Review of The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm

Decapitation. Cannibalism. Kidnapping. Serial murder. Mutilation.

The original, unexpurgated fairy tales are full of gruesome details to give children nightmares.
There are around 200 stories ranging from fairly innocent to haunting catalogues of human depravity.
The figure of Death looms over a doctor as he cures patients with magic, waiting for the moment when he missteps so the price can be exacted.
When a talking horse is slaughtered; his head is nailed beneath a gate to silence him.
Ears are cut off. Husbands beat their wives. Parents beat their children, perpetrating punishments like lopping off an ear or starving the victim.
A child’s ears are boxed so hard that his head falls off. The head is then placed back on the wrong way around. A mother chops up and serves the child in a blood pudding when her husband comes home.
When Rumplestiltskin’s name is uttered, he tears himself in two for some reason.
A spurned lover is cast out to sea in a boat to die a slow death.
A miller, in a pact with the devil, is tricked into cutting off his daughter’s hands.
Corpses are reanimated for sport.
One character suffers from a gambling addiction and pays the ultimate price.
The list I provide is only the tip of the iceberg. Every story seems to have a dark moment, or a horrifying twist. None of them are without a hint of spice or depictions of acts of full-blown evil.
Children are often the victims and the evildoer. Whether they are poisoning an old lady or shoving her in an over, they are not the only ones to be annihilated or to undergo debilitating transformations.
Animals often talk, showing that they possess reason, and the reader may count on the assurance of their suffering by tale’s end.
Legend has it that the Grimm’s actually removed some of the cruelty and graphic specifics from the originals they compiled. It is hard to imagine how the collection could be darker, though many modern authors have recast them in various modes. Some have succeeded in restoring a sexual element where there is merely a whiff of subtext, or pushing the horror to obscene levels.
The compendium is justly famous, largely memorable, and completely chilling. The startling imagery is likely to sink deep into the reader’s psyche.