Schmiesing’s biography doesn’t shy away from pointing out strains of racism, misogyny, sexism and antisemitism in the brothers themselves, especially Jacob, and in their writing ... To make up for this paucity of striking biographical detail, Schmiesing proffers careful descriptions of the brothers’ research ... Some of this contextual material risks seeming dry or excessive to those readers primarily interested in the background to one of the world’s most influential books.
Can be dense with details, but when I read Murray B. Peppard’s Paths Through the Forest (1971), a more approachable biography of the Grimms, I found myself missing Schmiesing’s unrulier thickets of Prussian bureaucrats and long asides about German grammar. Hers is hearty German fare. It also presents findings that complicate the brothers’ image as ethnographic purists.
Schmiesing renders this life and it's complex historical moment in vivid detail, missing no stop on a long scholarly journey, the narrative of which gradually picks up momentum, and yet is still interspersed with endearing little details ... The Grimms survive the caprice of time in the pages of this masterful portrayal of lives twinned in the service of the word.
