Edited by Mariann Domokos, a research fellow at the Institute of Ethnography of the HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, this source edition is the third thematic anthology of chapbook texts in the ReTextum series issued by Reciti Nonprofit Publishing House (online: https://www.reciti.hu/category/reciti-konyv/retextum). The present volume (and the collection of texts as a whole) can be said to fill a gap in many respects. On the one hand, very few thematic text editions of Hungarian-language chapbook literature exist. In Magyar Ponyva Pitaval [Hungarian Chapbook Pitaval], a collection of Hungarian causes célèbres (Minerva, Budapest, 1966), István Békés presented a relatively large selection of chapbook texts dealing with true criminal cases. Published almost sixty years ago, his volume can be regarded as the earliest antecedent, despite the fact that the material is not presented in the form of a traditional anthology but is rather inserted into the body of his monograph, without notes. The first source edition, properly speaking, is a collection, edited and richly annotated by Péter Pogány, of chapbooks from the 1848–1849 War of Independence (Riadj magyar! 1848–1849 fametszetes ponyvái, csatakrónikái [Awaken, Magyar! Woodcut-printed chapbooks and battle chronicles from 1848 to 1849], Magyar Hírmondó, Budapest, 1983). Thanks to the work of Béla Stoll, Imola Küllős, and Rumen István Csörsz, the chapbook versions of various secular verses and popular poems have also been published, as well as being highlighted in individual volumes of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century series of the intentionally scholarly publication Régi Magyar Költők Tára [Collection of old Hungarian poetry]. Launched by Rumen István Csörsz in 2018, the chapbook anthology series Magyar világi ponyvairodalom 1700–1820 [Hungarian secular chapbook literature 1700–1820] is a response to these volumes. To date, the series comprises I. Lírai dalok és versek [Lyrical songs and verses], edited by Rumen István Csörsz, Reciti, Budapest, 2018; and II. Oktató és szórakoztató költészet [Poetry for education and entertainment], edited by Rumen István Csörsz, Reciti, Budapest, 2020.

This brief overview highlights another aspect of the present book's academic value: it is the first text edition to offer a selection of fairy tales published in Hungarian-language chapbooks.

This change in focus is an important initiative in terms of Hungarian folkloristics and fairy-tale research. To date, the impact of various reading materials, including cheap prints, has been discussed mainly in relation to fairy tales that have been collected from oral sources. Chapbooks have been studied primarily from this perspective, while popular reading materials have not been subject a to comprehensive impact assessment in their own right. Opinions concerning the concepts of Hungarian folk poetry anthologies and the study of the (folk) fairy-tale tradition that take into account the impact of chapbook texts on oral tradition can be found in as early as the nineteenth century, while in the twentieth century, during the collecting and publishing of fairly tales, the approach of the collectors and editors determined the way, and the extent to which, the impact of reading materials was considered. As a result, we can have only an approximate idea of the actual impacts of chapbooks in the repertoire of an individual storyteller. In relation to certain types of fairy tales, some of the volumes in the Magyar Népmesekatalógus [Hungarian folktale catalogue] (1–10, 1987–2001) also point out chapbook parallels, although such notes are not the outcome of systematic preliminary work. In my view, this is because the examination of chapbook texts in the various public collections took place at the same time as the preliminary work on the volumes. Furthermore, in terms of Hungarian fairy tales, no comprehensive list of chapbooks has been published. This source edition of Hungarian-language chapbook adaptations of fourteen fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm can thus be welcomed as a first step in this direction.

The volume comprises five main, interrelated sections: an introductory study consisting of two long chapters, the anthology, illustrations, notes, and appendices. The publication not only summarizes the findings of the many preliminary studies published by the editor; it also sums up her broader research topics in relation to text folkloristics: the study of the appearance of nineteenth-century Hungarian-language tales in printed literature and the various text migrations, as well as the connections between the oral and written traditions. The first chapter, Grimms' Fairy Tales in Written Hungarian Literature and Folklore, presents the textologically unique corpus of Grimms' fairy tales — a corpus made up of textual variants from the very outset, which, by means of translations, revisions, and various adaptations, has developed into a historically, linguistically, and culturally diverse ensemble of texts that continues to expand today, generating even further variants. Mariann Domokos has explored the nineteenth-century Hungarian reception of the collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm at the meeting point of several different fields — children's literature, translated literature, folklorization, and the collecting and publishing of folk poetry — and in the context of multiple mediatic complexities. In doing so, she has outlined the interpretive framework and contextual network within which the chapbook adaptations were created. The next subchapter introduces the reader to the circumstances (printers, authors, anonymous artists, intermediary sources) in which the concrete chapbook texts and illustrations were produced. One of the most fascinating parts of this chapter is the demonstration of the direct influence of popular Leipzig and Munich publications (the Volksbücher series edited by Gotthard Oswald Marbach, and Münchener Bilderbogen, a series of one-pagers) on the text and illustrations of printed Hungarian chapbooks. These exciting research findings will hopefully give fresh impetus to research on the popular graphics published in chapbooks, which is currently a marginal area of interest in Hungary. Further research of this kind might also help clarify and correct the general perception that chapbook illustrations were of poor quality and shoddily executed. This goal is supported by the images reproduced in the volume, which include all the illustrations from the fifteen chapbooks described.

As a text-folklorist, the author notes that the volume reflects one stage in the process of source exploration, thus the collection includes fifteen fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm (KHM 1, 3, 4, 6, 11, 13, 14, 25, 44, 47, 53, 60, 65) that were published in nineteenth-century Hungarian-language chapbooks, fourteen of which have undergone various text-shaping procedures and have been reworked in verse or prose form. The Notes shed light on the true goal of the publication: to examine the individual chapbook fairy tales in the context of various textual traditions, thereby rendering perceptible the intersections between the written and oral forms. This section thus includes not only a bibliographical description (place of origin, date of reprinting, and the formal properties of the chapbooks), but also information on the emergence of chapbook texts, the history of Grimms' fairy tales as sources, their reception in Hungary, and an overview of the relationship between the text and the European and Hungarian folktale tradition.

Folklorist Mariann Domokos has mainly studied chapbooks in booklet form, although in some cases she also refers to almanac publications and other chapbook variants. In nineteenth-century printed literature, Hungarian-language adaptations of Grimms' fairy tales can be found in publications intended for a wide range of ages and literacy levels: reading books and textbooks for children, and journals and chapbooks mainly enjoyed by an adult readership. Once incorporated into the current of oral storytelling, they could be perpetuated in new versions. This chapter might also provide a basis for textological research, analyzing the various different media and linguistic layers in the text migration of Grimms' fairy tales. In connection with the chapbook version of Snow White, for instance, we find examples of complex text-shaping procedures (multiple translations and adaptations in German–Hungarian/German/Slovak) as well as various modes of folklorization.

The appendices include supplementary materials, such as the Source List, Summary Table, and Concordance, which summarize the information in the volume and enhance its transparency, while the four texts published under the heading Intermediate Sources, and the selected bibliography of Grimms' tales published in Hungarian between 2007 and 2021, may prove to be a useful resource for further research.

In several places, Mariann Domokos's work raises questions that merit further consideration and provides a basis for research in the future. The book might be a valuable resource for philological and folkloristic studies, for example, as well as for an analysis of the woodcuts and illustrations published in nineteenth-century chapbooks. In future, it can thus serve as a rich source of data for scholars of various disciplines, and as a starting point for similar text editions.