Branca de Neve, Cinderela, João e Maria, Rapunzel, O Gato de Botas, O Patinho Feio, Pele de Asno, A Pequena Sereia, O Pequeno Polegar... Essa bela edição comentada e ilustrada traz as mais famosas histórias infantis em suas versões originais, sem adaptações.
São ao todo 26 contos de Grimm, Perrault e Andersen, entre outros, enriquecidos por centenas de notas que exploram suas origens históricas e complexidades culturais e psicológicas, além de uma apresentação, elaboradas por Maria Tatar, eminente autoridade no campo do folclore e da literatura infantil.

O volume conta também com uma extraordinária coleção de cerca de 240 pinturas e desenhos, muitos deles raros, de ilustradores célebres como Arthur Rackham, Gustave Doré, George Cruikshank, Edward Burne-Jones, Edmund Dulac e Walter Crane. E traz biografias de autores, compiladores e ilustradores, além de apêndices com diferentes versões de alguns contos.

You never quite know what you’re going to get with a massive fairytale compendium, and annotated collections are even trickier - are they going to include the best version of the story, are the annotations going to take over, are we given anything new to sink our teeth into? I bought this book to add to my section of classic fairytale illustrators, since it includes Rackham, Nielsen, and Dulac, but I was pleasantly surprised with the book overall! Not only did the author provide a selection of illustrations to accompany each story (discussing the influence of each artist briefly on the story and their individual styles), but they chose an excellent range of stories by a variety of folk and fairytale authors/collectors. They discussed each story with a concise introductory section and included brief, but worthwhile, annotations that (while they may not be the most literary in quality nor completely comprehensive) gave the reader food for thought and prompted them towards a variety of quality academic sources. Overall an enjoyable read, with just enough history and criticism to give the book a real depth. ( )

Maria Tartar forever. ( )

Maria Tatar is a professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Harvard. This book covers 23 fairly tales, but doesn't simply retell them. Rather than simply talking about the moral perspective of the tales, Tatar uses this book to explore children's abilities to read the tale as "models for navigating reality" (from the dustjacket). ,The tales are beautifully annotated and are accompanied by artwork from the 17th century and newer. The book also includes biographies of the authors (eg. Hans Christian Andersen) and the collectors (Grimms, Perrault) and illustrators (eg. Cruikshank, Parrish).

This book offers a wonderful look at the fairy tales we've heard as children, but in the glorious splendor of their original forms. We also get a look at the different authors involved, and the evolution of some of the more "favorite" fairy tales such as "Little Red Riding Hood". ( )