Grimms' Fairy Tales

Description

For the past two centuries these delightful stories, gathered together and written down by brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, have entertained and frightened children and adults alike. The lives of Tom Thumb, Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin and the Frog Prince form part of our common heritage: they stimulate the imagination and the heart, and linger at the back of our minds for a lifetime. They are funny, disturbing, wise and compassionate. They speak of joy and terror, happiness and revenge, love and violence. Arthur Rackham's masterly illustrations have all been hand-coloured by Barbara Frith, one of Britain's leading colourists. Designed to appeal to the booklover, Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound hardback gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born during the 1780s in Hanau, Germany. After studying law, they worked as diplomats and librarians in Kassel. In 1837 they were dismissed from their professorships at the University of Goettingen for refusing to swear allegiance to the new King of Hanover, but were later invited to join the Academy in Berlin, by Frederick William IV of Prussia, where they remained for the rest of their lives. The brothers were two of the greatest scholars that Germany has produced. Aside from their folktales, they produced many different volumes of research, as well as anthologies of verse and song, and two of Germany's most important linguistic texts, the Deutsche Grammatik (German Grammar) and the Deutsche Woerterbuch (German Dictionary). Wilhelm died in 1859, and Jacob died in 1863.