Open Book Publishers

Telling Tales is the first comprehensive study of the impact of Germany on English children’s books, covering the period from 1780 to the First World War. Beginning with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, moving through the classics and including many other collections of fairytales and legends (Musäus, Wilhelm Hauff, Bechstein, Brentano) Telling Tales covers a wealth of translated and adapted material in a large variety of forms, and pays detailed attention to the problems of translation and adaptation of texts for children. In addition, Telling Tales considers educational works (Campe and Salzmann), moral and religious tales (Carové, Schmid and Barth), historical tales, adventure stories and picture books (including Wilhelm Busch’s Max and Moritz) together with an analysis of what British children learnt through textbooks about Germany as a country and its variegated history, particularly in times of war.

CONTENTS
Introduction; 1. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen; 2. A World of Discovery: Joachim Heirich Campe; 3. Elements of Morality: Salzmann and Wollstonecraft; 4. Musäus and the Beginnings of the Fairytale; 5. Discovering Germany; 6. The Swiss Family Robinson; 7. Moral, Didactic and Religious Tales; 8. Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué: Undine and Sintram; 9. Adelbert von Chamisso’s Peter Schlemihl; 10. The Fairytales of the Brothers Grimm; 11. The Fairytales of Wilhelm Hauff; 12. The Folktale Tradition in Germany; 13. E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Nutcracker and Mouse King; 14. Lesser Fairytales Authors; 15. Clemens Brentano’s Fairytales; 16. Learning about German History; 17. The Thirty Years War; 18. Historical Tales and Adventure Stories; 19. Picture Books; 20. Sigfried and the Nibelungenlied; 21. The Franco-Prussian War; 22. German Books for Girls; 23. Children’s Books and the First World War; Primary Texts; Select Bibliography; Index.