Read something like the Arabian Nights tales in an uncensored version - these were clearly not intended for children anymore than 50 Shades of Grey are for children. The children's editions are heavily sanitized.

I suspect their change into children literature was because of cultural changes - educated 19th century adults couldn't take folktales serious anymore (except as anthropological studies) and found them childish. The same way that 19th century popular literature like Dumas and Verne became children's books in the 20th century.

Walt Disney is often criticized in this context, but both Snow White and Cinderella are actually pretty faithful to the source material. Cinderella is just based on the Charles Perrault version of the story, not the Grimm version which contain a lot more maiming.

For instance, in the version of Cinderella by Charles Perrault - the version that we all know - one of the evil stepsisters was advised by her mother to cut off her toes in order to fit the slipper. She almost fools the prince, but doves warn him about blood dripping from her foot. He then goes back again and tries the slipper on the other sister. She cut off part of her heel in order to get her foot in the slipper, and again the prince is fooled. While riding with her to the king's castle, the doves alert him again about the blood on her foot.

How about that for a good night story?

    Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop.
    When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.
    When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall.
    And down will come Baby, cradle and all.

    It’s raining, it’s pouring,
    The old man’s snoring.
    He went to bed
    And he bumped his head
    And he couldn’t get up in the morning.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter

I also read the article as lighthearted and humorous and so assumed some things may have been exaggerated it embellished slightly for effect.

The series starts with books that are allegories for World War II like "The Moomins and the Great Flood" and "Comet in Moominland". Good reading in these pandemic times not gory but all about seriousnes of the world we live in and how small humans and families can cope with that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomins

Wow. The author seems to be missing the morals entirely. Just from browsing their story descriptions, the lessons seem to be about, respectively:

- The overwhelming power of grief, which you may wind up suffering when you choose to love

- Don't be tricked by people trying to get you to enjoy yourself in a dangerous situation

- The feeling that makes you uncomfortable destroying beauty is a kind of conscience, so listen to it, for there is an intrinsic connection between beauty and life

- Happiness is misunderstood by nearly all -- it doesn't come from material possessions, it comes from within

- People are supported by those around them, not diminished, so don't treat those who surround you as unimportant or take them for granted

- If you tame an animal, you're responsible for their well-being. You can't "go back" or shirk your responsibilities, so think twice before you take on a personal commitment or you may generate suffering you never intended

Writers for the LA Review of Books are generally... supposed to be literary and really good at finding meaning in texts, heck even way more meaning than the author sometimes intended.

This author seems to be being deliberately obtuse about these stories. I'm not sure why. But these stories seem incredibly stimulating food-for-thought to talk with your children about.

If I doubted my dismissal of this article, I felt vindicated by this line. Is the author really so blind as to believe that popular fairy tale endings are archetypal for any reason beyond the fact that they became popular? They were just as nasty and surprising back then, and it's only repeated listenings and social acceptance that has made them appear to be any more child-appropriate than a screaming, dying tree.

FWIW, I generally believe kids are way more resilient to any of these things than we think they are. Like the poplar tree, in trying to protect them, we lead them to their own downfall.

Moyshele and Sheyndele

Once upon a time there was a poor woodcutter who had a wife and two small children, a boy and a girl. The boy was called Moyshele, the girl Sheyndele. The woodcutter’s wife died and he married a second wife who was a very wicked woman and a cruel stepmother to the children. One day the woodcutter left the house to chop wood in the forest, and the stepmother got ready to go to market to do the Sabbath shopping. Before she left, she gave the children some food, putting Moyshele’s in a pot and Sheyndele’s on a plate. She said, “Moyshele, if you break the pot I’ll chop off your head, So you’d better not.” She told Sheyndele, “Sheyndele, Sheyndele, just you wait, I’ll chop off your legs if you break this plate.” Then she slammed the door and went to market. The children were afraid to eat lest they break something, but the rooster suddenly flew up on the table and knocked over the pot. It fell to the ground and broke into teeny-tiny pieces. Moyshele, seeing them, was terrified and began to cry. Sheyndele comforted him, saying, “Hush, Moyshele.Don’t cry.” And she took the shards of the pot and pushed them into a corner of the room. When the stepmother came home, she couldn’t find the pot. “Where is the pot?” she asked Moyshele. “The rooster broke it,” he said. The stepmother was very angry, but she pretended that nothing was the matter. Later she said to Moyshele, “Come with me and I’ll wash your hair.” So Moyshele went with her. She took him into another room and cut off his head, after which she cooked it for supper. When the woodcutter came back from the forest he said, “Where is Moyshele?” “I don’t know,” said the stepmother. Then they sat down at the table and ate the soup and the meat. Sheyndele, unaware of what she was eating, sucked the marrow from the bones and threw them out the window. A little mound of earth covered the bones and when the glad summer came again, a new Moyshele grew up out of it. Moyshele stood there on his little mound until, seeing a tailor pass by, he called, “Tailor, tailor, make me a pair of trousers and I’ll sing you a song:

    Murdered by my mother, 
    Eaten by my father, 
    and Sheyndele, when they were done, 
    Sucked the marrow from my bones 
    And threw them out the window.” 
  

    Murdered by my mother, 
    Eaten by my father, 
    and Sheyndele, when they were done, 
    Sucked the marrow from my bones 
    And threw them out the window.” 
  

    Murdered by my mother, 
    Eaten by my father, 
    and Sheyndele,
    when they were done,
    Sucked the marrow from my bones
    And threw them out the window.
  

    One log there, 
    One log gone. 
    As for my tale— 
    My tale is done.

> I’m all for showing your kids reality, and bringing them to the hospital or the wake or the funeral. But Tolstoy’s tales read more like an undigested rage at the world, unfortunately misdirected at children.

Yeah no. What's the point of such a teaching story as the one above? Perhaps it's a story to teach resilience; Even if the world treats you so badly, that it sort of chews you up and spits you out, you can still make your way, though perhaps it might just be by telling your sad story and playing on people's sympathies.

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/leo-tolstoys-fable...

This is possible but unfortunately the author of the article decided not to answer his children:

> “Daddy,” my stunned four-year-old son asked, “why did the lion die?”

> “Daddy Daddy,” my daughter asked, still wondering about the now-dead lion’s lifestyle, “why did the people feed the lion puppies?”

Instead he "took the book away and hid it from" them. Not good parenting IHMO. Don't read from that book again, OK, but find an answer to those questions.

I really don't think that's why children's stories used to be macabre. Nobody ever claimed these were accurate representations of reality.

They are not meant to be read at bedtimeto small children, but thoughtful reading material for kids of all ages who are learning to read. The kids who are old enough to read the stories would be old enough to appreciate the (often very sad) stories.

Nobody, including the author, seems to have mentioned the cultural aspect in all this. Allow me:

Q: What is the difference between a Russian optimist and a Russian pessimist?

A: A Russian pessmist thinks that things can't get any worse. A Russian optimist thinks they not only can, but will.

There's one in the Grimm Brothers called "The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn" that's an incredibly bleak fable about power and corruption.

https://www.amazon.com/Gigantic-Turnip-Aleksei-Tolstoy/dp/19...

Edit: seems to be back up with everything in order.

"12 days of Christmas" and other tales and sings have hidden Christian symbolism due to persecution.

Or, "The Little Match Girl." Yikes.

I don't understand how people in those times would be less sensitive to such themes.

  My mother, she killed me, my father, he ate me,
  My sister Marlene gathered all my bones,
  Tied them in a silken scarf,
  Laid them beneath the juniper tree,
  Tweet, tweet, what a beautiful bird am I.

Remember that plenty of the original Grimm stories had been meant to entertain adults, too.

Yeah, it's disgusting. It's incredibly hard to find actual stories now, they are always screwed up by talentless editors. Reminds me of drawing fig leaves over Renaissance pictures when protestantism took over.