Customer Reviews

The Complete Fairy Tales (Oxford World's Classics)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Charles Perrault, a minor government official in 17th century France, is best remembered today for the collection of fairy tales he published in 1697, just six years before his death. Perrault, however, was not the author of any of the tales collected in his book. Rather, he rewrote various folk tales, tales of unknown origin snatched from the oral tradition of his time, and published those stories in the versions that most closely resemble the ones children grow up on today.

This new Christopher Betts translation of Perrault's work presents a few of the stories in simple verse, the rest in prose, and it includes an all-star list of fairy tales. Among the stories in "The Complete Fairy Tales" are: "Little Red Riding-Hood," "Sleeping Beauty," "Bluebeard," "Puss in Boots," "Cinderella," and a story very similar to that of "Hansel and Gretel." But make no mistake about it - these are not the fairy tales you heard from your mother and they are, most definitely, not the ones made famous by Mr. Disney.

Nevertheless, Perrault did intend that his stories be read to small children by their parents. For that reason, his versions of the folk tales are shorter than the stories with which adults of the period would have been more familiar, they encompass a limited number of characters and motivations, and much of the most obvious sexual content has been removed or, at the least, disguised. In addition, within his stories, Perrault emphasizes lessons and warnings about the process of growing up and he attaches at least one moral to the end of each tale. The attached morals, however, do seem to be aimed more at the parent/reader than at the listening children.

Adult readers will be intrigued by the editing process to which Perrault subjected his chosen tales and probably a little shocked by some of the details he excluded. Perrault clearly felt it necessary to clean up the old folk tales before publishing them as children's entertainment. Who might have imagined, for instance, that Snow White would be raped by her prince and would give birth to twins before she was awakened? Or that Little Red Riding-Hood would be forced by the wolf to eat part of her dismembered grandmother? Or that incest would play a prominent role in some of the tales?

"The Complete Fairy Tales" includes twenty-six remarkable illustrations by 19th century French literary illustrator Gustave Doré (including the book's cover and the "Cinderella" illustration shown here) and it is amply footnoted. Most intriguing, though, is the book's presentation of alternate versions of several of today's most beloved fairy tales, versions that make it obvious why Perrault felt obliged to edit the tales to fit his intended audience. Readers preferring their history in unexpurgated form will much appreciate "The Complete Fairy Tales" as translated by Christopher Betts.

I think previous reviewer "Sam Sattler" covered just about everything you need to know about the content of this book, so I won't rehash it here; I recommend that you read his/her review.

I bought the Kindle version of this book, and the text itself is lovely. It collects all Perrault's fairy tales, with illustrations and a wealth of extra information and history, both of the stories and Perrault, in the introductions and appendix.

There are a few things to be aware of if you plan to buy this book for Kindle.
The text size of the verse stories varies and appears in three drastically different sizes within the same story and sometimes on the same page, regardless of any adjustment made in the text size menu.
The illustrations, which themselves are lovely, include brief descriptions that often appear quite far away from their corresponding pictures- that is, several pages before or after you actually see the picture, there will be a line or two in italics that says something like "the prince meets the princess."
These aren't major issues, and they don't cause any great difficulty in reading the book. However, this book is a bit more expensive than the other ebooks I've bought, and for the price I expected something without any strange mistakes, which is why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5.

Once upon a time, Oxford was a fine publisher and knew how to make a book such as this a thing of charm and durability.

Then the Americans stepped in, and nothing has every been the same.

The text here--that is, the translation, both prose and verse--IS charming indeed, but the binding and format are distinctly unlovely. A red ribbon serves to mark the place where sleep overcame one, but the signatures are glue-bound, not sewn, so the book doesn't like to lie open in your lap, and the title gilding is brash and loud, where it should barely whisper of treasures inside.

I bought this book in hopes of finally knowing of the original stories that inspired the famous tales we know today.The frase "curiosity killed the cat"showed itself here for it was written with sexual ideas. Any thing thought by the reviewer to hint at sex drastically changed the story to an adulterized "original" version. Maybe it is my unwillingnes to accept the stories be that way, but we are all hinting here for nobody not even the reviewer know the real story.We are then just reading someone's opinion of how the stories were. If you agree with him/her all is fine but I am one of the idea that nothing here is truth.Though it sounds convincing at first you might then notice how the reviewer supposes,guesses and comes to conclusions that I ,as might you,find offensive.