Cuentos completos

The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm occupy a unique place in the history of literature. They are probably the most celebrated collectors of fairy tales who ever lived, and their name has become so inextricably linked to folktales that we often forget the essential fact that the vast majority of those stories did not originate with them. They did not invent Snow White or Cinderella, nor did they imagine the Bremen Town Musicians, the Frog King, or Hansel and Gretel. Their work consisted of something far more extraordinary: they listened to, gathered, compared, arranged, corrected, and rewrote an immense wealth of folk tales at a time when no one could have foreseen the influence they would eventually exert on world literature. Today, it is difficult to imagine a world without Little Red Riding Hood or Sleeping Beauty, characters who have achieved such a constant presence in our collective imagination that they almost seem to exist outside of history. Their familiarity is so absolute that we rarely stop to ask ourselves where they truly came from. We know them so well that we've stopped looking at them. This complete edition of the tales recovers the last edition published by the Brothers Grimm in 1857, in addition to the texts from previous editions not included here and the rest of the scattered stories, never before collected in a single volume. Meticulously translated from the German by Alberto Gordo and with notes on the tales by Andrés Seoane, this edition is the most complete available. Those who delve into these pages will find versions different from those they remember, famous tales alongside others almost forgotten, humorous stories coexisting with religious narratives, talking animals sharing space with discharged soldiers, devils outwitted, enchanted princesses, cunning peasants, and objects capable of altering the course of destiny. In short, they will discover a territory far broader, more complex, and more surprising than the small constellation of titles that have become universal classics.