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Posted: 21 Apr 2013 03:02 AM PDT

To celebrate World Book Day on Tuesday, we look at new editions of a timeless collection of stories that writer W.H. Auden hailed as 'among the few indispensable, common-property books upon which Western culture can be founded.'

WHETHER you realise it or not, two brothers from 19th century Germany – Jacob and Wilhelm – have had a lot of influence over the stories you read, hear, watch and share.

If you grew up reading about Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, are a fan of Disney's animated films, follow Once Upon A Time or Grimm on television, or (god forbid!) enjoyed Kristen Stewart's turn as Snow White on the big screen last year, it is all thanks to the Brothers Grimm, probably the most popular collectors of folk and fairy tales.

Their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's And Household Tales), better known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, has since been published in various versions and editions, and in my humble opinion, is compulsory reading for any lover of stories, magic and fantasy – and not the least because these dark and often gruesome tales deserve to be read in all their original, disturbing glory.

Two of the most recent collections of the fairy tales, both published last year to coincide with the stories' 200th anniversary, take distinctly different approaches to the material, and depending on your fancies, would both make handsome additions to your bookshelf (and no, I won't blame you for coveting both!).

Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm is a beautiful clothbound edition that is a real visual treat. The classic-looking cover, featuring scenes from several stories and adorned with silver and gold etchings of creeping vines, butterflies, bats and spiders, evokes the darkly fantastical mood of the collection.

The book includes many of the most famous tales associated with the Grimm brothers (though some, like Rapunzel, are inexplicably missing), as well the original illustrations by George Cruikshank. An enthusiastic introduction by German children's author Cornelia Funke also sets the mood nicely: "Oh, she loved these stories, I hear you say. No! I was terrified by them! But they were irresistible, like a dark spell that echoed through my heart, dark and golden at the same time. Maybe that's what all enchantments are like."

What makes this edition particularly worthy of collecting is the fact that six popular illustrators – Oliver Jeffers, Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, Emma Chichester Clark, Axel Scheffler and Helen Oxenbury – have each been asked to illustrate their favourite fairy tale in their own unique styles. This is a delightful bonus, but I do wish there was more of it to enjoy. Each artist has done only one illustration, which is inserted into the relevant story, which means there are only six pieces in the 370-page tome.

The stories themselves are in the usual straightforward and simple style, presented supposedly in their original form – according to the preface, "exactly as the Brothers Grimm had written them".

This I have my doubts about though – I'm very sure I have read versions of Ashputtel (as Cinderella is known) where the stepsisters end up having their eyes pecked out by doves, and I know for a fact that the stepmother in Snow-Drop (or Snow White) is punished by having to dance in hot shoes until she drops dead. In this version of the tales, these decidedly awful endings have been toned down quite a bit.

The other collection, penned by none other than Philip Pullman (of His Dark Materials fame), may actually offer an answer to how this "sanitising" could have happened. Grimm Tales: For Young And Old begins with a wonderful introduction by the British author, himself famed for his darkly magical fantasy realms, where he points out how the Grimms (particularly Wilhelm) themselves changed their stories over the years, sometimes toning down the gruesome aspects.

The book features 50 of the Grimms' tales as chosen and written by Pullman, which includes both favourites like Hansel And Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and Briar Rose (or Sleeping Beauty) as well as more obscure yet equally enjoyable ones such as The Devil With The Three Golden Hairs, Thousandfurs and The Three Snake Leaves.

In his introduction, Pullman highlights the stories' simplicity and use of archetypes to evoke a feeling of familiarity. His aim, he says, is not to produce a personal interpretation or update the settings, but rather, write "a version that was as clear as water". In keeping with the oral tradition of passing these stories on, his guiding question for this book was: "How would I tell this story myself, if I'd heard it told by someone else and wanted to pass it on?"

A brilliant decision, it turns out, because I can think of little else as absorbing as reading the Grimms' fairy tales, told by Pullman. The author keeps to the original stories faithfully, adding only a subtle flair to the writing and a touch of dark humour here and there, particularly to conversations (I love how Cinderella's stepsisters arrive at her derogatory name, settling on it after considering Ashy-face, Sootybottom and Cinderina!). His versions of the rhymes and verses within stories are also more memorable, thanks to his rhythmic writing.

Not one to shy away from the hard truths of life in his own works, Pullman keeps faithfully to the original versions of the stories. Particularly interesting are the short commentaries he inserts after each tale, which range from discussing the psychology behind them to tracing the tale's evolution to humorous observations.

As such, this collection stays true to its title; it is indeed for the young and old, and in fact, anyone who enjoys a good story, as told by a masterful storyteller. But more than that, it shows us that we can all be storytellers too. As Pullman puts it: "If you, the reader, want to tell any of the tales in this book, I hope you will feel free to be no more faithful than you want to be.... In fact ... you have a positive duty to make the story your own."

Mishima’s melancholy

Posted: 21 Apr 2013 02:55 AM PDT

The power of literature lies in its ability to touch our emotions like no other form of entertainment.

AS I said in my last column, dear reader, I've been scouring my sources for fiction to read. So I drove into the city. A wrong turn or two later, I found myself in a part of Sydney I was most unfamiliar with. With no GPS, we were officially lost. Petrol was running dangerously low and the car seemed to jerk, threatening to stall any time soon. And I had with me two kids.

But don't panic, mums. After all, we were going to a bookstore!

A couple of lucky turns later, a desolate gas station hove into view. Now we had more than enough petrol and all the time in the world to get lost in before heading towards the bookstore, which turned out to be just a few kilometres away. Chillax, kids. We are chillaxing, mum, my 10-year-old son and five-year-old daughter exclaimed, humming a weird tune.

The radiance on my daughter's face compounded by the mild midday sun is what I call pure beauty and happiness, I mused, and plunged into reminiscing about those days when I had no idea what a beautiful daughter I would be blessed with. Then, strangely, a book came to mind, a book that least epitomises beauty and happiness. One of the darkest books I have ever read, it is called The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion and is by Yukio Mishima (1925-1970). The protagonist's wayward vision of beauty and love remains disturbing and haunting even though it has been two decades since I last read the book as a student.

At last, the magnificent bookstore lay in front of us and we cherished it even more than usual, as our journey had not been without trepidation – getting lost and dodging a mad driver before turning into the car park. Once inside, though, we shook off the rigours of the journey and I began hunting for Mishima in the sea of books. I yearned for it just as badly as I yearned for a flat white from the bookstore's café.

Mishima, one of Japan's most renowned 20th century writers, committed suicide at the age of 45 in the same year I was born, 1970. I wonder why. Did he, imbued with the strict code that produces the austerity and self-sacrifice of the concept of Zen, lose control of his own mind, and hence, body? Was his thinking and conceptualisation of the world as dark as that of his protagonists? The book was paid for and now in my hand, and I was instantly overawed by how swiftly time had passed. A feeling of melancholy washed over me, and the bookstore whirled around me. I was transported back in time to when I was a lonely university student during a cold, dark, snowy winter.

The book's lasting impression is made mainly by the protagonist Mizoguchi, a disturbed acolyte at a famous temple that he ended up burning. Afflicted with an ugly face, he becomes a stutterer after seeing his mother having sex with another man in the presence of his sick father.

But his physical attributes are not what makes Mizoguchi haunting. It is his voice. He, hideous though he may be, possesses a gentle voice that makes anything grotesque bearable – even the description of how a drunken American soldier asks him to help him abort the foetus his female companion is carrying. And Mizoguchi "helps". Concerning this, plus a host of other incidents, Mizoguchi speaks with such a submissively gentle tone that readers tend to be drawn in by his enigmatic demeanour rather than repelled by his troubled disposition. I was, but then again I was also naïve then and was duped by Mishima's beautiful poignancy and his translator's exquisite work.

"There is no need to justify my cruelty in clear, smooth words. My taciturnity alone was sufficient to justify every manner of cruelty," says Mizoguchi, disillusioned by the belief that he has been chosen to execute a secretive plan for the world.

If Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) is dark and depressing with his themes of suicide, poverty, human manipulation and suspect morality, then Mishima is haunting and exasperating. Dostoevsky is a bottle of wine, the more you read, the better his books get. Mishima, on the other hand, is sake. A quick gulp, which usually how you take sake, scorches your throat – and, if you are duped by its pure colourless outlook, chokes you to death.

Sake is served warm, just as Mizoguchi is in this regard, seemingly pitiful and oblivious. Dostoevsky is cold, reflecting the Russian weather and the brutality of Soviet-style communism.

I left the bookstore in a melancholic frame of mind much affected by the book. That is the power of literature, isn't it? Is that bad? I do not think so. Like any other form of entertainment, or even better, books have that power to affect emotions.

But the bright skies of my home Down Under melted away the inexpressible feelings. Mishima and my own history coalesced though Mishima's is brilliant though mine on its own is nostalgically melancholic.

> Abby Wong breezed through this book, and hopes you, too, will do the same. Share what you think about it with us at star2@thestar.com.my.

Bestsellers

Posted: 21 Apr 2013 02:54 AM PDT

FOR week ending April 14, 2013:

Non-fiction

1. Limitless: Devotions For A Ridiculously Good Life by Nick Vujicic

2. Reclaim Your Heart by Yasmin Mogahed

3. 100 Ways To Motivate Others: How Great Leaders Can Produce Insane Results Without Driving People Crazy by Steve Chandler

4. Syed Mokhtar Albukhary: A Biography by Premilla Mohanlall

5. Mummy's Little Helper: The Heartrending True Story Of A Young tGirl Secretly Caring For Her Severely Disabled Mother by Casey Watson

6. Escape From Camp 14 by Blaine Harden

7. Bossypants by Tina Fey

8. You Can Read Anyone: Never Be Fooled, Lied To, Or Taken Advantage Of Again by David J. Lieberman

9. Harry Styles: The Unauthorized Biography by Alice Montgomery

10. The Magic by Rhonda Byrne

Fiction

1. Warm Bodies (movie tie-in) by Isaac Marion

2. The Host (movie tie-in) by Stephenie Meyer

3. Life Of Pi by Yann Martel

4. The Time Of My Life by Cecelia Ahern

5. Best Kept Secret (Clifton Chronicles #3) by Jeffrey Archer

6. Theodore Boone: The Accused by John Grisham

7. Manuscript Found In Accra by Paulo Coelho

8. One Day (movie tie-in) by David Nicholls

9. In One Person by John Irving

10. Family Pictures by Jane Green

> Weekly list compiled by MPH Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur; www.mphonline.com.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 21 April 2013

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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