Fascinating look at the lives of some of the people responsible for many of the well-known fairy tales today. Despite being a fairy tale connoisseur, I knew very little about the specific people involved with spreading, synthesizing, and creating fairy tales. This book was very eye-opening, and I'm adding more books on the topic to my to-read list because I want to know even more.

All of the fairy tellers were interesting, but my favorite sections were the ones on Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (responsible for the definitive version of Beauty and the Beast) and Dorothea Wild (wife of Wilhelm Grimm and source / narrator of many of the Grimm's tales such as Hansel and Gretel and Six Swans). Both women were clearly huge influences on some of my favorite fairy tales, and it was both fascinating and saddening how much history has forgotten their contributions, though I'm glad books like help give them more of the credit they're due.

Recommended for fans of fairy tales who are interested in how the definitive versions of these tales came about.

I love fairy tales. The old ones, not the sanitized Disney versions that we know today. We have all heard of the Brothers Grimm, but where did the tales first originate? In Nicholas Juber’s book, The Fairy Tellers we learn about the people who told these tales and the cultures in which they were created and shaped. For example, the origins of Cinderella can be traced back to Greece and China. The process of foot binding becoming the shoe that doesn’t fit that features so prominently in the story we know today.

Juber concentrates on a handful of these fairy tellers and with the exception of Hans Christian Andersen they are all little or unknown names. The origins of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin are amongst the tales that are featured. The true beginnings behind these now well known stories are dark and can be traced to various ancient cultures. They have traveled across continents and morphed until they became the tales with which we are now familiar.

I found this book to be both fascinating and informative. The fact that it began with a brief history of fairy tales set a good context for the examination of the individual creators. It was interesting to see how fairy tales, in some form, are present in hugely divergent cultures. There was clearly a lot of research involved in this book, yet it never felt bogged down by it. Instead I was taken on a journey through time to the beginnings of some of my favorite stories and I really loved that.

I cannot recommend this book enough. The author provides such an in depth and captivating account of the origins of all the stories that we grow up reading as children. The books takes you around the world, engaging with the authors, storytellers and inspirations behind the most famous fairytales that we hold dear today.

I enjoyed this in-depth study on Faity Tales! It is a thoughtful and comprehensive book on the history of fairy tales. It is rich with stories, origins and the people that collected them. It has a great reading list and provides a different perspective/views on personal touches and marks the authors and collectors left on the texts. The book is easy to read and follow. For anyone who loves fairy tales, this is such a great book to read and have in your home library.

4.5 stars

I am grateful to the publisher Nicholas Brealey for sending me an advanced copy of this book for review.

This book met most of my expectations for a book that promises to shed light on the origins of fairy tales and those people who are responsible for the popularization of the fairy tale genre. The author did two interesting things; he made the distinction between people who collected then distributed tales and people who were the originators of fairy tales. This is an important distinction to make because certain people are credited with many of the popular fairy tales; however, there is a distinction between those people who traveled to gather folk tales and traditional stories to make them available to the general public ,and people who were the masterminds behind their own stories

Fairy tales are important culturally for many reasons. These stories are all set in specific locations and during defined periods of time, which allow us to get a look into what the societies of the time through the types of stories that developed during that era. The book also noted that as time progresses and societies evolve the content of fairy tales has changed to accommodate that, and much of the content has been adjusted over time to fit the palates of the modern-day consumers. Content that would be considered quite dark and sometimes inappropriate by today's standards has been switched out deliberately for safer options (he gives examples of this).

Another thing I enjoyed from this book was that it did put a lot of the fairy tellers in context of each other. So not only did it give us a feel for the society each of these individuals operated within, but it also showed how they were connected and if they were acquainted with each other during their careers. Of course, this book really focused on the fairy tales that originate in Europe. These are the stories that most people in the western world are familiar with, but I would have liked a more global focus for this work which would have made it even more interesting.

I recommend this for readers in general, especially people who are interested in history, the origins of the fairy tales that provide so much inspiration for modern day writers and upon which so many works of literature have been based.

4/5

The idea behind this book instantly grabbed my intentions on NetGalley, because it's about the history and stories behind the fairy tales we're familiar with, including stories by Hans Christian Andersen and Hanna Diyab. Although it took me a while to understand the structure of this book, it is overall delightful to see the fairy tales from different perspectives. This is an interesting read which I find it enjoyable if you're into trivia.

We read their fairy tales and watch the modern adaptations - but what of the stories of the authors themselves? How did they come to pen some of the most famous tales?

Nicholas Jubber dives deep into the history and literary books to uncover the life stories of some of the world's most popular fairy tale creators. Covering Giambattista Basile in Italy to Hans Christian Andersen in Denmark, Jubber's writing brings these long-gone authors to life once again. The detail and elegance of his writing is whimsical and precise; he weaves a narrative that itself sounds like a collection of fairy tales, and yet the educational/academic side never takes a hit - his research is excellent and complete.

I enjoyed reading and learning about some of my favourite fairy tales' authors and would gladly read more by Jubber in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Smith Publicity for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

A well written and interesting book that locates fairy tales in the culture of their time. I particularly liked how Jubber examined the racism and misogyny present in many old tales, making this book an excellent contemporary read of ancient works.

In The Fairy Tellers the author takes us a comprehensive journey into this magical world of landscape and culture, explaining the history behind the stories, the inspiration and the beguiling nature of tales from storytellers which have been handed down generation by generation until they have become as intrinsic a part of our collective culture as the air we breathe.

In THE FAIRY TELLERS Nicholas Jubber takes us on an adventure, not unlike the very tales that feature throughout this book.

I went into this not knowing too much about the history of fairy tales, and coming out of this book with a lot more knowledge. The history of some of the most well-known fairy tales, and their tellers, are absolutely fascinating. I would never have known who wrote "Beauty and the Beast", nor "Hansel and Gretel", nor many others.

As Jubber explains, there are some overarching themes within the fairy tales themselves, as well as the tellers' lives. The ways in which Jubber makes connections between tales told throughout the centuries, as well as contemporarily, is also fascinating. This book truly highlights just how interwoven all of these beloved tales are (not to mention how disturbing some are in their original forms).

If you are interested at all in learning about the history of fairy tales and the lives of their authors, I highly recommend this one.

A big thank you to NetGalley for the eARC!

Einstein said, "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales." And if you want to become a little more learned on the reason why he said this, read this book. The writer takes us on a path of his love for fairy tales, and you will want to go back to some dusty books sitting on your shelf. IF you have them, and if not, you will want to get some new fairy tale collections.

Nicholas Jubber's The Fairy Tellers is a fantastic read and it all starts with the prologue. By pulling the reader in with some very well placed self-awareness, Jubber talks like a fairy teller himself who winks at his audience before he launches into his story.

The Fairy Tellers focuses on multiple historical writers like the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson and explains how they fit into the history of fairy tales. I thoroughly enjoyed how Jubber shows how very often these old stories were only being collected by the big names we associate with fairy tales. Jubber digs into their lives and illuminates their importance even though they may not have been the main authors of the stories we know so well.

Jubber does an amazing job because this easily could be a dry and boring read. However, Jubber injects the right amount of humor and recognition that a lot of these stories sound absolutely bonkers to us today. It was a lot of fun to read.

(I was provided this book as an advance copy by Netgalley and Nicholas Brealey/Smith Publicity. The full review is available on HistoryNerdsUnited.com.)

This book is an incredibly thoughtful examination of the history of fairy tales, focusing on the people who wrote them and what compelled them to do so. The book, while somewhat interesting and enjoyable at first, becomes more compelling as it progresses, since each chapter seems to exist in conversation with the others. The book provides information on non-Western stories and female authors, which I expected after reading the introduction; what was a pleasant surprise, however, was how these figures and their contributions continue to reemerge as more famous Western fairy tellers are discussed, reminding us how authors like the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen were indebted to those who came before them.

The writing style is friendly and conversational, which seems like a fitting approach considering the emphasis on oral storytelling and the accessibility of these tales. There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about how dark original fairy tales can be - like how the Little Mermaid dies at the end of Andersen's version, or how the Grimm stories often feature people losing body parts. I feel like this is the first book I have read that has given a comprehensive explanation as to why that was the case, highlighting how children's literature can be a nuanced representation of historical context. I'm kind of sad that this book is over because it was so fun to read?

I love the premise of this book, and I dropped my current reads in order to finish this. I added a lot of titles to my TBR while reading it, and it got me interested in researching the subject further. That said, I have a few qualms:

Pacing and organization:
- Some of the sections could be further edited down for a better, tighter pacing. I slogged through some sections because as much as I loved the descriptions, they did not do much to add to the content.
- Hanna Dyab's and Somadeva's sections are much shorter than the others.

Depth and treatment:
Jubber clearly struggles with treatment of authors who do not conform to the Western literary mold, specifically Hanna Dyab and Somadeva.
In Hanna Dyab's part, poor Dyab has to share space with a long section on Antoine Galland without covering the systemic violence and erasure done on his work. In addition, though Jubber repeatedly emphasizes that stories function differently in Dyab's world, he does not make it clear *how* these stories exist in their culture unlike the deeply moving sociological lens used for Ivan Khudiakov.
Though it is true that not much is known about Somadeva, Jubber could have expanded the section to cover the influence of the Ocean on later bodies of work. This part feels so hamfisted and filled with so many wild conjectures about the author's feelings that obviously stem from a very West-centric school of literary criticism. International translators are cited more than local scholars who are more well-versed in Somadeva's work and could have pointed out more cultural nuances.

The Fairy Tellers is an attempt to identify and flesh out the lives of the originators of some of the fairy tales that are so familiar to us today. While we nearly all know of authors such as the Grimms, not so much is known of where their tales came from. This book identifies some contributors to those collections. There is also the man who came up with the most well-known of the Arabian Nights stories, and story-tellers from all over the world who first documented tales that evolved into stories such as Cinderella through the passage of time and the journey between cultures.

Each fairy teller is discussed in the context of the stories that he or she told, and their stories are clarified by the very different lives that they lived. In some cases, this is quite challenging, given the obscurity of the author in the mists of time.

I thought this was a really interesting book, and very cleverly put together.

Fairy-Tales are not just fairy tales: they are records of historical phenomena, telling us something about how Western civilization was formed. In The Fairy Tellers, award-winning travel writer Nick Jubber explores the secret history of fairy tales: the people who told them, the landscapes that forged them, and the cultures that formed them.

The Fairy Tellers was an interesting book that took a little while to grab my attention. It took a section for me to figure out how the author was formatting the story. But once I realized that he jumped to a new historical author in each segment, the book was easier to follow. The novel shined in sharing unknown cultural details. Details that I would not understand without the context descriptions provided. It enriched the highlighted fairytales. I could easily read the book multiple times and come away with something new each time. It took some work to get through but was worth it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of The Fairy Tellers by Nicholas Jubber. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC to review.

Fairy-Tales are not just fairy-tales: they are records of historical phenomena, telling us something about how Western civilisation was formed. In The Fairy Tellers, award-winning travel-writer Nick Jubber explores their secret history of fairy-tales: the people who told them, the landscapes that forged them, and the cultures that formed them.
Above is part of the intro for this exceptional book. I am an avid fan of fairy stories, their roots, origins and how far they stretch. Nick Jubber does a great job in allowing us to meet the authors of the tales in such a relaxed way that I felt that I actually knew these people! This book is exceptionally well researched, the writing is concise, light and conversational. Many congratulations to Mr Jubber and the publishers for a highly enjoyable book. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of The Fairy Tellers.

Most academics who write about fairy tales study their universal appeal, the Jungian architypes they contain, the themes and issues in them that we all relate to and struggle with, and how they have an ability to be remolded to fit any time and place.

Here, Nicholas Jubber digs deep into the primary records to find the real-life individual story tellers who write down the first printed versions of the now-universal fairy tales.

Jubber shows, as much as these stories do have universal appeal, they also contain and reflect the personal biographies of the ups and downs these writers went through.

French aristocrats holding private women-only salons and daring to ask for agency, Italian merchant-solders looking see what was over the horizon, German scholars trying to commit the whole world to the page, Russian students questioning the monarchy – the stories of these writers are as exciting as any of the fairy tales they wrote.

An exciting collection of biographies that gives the well-known fairy tales an extra level of depth and emotion, knowing the blood, sweat and tears that went into their creation.

The Fairy Tellers is a non-fiction book about some of the authors attributed to the most popular and retold fairytales across the world. I love learning about the history of fairy tales and was very excited to read this book. It did not disappoint and I had a lovely time flying through history, myth, and stories!

For some reason I originally thought this book was about the history of fairy tales and not specifically focused on the "fairy tellers" (apparently the title was too subtle for me despite being extraordinarily clear) so I was confused for about half of the book and thought the structure was weird. Then I had a big OH moment when I finally connected the dots. Got there eventually!

I really liked the individuals chosen to study and how they related to each other in the ways that their stories developed and changed over time. I thought the content was fascinating and I feel like I know a lot more about how folklore develops than I did at the beginning of this book. I felt like it dragged a little at the end, but I'm glad that I kept going and got to read the conclusion that brought everything together.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone interested in history and fairytales. 4.25 stars rounded down to 4. Thank you to Nicholas Brealey and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book!

Jubber’s passion eagerness to discuss fairytales, their authors, and the relationships these stories had in their original contexts really shines through. The book would is better suited for someone directly seeking out information about the subject of fairytales than a casual reader who picked it up like me. I found the writing style difficult to follow because it would often shift between an having an academic tone to an informal storytelling session. Regardless, there is a lot of information here, and my interest was still piqued throughout sections. It’s a book that has a lot of potential for the right reader.