Favourite fairy tales?

What are your favourite fairy tales? Which ones do you hate?

Here are mine:
- The Goose Girl. It's by the Brothers Grimm. This one is probably my all-time favourite. I always loved reading it as a kid - it was one of my first books.
- Puss in Boots. I always enjoyed this one as a kid too.
- Snow White and Rose Red. Another Grimm story that I grew up with. It's not the same story as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. (There was a really old anime based on Grimm's Fairy tales that had both stories featured as episodes.)
- The Golden Goose. I grew up with this one too.
- Aladdin. The original is soooo much better than the Disney version! (I don't mind the Disney version, but you know Disney gets a lot of stuff wrong.)
- The Ugly Duckling. I remember I really liked this as a little kid.
- The Blue Bird. This is a French story. I have an illustrated version of it (the book's in French). It's about a king turned into a bird who is in love with a princess.
- Babiole. Another French story. This one's about a princess who gets turned into a monkey.
- Alphege, or the Green Monkey. Similar to the above, except it involves a prince being turned into a monkey instead of a princess.
- The Monkey and the Jellyfish. Another fairy tale with monkeys. This one comes from Japan. (I love stories with monkeys!)
- The Bamboo-Cutter and the Moon-Child. This story comes from Japan. It's in the book of Japanese fairy tales that I own.
- A Fairy's Blunder. One of my books has this story. It's kind of weird, but I found it really entertaining. It's got a whole "fountain of youth"-related plot.

Here are a few fairy tales I hate:
- Donkeyskin. This one's WAY too creepy.
- Riquet with the Tuft. I hate this one because the prince chooses the pretty bimbo over her smart but not-so-attractive sister.
- Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood. This is the one with the sad ending - where the wolf eats the poor girl.
- The Three Treasures of the Giants. Most of the story was okay, but the ending (where the hero's descendants become greedy and lead his kingdom into ruin) really ruined the enjoyment of the story for me.
- The Little Match Girl. This one made me cry when I was little.
- Jack and the Beanstalk. I always found the protagonist rather unlikable.

As for collectors, I like the Brothers Grimm, Andrew Lang, and Madame d'Aulnoy. I don't really care for Perrault or Andersen (Andersen's stories are too depressing, and Perrault's stories - except for Puss in Boots and Sleeping Beauty - kind of bored me.)

I've always enjoyed a good fairy tale, especially the atmosphere and setting they have. As a kid I always loved The Emperor's New Clothes from Andersen's fairy tales, and Town Musicians of Bremen from the brothers Grimm. As a kid, they always used to make me laugh, and I still enjoy reading through some fairy tales every once in awhile.

As a child I enjoyed the Arabians Nights stories (such as Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, along with Sinbad the Sailor), and various stories from various mythologies (if those count).

The story of Hercules was one of my favorites when I got older, and Disney's version was more like Superman's origin story, or maybe the Rocky movies.

Also I really like this one story from Egyptian mythology more than anything:


The people of Egypt no longer feared Ra, nor did they obey his laws. They ridiculed him.
In response, Ra sent his daughter Hathor (who was a peaceful cow-goddess), in the form of her alter ego Sekhmet (a bloodthirsty killer in the form of a lioness), to eliminate those who opposed Ra.

Unfortunately Sekhmet's bloodlust was so extreme she killed many innocent people. Ra told the remainder of humanity to trick Sekhmet by getting her drunk. They used pomegranate juice mixed with beer, and Sekhmet thought it was actually blood, passed out, and reverted back to Hathor.

I've just picked up an entire collection of Grimm's fairy tales for like $8 somewhat recently, so I'm excited for when I have some free time to read them.

Other than that, some of my favorite fantasy stories include His Dark Materials, Harry Potter, and I loved East by Edith Pattou. It's a little difficult I think to find a really good independent high fantasy novel in the YA genre that isn't part of a trilogy or series, but East was really good imo, it's based on the Norwegian fairy tale, "East of the Sun and West of the Moon." It came out back in 2003, way before the whole modern fairy tale retelling trend started in YA too, so it stands out in that regard.

Some of my favorite fairy tales are (original versions of course) The Little Mermaid, Arabian Nights, The Snow Queen, Hansel and Gretel, The China Pony, and those two books Beastly and Cloaked, which are revamped fairy tales.

I'm not a big fairy tale guy, and I haven't read many since I was like 7. However, I have read some of the 1001 Nights lately for a class and some of those tails are really dark. I also thought that it was interesting because it reflects the culture of the time, and they are interesting. Maybe they're like fairy tales for adults? :c