Bibliophiles and fairy tale fans today celebrate the 200th anniversary of Grimms' Fairy Tales, a tome of many classic fairy tales the world knows and loves to this day.
The book that brought us classic children’s stories such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, turns 200 years old today, and is celebrated by Google with a beautiful doodle, as always.
Frontispiece and decorative title page of an 1819 edition of ‘Kinder-und Hausmarchen.’ Image via History Today
Grimm’s Fairy Tales was penned by brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German academics, linguists, and cultural researchers who began collecting traditional folk stories in the early 1800s. However, their goal was not to entertain children with fanciful tales, but to document these stories and engage in scholarly research on folklore. Because many of these tales were too dark and had elements of violence and even sexual references, the Grimm Brothers and their editors were said to have made changes in the next editions to make them suitable for children.
An 1855 painting of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann. Image via Crescent Moon Publishing
Even so, it’s still possible to read versions of the fairy tales that are close to the original. National Geographic, for instance, has a presentation of 12 unvarnished tales based on a 1914 translation.
Photo via Libooki
I would very much like to have a copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales in the glorious Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics edition. I am salivating at the thought of holding one and running a hand over the ornately gilded cover.
Now, let’s take a look at some fairy tale-inspired snaps by our fellow lomographers below:
To browse this gallery please read this post on our website
All information were sourced from Grimm’s Fairy Tales on Wikipedia, History Today, and National Geographic.