Rediscover Classic Fairy Tales With This Classy Collection

“Happily ever after” and “once upon a time” are two of the most iconic phrases in storytelling history thanks in large part to the Brothers Grimm, who so diligently collected and adapted many of the folktales that endure as childhood favorites to this day. Along with many other fans, I am hoping that it will take a long time for Once Upon a Time, the ABC Sunday night drama helmed by LOST scribes Adam Horowitz and Eddie Kitsis, to reach its “happily ever after.” Although I want to see these characters find their happiness, which in most cases seems to include making a seemingly impossible romantic connection, I am in no rush to see this modern take on these ancient stories come to an end.

On my birthday, an episode of Once Upon a Time featuring the beloved story of Beauty and the Beast aired, and I received this collection of fairy tales illustrated by Kevin Tong and published in conjunction with the series. Part of the book’s appeal for fans of the show is its foreword by Horowitz and Kitsis, who share their thoughts on why fairy tales have so thoroughly permeated the public consciousness, what they are trying to accomplish with the show and how LOST helped prepare them for it. I’d read snatches of these ideas before in interviews, but it’s nice to have them all here in a cohesive three-page essay that only increases my already strong faith that these two – whose extensive contribution to LOST includes writing my favorite episode, Dr. Linus – know what they are doing.

Parents considering purchasing this for their kids should be aware that the stories within this collection are direct translations of the original Grimm tales, and they are… well… grim. That isn’t to say that the “good guys” don’t win out – usually – but many of them must endure violent trials in the meantime, to say nothing of the grotesque ends many of the villains meet. Young readers, especially the very sensitive, might be troubled by such story elements as eyes being gouged out by birds, youngsters getting gobbled up by wolves and fathers beheading their own children. Of course, generations of readers grew up with these stories before more sanitized versions became more prevalent.

Brief but memorable, with the longest 15 pages long but most much shorter, these stories mostly felt very familiar to me, though the ones Disney introduced to me had distinct differences from their animated adaptations. For instance, this Cinderella’s father is still alive but does nothing to spare his daughter from her stepfamily’s wickedness, and in the process of trying on the royal shoes, her stepsisters cut off parts of their own feet to make them fit – and the prince can’t even tell that neither is the one he danced with at the ball. In Snow White, the evil queen tricks Snow White several times, and ultimately she is revived not by the prince’s kiss but by being transported by coffin to his palace and coming to when it hits a bump in the road and a bit of poisoned apple dislodges from her throat.

The prince in The Sleeping Beauty does kiss the enchanted princess, but as he was born long after she fell asleep, he has no previous connection with her, nor does he need to fight the wicked enchantress or enlist the aid of the helpful fairies as none of them has a role in the story beyond her fateful birthday. Romance does not come into the stories much despite so many tales including a wedding; with few exceptions, if love occurs, it is at first sight, with no time for the couple to get to know each other, and more often marriage is awarded to a stranger as a prize for completing some heroic task. The strangest example of this is in the closing story, The Frog Prince, in which a frog becomes a prince after the cruel, spoiled child whose toy he rescued throws him against the wall – and then he marries her.

Thematic connections can be found among many of the 30 stories, several of which were unfamiliar to me. Ingenuity, perseverance, kindness to the disenfranchised and loyalty are four virtues that are praised in multiple tales. Humor comes into some of the tales as well, particularly in the stories of Hans in Luck, the world’s most ineffective barterer, and Clever Grethel, whose brilliant manipulation of others’ dialogue reminds me of young Kevin McAllister in Home Alone. Remarkable animals are also common, with my favorite being the wish-granting fish The Fisherman and His Wife, a funny cautionary tale against excessive greed and lack of assertiveness.

Despite the presence of violence in many of the stories, there’s really only one story whose ending I would really classify as unhappy, and it still is happy for one of the characters, just not the one readers might expect. In other cases, the tales proceed with little conflict; the trio of short elf tales toward the end is particularly tranquil.

Adding to my appreciation of this collection are the illustrations by Kevin Tong, which are black and white, with bold silhouettes at the ends of stories and more detailed drawings at the beginning, though only a few tales feature these larger pictures. Even these tend to deal mostly with archetypal figures; for instance, we see Little Red Cap wandering down a path in a woodland landscape inside the shape of a wolf’s head, and the dwarves’ cozy cottage stands inside an outline of Snow White’s silhouette.

You might want to restrict yourself to reading one or two of these stories at a time; it would be easy to stretch the 250-page book out for a month that way, since each is self-contained, and such an approach minimizes the risk of the tales running together in your mind. I only took a week to read it, but I’m sure this is a book whose tales I’ll be returning to, especially as the series progresses. More characters are coming on board all the time, and it’s interesting to compare how those who originated with these tales differ from their prime time counterparts. Of course, this book is limited to stories collected by the German Grimm Brothers, so characters from such tales as the French Beauty and the Beast and the Italian Pinocchio are missing, but many of the show’s denizens can be found within these pages.

All of these stories have a timeless quality about them, and I suspect they will still be enjoyed for many generations. While most of the characters are not terribly complex, they make excellent springboards for creative embroidery by writers like Horowitz and Kitsis. Reading them can easily encourage further creativity, whether it’s by way of crafting new fairy tales, writing about these characters’ other adventures or furnishing illustrations. This book would make a great addition to a classroom shelf, especially for slightly older students who might find the format more appealingly grown-up than the more common picture book-style editions. Kids and adults alike can appreciate these tales, just as television viewers across a spectrum of ages can enjoy the series as a family. I’m so glad that these stories remain such a powerful part of the cultural landscape.