Grimm's Grimmest Author:Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm, Tracy Arah Dockray (Illustrator) The text of the 19 tales in this collection is based on the 1822 edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Nursery and Household Tales) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm--before the tales were expurgated and rewritten to make them more "suitable" for children. It's lavishly illustrated by Tracy Arah Dockray (15 full-page color paintings, and a black-and-whi... more »te drawing on nearly every page). Most of the tales will be unfamiliar to American and English readers, who may be surprised by the graphic descriptions of incest, murder, mutilation, and cannibalism?these are not the bedtime stories mummy used to read. The tales harken back to a time when travelers risked roasting or worse, and bad manners yielded frightful consequences. An insightful introduction makes sense of the mayhem, shedding light on how the Grimm brothers went from macabre to mainstream in fairly short order. From the true horror of Aschenputtel (the original Cinderella story) to Rapunzel's dark secret, Grimm's Grimmest features the authentic stories born long ago in the land of the Black Forest, at a time when fairy tales never ended happily ever after. Chronicle Books has done us a service in helping restore to our adult culture these vivid, evocative folktales.« less