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One fairy story too many : the Brothers Grimm and their tales / John M. Ellis

Ellis, John M., 1936-

Grimm, Jacob, 1785-1863 ; Grimm, Wilhelm, 1786-1859

Chicago [u.a.] : Univ. of Chicago Press, c 1983

IX, 214 S. ; 22 cm

Englisch, Deutsch

Bibliogr. S 205 - 209

Text teilw. engl., teilw. dt.

0-226-20546-0

0226205460, 0226205460, GB8427689

191987697

OCoLC: 252255392      ; OCoLC: 9217392     

OCoLC: 09217392 (aus SWB)      ; OCoLC: 719124773 (aus SWB)     

83001193

GB 2708      Ähnliche Literatur

PT921

398.210943 ; 398.2/1/0943

Basisklassifikation: 18.10 (Deutsche Literatur)

*Kinder- und Hausmärchen ; Quelle      Zum Register

*Kinder- und Hausmärchen ; Textgestaltung ; Quelle      Zum Register

LOC-SH: Kinder- und Hausmärchen ; Grimm, Jacob -- 1785-1863 -- Criticism and interpretation ; Grimm, Wilhelm -- 1786-1859 -- Criticism and interpretation ; Fairy tales -- Germany -- History and criticism

One fairy story too many tells the tale of how the Grimms ̉fairy tales, beloved the world over, originated in a literary fraud. When the brothers presented these tales to the world, they claimed to have tapped an oral tradition of folk story-telling in Germany. Supposedly, the tales were written down as the Grimms heard them told by peasants and other simple, uneducated folk. But John Ellis argues in this book that the tales have little to do with German folklore- and that the brothers clearly knew it. Analyzing and interpreting all the available evidence, Ellis shows that the Grimms deliberately made false claims for their tales and suppressed the evidence of their actual origin. In fact, their sources were not authentic folk story-tellers, and in many cases were not even German - the celebrated Märchenfrau of Niederzwehren was educated, middle-class, and French. Moreover, the brothers ̉treatment of their source material was astonishingly casual. Even while claiming to be utterly true to his sources, Wilhelm Grimm continued, throughout the seven editions, to amend aud augment the tales. He changed plots, charactrs, literary style, and moral tone seemingly to suit his whim ...