Hansel & Grethel - & Other Tales By The Brothers Grimm - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

Publisher Marketing: This book 'Hansel & Gretel & Other Tales' contains the stories written by the Grimm Brothers along with Rackham's imaginative, obscure and beautiful illustrations. Many of the earliest children's books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Pook Press are working to republish these classic works in affordable, high quality, colour editions, using the original text and artwork so these works can delight another generation of children. About the Authors: Jacob (1875-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859) were academics who spent years researching and documenting folk tales. They are arguably best known for their collection Children's and Household Tales published in 1812, which later became known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, and contained some of today's most celebrated fairy stories, such as Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin and Hansel and Gretel. About the Illustrator: Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) was one of the premier illustrators of the early 20th Century. He illustrated many books, the first of which was published in 1893. His humour, romance and soul made him the leading illustrator of the early twentieth century and his work is to be found in versions of almost every classic from Hansel and Gretel to The Tempest, from The Pied Piper to Peer Gynt. Characteristic of his work are gloomy forests of sinuous trees, nubile fairy maidens, and unsightly ogres and trolls. Throughout his career he developed a very individual style that was to influence a whole generation of children, artists and other illustrators. His haunting humour and dreamlike romance adds to the enchantment and fantasy of children's literature. Contributor Bio:  Grimm, Brothers Margaret Hunt (1831-1912) was a British novelist and translator of the tales of the Brothers Grimm. The Brothers Grimm (or Die Bruder Grimm), Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859), were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, lexicographers and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the best-known storytellers of folk tales, popularizing stories such as "Cinderella" "(Aschenputtel)," "The Frog Prince" ("Der Froschkonig"), "Hansel and Gretel" ("Hansel und Gretel"), "Rapunzel," "Rumpelstiltskin" ("Rumpelstilzchen"), and "Snow White" ("Schneewittchen"). Their first collection of folk tales, Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmarchen), was published in 1812. The brothers spent their formative years in the German town of Hanau. Their father's death in 1796 (when Jacob was eleven and Wilhelm ten) caused great poverty for the family and affected the brothers for many years after. They both attended the University of Marburg where they developed a curiosity about German folklore, which grew into a lifelong dedication to collecting German folk tales. The rise of romanticism in the 19th century revived interest in traditional folk stories and to the brothers represented a pure form of national literature and culture. With the goal of researching a scholarly treatise on folk tales, they established a methodology for collecting and recording folk stories that became the basis for folklore studies. Between 1812 and 1857 their first collection was revised and republished many times, growing from 86 stories to more than 200. In addition to writing and modifying folk tales, the brothers wrote collections of well-respected German and Scandinavian mythologies and in 1838 began writing a definitive German dictionary (Deutsches Worterbuch), which they were unable to finish during their lifetime.