This striking, richly illustrated edition of long-lost German fairy tales is not a book for children. It is a book for adults. Or for adults to frighten children into behaving...whichever you prefer.
FRANZ XAVER VON SCH NWERTH (1810-1886) was born in Amberg, Bavaria.
He had a successful career in law and the Bavarian royal court,
rising to the post of personal secretary to the Crown Prince
Maximilian. In the 1850s he began to explore the culture of the
Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria, recording his observations and
the stories of the people he interviewed. Between 1857 and 1859, he
published From the Upper Palatinate- Customs and Legends. This work
contained only a fraction of his total research, the rest of which
was eventually discovered in an archive, forming an important
addition to the canon of classic fairy tales.
WILLOW DAWSON is an award-winning author and illustrator originally
from Vancouver, B.C. Her last name means "son of the daw," which is
short for jackdaw, a type of blackbird. Willow's books include The
Wolf-Birds, Avis Dolphin, Hyena in Petticoats, The Big Green Book
of the Big Blue Sea, Lila and Ecco's DIY Comics Club, and No Girls
Allowed. She lives in Toronto, ON, with her partner and their two
children.
“Dawson moves beyond the traditional illustrative style associated
with fairy tales, in which images represent peak moments in the
narrative. For these uniquely dark, sometimes spare stories, she
focused instead on complementing the text by elucidating its more
ambiguous undertones and portraying its moods.” —Quill & Quire
“Ferocious. And funny, and moving, and delightful . . . Illustrated
with wonderful freedom and zestful inventiveness.” —Philip Pullman
from the Foreword
“Schönwerth’s tales have a compositional fierceness and energy
rarely seen in stories gathered by the Brothers Grimm or Charles
Perrault.” —The New Yorker
“[This] new collection of German folk stories . . . challenges
preconceptions about many of the most commonly known fairytales. .
. . Many of the stories centre around surprisingly emancipated
female characters.” —The Guardian
“Schönwerth’s legacy counts as the most significant collection in
the German-speaking world in the nineteenth century.” —Daniel
Drascek, University of Regensburg
“At the time his work was praised by many, including Jacob Grimm,
who in 1885 stated: ‘Nowhere in the whole of Germany is anyone
collecting [folklore] so accurately, thoroughly and with such a
sensitive ear’. . . . Like his counterparts, von Schöenwerth’s work
consists of tales passed on by word of mouth over generations by
locals in area villages. The stories may be similar, but the local
traditions, culture and history provide new life to the tales. . .
. If you’re a fan of the tales passed on by the Brothers Grimm, you
may want to get your hands on these new stories.” —Stephen Fuchs,
German Pulse
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