Grimm's Fairy Tales: 61 stories from the famous collection, Book 1 and 2

417 World Children Stories, Volume 6

By: Patrick Healy

Narrated by: Denise Kahn

Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Patrick Healy, a teacher, traveled around the world, talked with people in different places, and collected around 500 myths, legends, and folktales and their several alternative versions. His opinion and comments (directly or indirectly) are inevitable. This is the sixth volume of his work, 61 Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Books 1 and 2, in his words.

He retold the stories with his opinion and approach to them. Patrick is an Australian writer who has an abiding interest in the folklore of different cultures. He has lived and worked in Hong Kong for over 25 years as a high school teacher. Patrick has traveled extensively throughout Asia and speaks both Cantonese and Mandarin fluently.

©2013, 2018 Patrick Healy (P)2018 Stergiou Limited

Brilliant

Loved listening to this book. I enjoy listening to these stories at bedtime as a kid and enjoyed them even more now.

3 and a half really

Some stories are okay, but some are pretty horrible, and some start good, but they end horribly. Still, an entertaining read.

A Great Book for Folklore Addicts

Okay, I will give you the downside first:
The narrator is somewhat lack-luster, and stories are told without the kind of finesse that readers of modern fiction have come to expect.

However, the books provide a great study of German folklore, and make for entertaining listening, if you can imagine yourself sitting at a 19th century fireside listening to a beloved grandparent tell the tales.

Enjoyable stories

This audiobook has many stories that we have heard some time or read in any old book. It's a pleasure listening to that and go back to our childhood.

Classic Fairytales

I have always enjoyed Grimm's Fairytales and this was not exempt. I did not care for the narration though.

Poor audio

It sounds like an old or home recording. It’s a bit hard to listen to. So so narrator.

awkward and distracting

the music at the beginning of each chapter was kind of creepy and weird (but not in a good or fitting way) and the narration was awkward. I love listening to and reading old fairytales like these, but I just couldn't get past the performance.

A nice collection of fables narrated very poorly.

A book of fables as you would expect. Grimm's fairy tales at their very best. They range from quirky to sinister, and many leave you asking "is that all?" But that's what fables are--cautionary stories with a hint of truth to them.

What isn't so stellar is the reading, and unfortunately it brings down the quality of this audio book's experience. The primary narrator is okay for the most part. Many of Denise's characters are flat and sound the same, which is excusable when you are working with such a big cast. But that's just the beginning of the problems. While it's acceptable to overlook the weird pronunciation of certain words (pope sounds like poop, donkey sounds like dunky) it is difficult to overlook glaring issues like the lack of sound proofing in Denise's workspace or the lack of quality control when it comes to spoken errors. I'm about three hours in and I have only encountered one or two errors where Denise said something wrong, then corrected herself, but these errors shouldn't be in the final cut at all.

On the plus side you get a secondary male narrator (uncredited?) who provides dialogue for pretty much every male character in the fables, so that's a nice reprieve. Our mystery narrator adds a little bit of a variety that keeps the fables from running together.

All in all, it's a good little listen to pass the time, but I was underwhelmed by the narration. It's definitely the worst narration I have heard on Audible thus far.