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346
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ranked #67,614 most helpful out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
Bad, really bad translation
I don't know if this is unique to the Kindle version, but this edition is truly a travesty. I bought it a while ago and have been reading the stories whenever I get some free time. From the start I had the feeling that these stories were a little "off". The brothers Grimm are known to be somewhat somber, I get that, but they also portray humor and subtle nuances in their writing. However, this English version reads as if it had been stripped of any wit before publication. A few days ago, I finally discovered the main problem: the translation is just awful. I really didn't want to believe it, I truly wanted to think this book was a faithful representation of the original stories, and it was just a case of me not "getting it". Then I read the story titled "Clever Hans" and it was such a bizarre experience, that I had to look up how come it ended the way it did. That's when I discovered this gem, which is illustrative of the problem that affects the whole book. If you go to Wikipedia and read the plot of "Clever Hans", you learn the premise of the tale, how it is supposed to be humorous and the ending should read something like: "And that's how Hans lost his bride." However, after reading this book's version of the tale, it read like a bad story, not humorous at all, and it ended with the line: "Then Grethel became angry, tore herself loose and ran away, and became the bride of Hans." Clearly, the translation went as far as to completely change the meaning of the punchline of the story. Now I know I have been reading a bad imitation of the Grimm brothers work all this time. Nothing left to do but to look for a better rendition of their work.
August 2018 · Kindle Store · verified purchase
the product in question
Grimm's Fairy Tales: Complete and Illustrated
4.4★ · 8,869 ratings, as of 2023
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