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The Original Folk and. Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition. Translated and edited by Jack Zipes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014. xlv + 519 pp.
The Original 1812 Grimm Fairy' Tales: A New Translation of the 1812 First Edition Kinder- und Hausmärchen / Children's and Household Tales, Collected Through the Brothers Grimm, Volume 1, 200 Year Anniversary/ Edition. Translated by Oliver Loo. Self-published, 2014. 607 pp.
Although a number of English translations of the Grimms' Kinder- und Hausmärchen are available, up to this point there has been no complete English translation of the first edition (volume 1, 1812; volume 2, 1815). This gap has now been filled with the appearance of the two books reviewed here, by Jack Zipes and Oliver Loo. These books are different in almost every way. For example, Zipes's translation covers both volumes of the first edition, whereas Loo's covers only the first volume; Zipes is one of the best-known scholars on the Brothers Grimm today, whereas Loo is an independent scholar; Zipes's translation is published by a well-respected university press (Princeton), whereas Loo's translation is self-published; and Zipes's translation is (very nicely) illustrated (by Andrea Dezsö), whereas Loo's is not. In addition, the two authors have quite different philosophies of translation. This last difference necessitates further commentary, because it directly affects the quality of the two translations. Zipes writes:
I have endeavored to capture the tone and style of the different tales by translating them into a basic contemporary American idiom. My main objective was to render the frank and blunt qualities of the tales in a succinct American English. . . . The Grimm's tales, though diverse and not their own, share an innocent and naive morality that pervades their works. It is this quality that I have tried to communicate in my translation, (xlv)
In contrast to Zipes's more idiomatic translation, Loo contends that other translators invariably deviate somehow from the originals. He rejects this approach in favor of a much more literal translation:
What my translations aim...