either)and the original printer had a typo that lives on til today.

Everything the Opies write is fascinating and approachable, and this book is a revelation. All these tales, familiar and no-longer-so-familiar, are great to read in this age of sanitised, bowdlerised, or Disneyfied folktales. But the historical details of how the stories evolved, what and from where the variants are, and the significance of various elements of the stories - all these are of great general interest, and are also invaluable to the storyteller needing to do a bit of research.

My mother got this book for me when I was a child, and needless to say, it changed the way I learned fairy tales. Iona Opie presents some classic fairy tales as they were ORIGINALLY written... Dark, lurid, mysterious, and pessimistic. The artwork littered throughout the pages is commendable even if it were its own title.

I love this book so much that I have purchased it as a gift for countless friends, including a pen pal from Japan who found it amazing that our Western fairy tales (the stories told to our ancestors as young children) were indeed so graphic.

Great, great book -- a classic. Hope this one never goes out of style.

I am more firmly convinced than ever I was that every reading list should contain a healthy dose of fairy tales. No better place to start than here, a fantastic collection of the best-known fairy tales (Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White, Red Ridding Hood, Hansel and Grethel, Diamonds and Toads, etc.) in their earliest known English published forms (and that, of course, means darker, more bizarre, and deeper psychologically), and--more significantly--with fascinating introductions describing the various motifs, aspects, symbols, histories, and transformations of the tales. It was as if I were back in Dr. Thomas' fascinating and enchanting folk tales class. We need fairy stories; we need the imagination, the wonder, the morals, the expression of the human psyche. And this is one of the rare collections that perfectly captures and understands this. Grade: A

You child will love this book being read, it may not have enough illustrations for the new reader to be sufficiently entertained. A beautiful way to spend quality time and to catch up with your child's fantasies. Nice excuse to be a child yourself ...

This is a hardy book which will not fall apart before you reach the end. Perfect for two generations or more if well kept.

Every home should have one.

I was neglected as a child in that no one had the time to read fairy tales to me. I, therefore, decided to remedy that situation by reading them to myself. I'm so glad I did.

This is a great book with which one can enter that world of make believe. A world that is made up of our longings, aspirations, and dreams. A world in which we find the perfect match, get rich, and live happily ever after.

There is always a moral to the story in that those that do good are rewarded and those who do evil are punished. Good things always happen in a delightful and serendiptous ways. Whereas evil on the other hand is cruel, selfish, and calculating. Evil always delivers exactly what you deserve and never what you expected. There is plenty of evil in fairy tales.

I highly recommend the book. I also think that these stories are better written than those by the Grimm Brothers.