ABOUT WHITE AS MILK, RED AS BLOODThis striking, richly illustrated edition of long-lost German fairy tales is not a book for children. It is a book for adults. Or for adults to frighten children into behavingwhichever you prefer. In 2009, a trove of lost fairy tales collected by Franz Xaver von Schnwertha 19th-century collector of Bavarian folk tales and contemporary of the Brothers Grimmwas unearthed in a municipal archive in Germany.
Unlike the Grimms, who polished the stories they collected, adapting to contemporary tastes, von Schnwerth recorded the stories as they were told, plucking them directly from the living, breathing tree of oral storytelling, retaining their darker themes and sometimes shocking violence. Von Schnwerth published a single volume of these tales in his lifetime, but the vast majority languished and were forgotten over the years, effectively frozen in time until their recent rediscovery. Now, award-winning illustrator Willow Dawson, in collaboration with translator Shelley Tanaka, has brought these long-lost tales unforgettably to life, illuminating with striking woodcut-style illustrations a spectacular collection that will change the way you look at fairy tales forever. Paired with Dawsons arresting artwork, the stories in White as Milk, Red as Blood race with palpable energy through fantasy landscapes darker, bawdier and racier than anything we find in Disney or the Grimms. Following the tradition of illustrated fairy-tale collections, White as Milk, Red as Blood is the very first fully illustrated, full-colour edition of Franz Xaver von Schnwerths work. It is a timeless tome of enchantment and foreboding: talesas haunting as they are profoundof powerful princesses, helpless men, lecherous villains, virtuous girls, witches, giants, at least one female serial killer, mer-people, shape-shifters and talking beastsa kaleidoscope of wonders both familiar and entirely new; rich and strange. Dawson and Tanakas dark and lively take on von Schnwerths collected tales will appeal to fans of Mike Mignolas classic fantasy comic-book series Hellboy.
