In grade school I hated when the teacher assigned a "compare and contrast" assignment because I knew the whole work would have to be dissected. Now, I am quite grateful for those teachers because during my undergrad coursework, I took an English class on Young Adult Literature and guess what? The whole class was devoted to comparing and contrasting different variations of stories! So I now have a great appreciation for this style of learning and think it's wonderful.
When looking at different variations of a story, it really makes you look deeper into the story and see what the central point of the story actually is because although details may vary, the overall theme is usually the same. When we look at Beauty and the Beast and Snow White, details have differed between the two stories but the central themes are still the same with the different variations.
I don't think any harm is done by reading multiple versions at once, in my opinion, it gives a better overall view of the different ways the story can be interpreted and gives us a more clear picture of the story. Although the small details may differ or even the endings, the meaning of the story usually stays the same so I think the different versions are just a little lagniappe to help us better understand the fairytale. I do however like to have a solid foundation on the original story and then read the variations, just keeps it clearer in my mind.
