The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales

This is a beautiful book on the magical, scary, enchanting and wonderful world of the fairy tale! Marie Tatar a Harvard German professor has done a superb job in putting this book together! The stories range from the classics of the borthers Grimm, Perrault and Hans Christen Anderson. Fairy tales from several cultures are included from Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia and Denmark. The volume is beautifully illustrated with the illustrations from such giants as Cruikshank, Rackham, Parrish and several others. This work is a beautiful way to share story time with one's children or grandchildren. If you are going to buy one book of fairy tales appealing to both children and adults then this is the lavish lifetime volume for you! Excellent!

I loved this volume. It's great to know about all the different versions of fairy tales, and I especially liked the user-friendly format which lets you read the stories and savor the illustrations, along with the commentary, which is just right. I learned a lot from the introductions to each story, and I am reading some of these to my nephew, who adored "The Emperor's New Clothes," and even though he is six, he wanted to read the commentary!

I am always fascinated by annotations of classic works because of the insights I gain from them. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales is especially interesting because the works Maria Tatar includes are familiar (at least most of them are) but, her notes reveal, have a much deeper and sometimes darker history than we thought. The book includes some universal favorites like The Emperor's New Clothes and Cinderella and some less known but interesting stories like Molly Whuppie and The Juniper Tree. Each story has a great variety of classic illustrations from masters like Cruikshank and Dore. Another nice touch are the biographies of some of the authors and illustrators included at the end. Whether you are a child, have a child, or are a child at heart, you will love this collection.

I found this to be a wonderful book to use with my children and it is a great bargain with all the fabulous illustrations that are included in this work. The illustrations alone are worth the price of the book. I love the variant tellings of the fairy tales and is a great concept to have the children to whom you are reading use their imagination as well. I think I actually enjoy reading this as much as the children.

We got this book as an impulse purchase from my Dad when we all [my daughter Emily, Dad and I] were waiting for the restaurant buzzer to go off at the Mall. Emily, age 9, could not wait til we got home, and was entranced by the glorious illustrations all through dinner. We've been sharing the stories in read aloud mode for the past four days--Emily likes to read to me a bit too-- and the old tales we all love like Red Riding Hood and Cinderella come to new life in Prof. Tatar's wonderful translations which seem perfectly suited for reading aloud. Emily has really taken the "moral" parts of these stories to heart, especially after 9/11, and she seems able to see in her own developing way how complex and challenging the world can be. This classic selection of tales has just been a wonderful resource. Somewhere in the introduction Prof. Tatar says these stories were orginally created to help children, and adults, 'navigate' the moral and ethical uncertainties of a changing time, and that is so true, especially if you share this book with a child. It is just a wonderfully created book with beautiful illustrations and stories, a book to treasure. I highly recommend this for all parents who want to share stories with their children.