Review: Poor Selection.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 10 11, 2010
Note the title.  This is a selection of fairy tales, in fairly poor translation, not the full "Grimm's Fairy TALES", or "Household Stories" collection.  There are places where the stories seem to drop off or change direction suddenly mid-stream.  "The Little Brother and Little Sister", for example, is missing a paragraph that is in other versions, which is needed to follow the plot.A few stories seem to have no point or plot at all, or added endings, although "Catherine and Frederick" is only a little worse here than in other versions I have found.  Most of the good stories are repeated in better collections.Only notable bits:"Bearskin" is one that isn't in every collection of Grimm's Tales, and I found it enjoyable.  I prefer the stories like this and "The Six Swans", in which the day is won through persistence and cleverness. Also, he cheats the devil, which is always a nice touch. Many of these stories are solved through nothing more interesting than dumb luck.This version of "The Frog Prince" has a very beautiful beginning, but the rest of the story is disjointed, uninspired, and annoying.Overall it was very uneven, and next time I'll search Project Gutenberg for the full tales.