Most of the fairy tales that we grew up with we know thanks to the Brothers Grimm. Jack Zipes, one of the more
astute critics of fairy tales, explores the romantic myth of the brothers as wandering scholars, who gathered "authentic"
tales from the peasantry. Bringing to bear his own critical expertise as well and new biographical information,
Zipes examines the interaction between the Grimms' lives and their work. He reveals the Grimms' personal struggle
to overcome social prejudice and poverty, as well as their political efforts--as scholars and civil servants--toward
unifying the German states. By deftly interweaving the social, political, and personal elements of the lives of
the Brothers Grimm, Zipes rescues them from sentimental obscurity. No longer figures in a fairy tale, the Brothers
Grimm emerge as powerful creators, real men who established the fairy tale as one of our great literary institutions.
Part biography, part critical assessment, and part social history, The Brothers Grimm provides a complex and very
real story about fairy tales and the modern world.
Table of Contents
1. Once There Were Two Brothers Named Grimm: A Reintroduction
2. The Origins and Reception of the Tales
3. Exploring Historical Paths
4. From Odysseus to Tom Thumb and Other Cunning Heroes: Speculations about the Entrepreneurial Spirit
5. The German Obsession with Fairy Tales
6. Henri Pourrat and the Tradition of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm
7. Recent Psychological Approaches with Some Questions about the Abuse of Children
8. Semantic Shifts of Power in Folk and Fairy Tales : Cinderella and the Consequences
9. Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale: The Immortality of Sleeping Beauty and Storytelling
10. The Struggle for the Grimms' Throne: The Legacy of the Grimms' Tales in East and West Germany since 1945
