Household Tales: The Complete Collection

A selection of 53 tales in Lucy Crane's translation, with the woodcut illustrations Walter Crane drew for the 1882 edition. The pictures are the reason to pick this one over a plain text collection.

Brothers Grimm

A donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster, all too old to be useful, set off for Bremen to become musicians. They never arrive, and what they find on the way is better than the plan.

Brothers Grimm

A cat and a mouse set up house together and buy a pot of fat to keep for winter. The cat invents three excuses to slip out, and the winter arrives anyway.

Brothers Grimm

The Grimm version, which is not the one the films tell. A hazel tree and a flock of birds do the work of the fairy godmother, and the stepsisters pay for the slipper in blood.

Brothers Grimm

A sparrow finds food for a starving dog, and a wagoner runs the dog down for it. What the bird does next is one of the coldest revenges in the collection.

Brothers Grimm