The Brothers Grimm: A Biography

by Ann Schmiesing

The first English-language biography in over fifty years to tell the full, vibrant story of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, known to history as the Brothers Grimm

More than two hundred years ago, the German brothers Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859) published a collection of fairy tales that remains famous the world over. It has been translated into some 170 languages—more than any other German book—and the Brothers Grimm are among the top dozen most translated authors in the world. In addition to collecting tales, the Grimms were mythographers, linguists, librarians, civil servants, and above all the closest of brothers, but until now, the full story of their lifelong endeavor to preserve and articulate a German cultural identity has not been well known.

Drawing on deep archival research and decades of scholarship, Ann Schmiesing tells the affecting story of how the Grimms’ ambitious projects gave the brothers a sense of self-preservation through the atrocities of the Napoleonic Wars and a series of personal losses. They produced a vast corpus of work on mythology and medieval literature, embarked on a monumental German dictionary project, and broke scholarly ground with Jacob’s linguistic discovery known as Grimm’s Law. Setting their story against a rich historical backdrop, Schmiesing offers a fresh consideration of the profound and yet complicated legacy of the Brothers Grimm.

Ann Schmiesing is professor of German and Scandinavian studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the author of Disability, Deformity, and Disease in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. She lives in Longmont, CO.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Germany, Folklore, Biography Memoir, Literature

Audible Audio

First published October 29, 2024

Reviews

[Marquise · Rating 3 out of 5]

With fourteen chapters (plus intro and epilogue), this is a very thorough and detailed biography of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, the German folklorists that gave us many of our most beloved fairy tales, covering everything from their childhood, the political upheavals of a nascent Germany, the social context of the Grimms' home, their ties to literary movements, their personal life as adults, and their waning years.

It's very dense and dry, however, and not very readable for the general public as Schmiesing writes like your typical academic that overwhelms you with too many facts you're not likely to grasp in full unless you have a background in the topic. And it doesn't really provide anything new about the Grimms, merely updates and packs some more bits and pieces for a newer audience. If you're interested in the Grimms as people as much as in their work, and don't mind the overwhelming dryness and droning fact-dropping, this might be a good source of information.

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was brought up with Grimms’ fairy tales - by far my favourites in that genre, I especially loved the more perverse, bloodthirsty entries. But before reading Ann Schmiesing’s remarkably-comprehensive biography I knew hardly anything about the brothers responsible for their circulation. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm came from a family that wasn’t wealthy but was solidly middle-class. Born in the late 1700s, they were based in Hessen-Kassel a mountainous, German-speaking region in what was then the Holy Roman Empire – neither lived to witness the unified Germany they yearned for. Their early childhood was relatively calm, idyllic even, but their father’s death before they’d reached their teens resulted in a fairly impoverished existence. As the brothers grew up, increasingly closely bonded, they developed an interest in the culture of German-speaking areas and peoples, spurred on by Napoleon’s invasion and the subsequent French occupation. Both Jacob and Wilhelm had an overwhelming desire to ensure aspects of German peoples’ cultures were uncovered and somehow preserved. So, they started to compile a collection of what’s known as Märchen - a broad category of folk tale from fairy to fable.

These kinds of stories rooted in oral traditions were often considered inferior forms, insufficiently literary to be worth exploring. The fairy tales that were in demand tended to be more like Perrault’s French versions, carefully polished, laced with literary flourishes and shored up by appropriate moral frameworks designed to make them more palatable. The Grimms however favoured a stripped-back, unadorned style believing the nature of the stories, their collective cultural significance, should be enough to attract a readership. The popular account of how they did their research depicts the two brothers travelling through surrounding areas, tirelessly tracking down older, rural women – both brothers thought women were the natural keepers and tellers of tales – desperate to record their remembered stories before it was too late. But, as Schmiesing points out, this notion was as much myth as many of the pieces the Grimms later published. The overwhelming majority of contributors to the Grimms' collection were young, middle-class, educated women – older, peasant women were conspicuous by their absence – often part of the Grimms‘ wider social circle so very little actual field work was needed.

However, Jacob and Wilhelm’s research was wide ranging in other ways, they delved into medieval literature, ancient legends, and produced studies of the history and structure of German languages that played a major part in the evolution of linguistics as a discipline. Their first fairy tale collection appeared in two volumes between 1812 and 1815 under the title Children’s and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen.) Editions that were later extensively revised, particularly by Wilhelm. These first volumes caused conflict between the brothers and their publisher. Produced in time for Christmas sales, their publisher wanted to reach a broad market. He thought the Grimms' insistence on featuring scholarly notes and appendices might be off-putting and that the lack of illustrations to break up the text was a mistake. He was also worried about how parents might react to some of the more gruesome pieces.

As time passed, Jacob and Wilhelm’s personal fortunes continued to ebb and flow but they retained their commitment to preserving popular oral narratives. However, later editions of Children’s and Household Tales were quite extensively altered. These reflected contemporary gender norms, women featured in the stories became less independent; and the stories themselves were much longer. The 1819 edition was massively revised by Wilhelm, in some places far more moralistic, much less macabre in others. Wilhelm also added or highlighted Christian references; omitted or toned down sexual references from incest to pregnancy before marriage, and generally reinforced contemporary patriarchal attitudes. These changes were justified on the basis that this was a non-static genre by its very nature, so variants, adaptations and revisions simply reinforced that fact. Wilhelm attempted too to find ways of replicating aspects of oral culture in these written forms – incorporating visual imagery, sayings and puns. This and later editions were given a boost by a shorter English translation which appeared in 1820s, complete with illustrations it proved so popular it revived publishers‘ interest in the Grimms' originals.

Alongside her discussion of the Grimms' best-known work, Schmiesing places the brothers within their wider socio-political, historical context – from their ties to an emerging German Romanticism, to the influence of translations of classic German texts on composers like Wagner. Schmiesing’s level of detail is impressive but I found her text a little overwhelming and dense at times, even though she's consciously targeting a general rather than academic readership. Schmiesing also fills in what’s known of the brothers as individuals, their personal attributes, friendships and close relationships, Wilhelm outgoing but physically frail, Jacob reserved and vehemently anti-social. She highlights the ways in which they managed to engineer an existence in which they could be near inseparable: Wilhelm married an old friend, and the couple lived with Jacob until first Wilhelm’s then Jacob’s death. But, I found the sections centred on the Grimms‘ work on Märchen by far the most compelling – the publishing history, the ordering of stories, stories included, stories discarded. I was intrigued too by Schmiesing’s assessment of the brothers’ legacy – I’d have liked more about this. After the brothers‘ deaths, their fairy tale collections gradually grew in popularity, boosted by the growth of German nationalism. Although Schmiesing stresses the brothers' interest in German culture was centred on a shared language rather than ethnicity, their work was reinterpreted from a National Socialist perspective. The stories became so widely celebrated, and circulated during the Nazi era they were briefly banned post WW2 by the Allied administration – in contrast the East German administration insisted the works were ripe for recuperation and recognition as important cultural artefacts that had been exploited and wrongly appropriated by the Nazi regime. Today the book commonly known as Grimms' Fairy Tales has positioned the Grimms in the top fifty most-translated authors worldwide, although this partly tracks back to other forms of appropriation particularly watered-down, Disneyfied adaptations.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Yale University Press for an ARC

Rating: 3.5

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world knows them as storytellers, but they saw themselves as scholars and even scientists. from The Brothers Grimm by Ann Schmiesing

Like most children, I had books of fairy tales and saw Walt Disney movies based on fairy tales. I was ten years old when I saw The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm at a Buffalo movie theater. Mom purchased the LP soundtrack, which I listened to so many times I had it memorized.

When I was in my early twenties my interest in fairy tales continued when I audited a class in which we learned about the morphology of folk tales and Jungian archetypes; later I read Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment.

What we think we know about the Brothers Grimm and their fairy tales isn’t quite true. The image of the brothers searching for remote cottages in the forest to record stories told by the elderly is a false narrative. In truth, the first informants were educated and middle class. Also, the stories are not mere records but were edited to reflect specific values and lessons.

The brothers Grimm were dedicated scholars and their collecting the tales was a part of their larger purpose.

The brothers lived before Germany was unified and while under the control of Napoleon. The Romantic movement influenced their promotion of Medieval literature. Germans were rediscovering their literary past, including folk stories and epic sagas. Jacob promoted the Nibelungenlied, later adopted by Richard Wagner for his famous operas.

Jacob extolled ancient literatures’ depiction of a deeper truth beyond that recorded in certificates, diploma, and chronicles. from The Brothers Grimm by Ann Schmiesing

The brothers first assisted friends in their research, but with different ideals, separated to do their own work. Orphaned young and responsible for providing for younger siblings, they found work in civil service and in libraries. When the brothers were separated, Jacob especially suffered. When Wilhelm married, Jacob lived with the couple.

They were in their late twenties when their first fairy-tale collection was published. They did not alter the violence in the tales for children. But they did edit and refine the tales to have specific values and lessons.

Jacob wrote about the linguistic evolution of the German language, German grammar, and German law. Wilhelm published more tales and a book on runes. They spent years working on a German dictionary and continued to update their collection of folk tales.

It was surprising to learn that when a new ruler annulled the constitution, the brothers and five other Gottingen professors protested, costing them their jobs.

This is a wonderful dual biography that topples our misconceptions.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

[History Today]

The Brothers Grimm, alongside the likes of the Wright brothers and the Marx brothers, are among the most recognisable sibling double-acts in history – but, as Ann Schmiesing notes in her new biography of the great German folklorists, few people are now able to name the brothers individually, or identify each’s achievements. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm have fallen victim to a kind of ‘genericide’: the universal fame of their work has killed their actual biographies (even if linguists still remember Jacob for Grimm’s Law). It is a problem intensified, for the Brothers Grimm, by the archetypal status their stories now occupy in the popular imagination. No one credits the Grimms as the authors of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ or ‘Hansel and Gretel’ in the way Shakespeare is lauded for his genius as a creator; the Grimms, in popular culture, were mere conduits for primordial tale-types. Yet there is no such thing as pristine folklore, or pure story; every telling comes from, and owes something to, the teller. Folklore, or the telling of it, is located in history; and Ann Schmiesing’s The Brothers Grimm does a fine job of furnishing Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm with a history.

The Grimms themselves, as Schmiesing notes, were very much aware that ‘editing is always a form of mediation’; they were always philologists as much as storytellers. Indeed, they saw themselves as scientists, not storytellers. Their story is the story of the genesis of folklore as a discipline – for although the term folk-lore was not coined until 1846, its inventor William Thoms explicitly cited the work of the Grimms when he did so. Today’s folklorists may not carry Jacob and Wilhelm’s certainty that folklore is truly a science, but it is also difficult to imagine the modern discipline existing without them. The Grimms’ work was guided (in the broadest sense) by their philological preoccupations. They were interested in language, specifically the German language.

Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...

Francis Young’s most recent book is Twilight of the Godlings: The Shadowy Beginnings of Britain’s Supernatural Beings (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A scholarly but approachable study of the Grimm brothers Jacob and Wilhelm, giving a sense of the breadth of their scholarly interests and influence and of the complexity of the culture and politics of the German states in their lifetime.

[Tilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thoroughly researched and comprehensive look at the lives of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Famed for their fairytale compilations, the brothers were also rigorous scholars and philologists, great thinkers of mid-1800s Germany, and lifelong collectors and record-keepers. It’s clear that Schmiesing is an expert on the subject and a longtime advocate of the Brothers Grimm, however the tone of the book is quite academic and may not be as accessible or engaging to those without much prior knowledge (which includes myself). Though I found the writing quite dense, I enjoyed learning about the unshakeable bond between Jacob and Wilhelm, along with the many fascinating insights into their lives and work, and I admired the level of detail and research that went into this book.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. A bit thin in places.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent history writing; a veritable deep dive into the lives and times of the world famous Grimm brothers; was surprised as to the extent of their contribution to the study of language in general, and the acclaim both national and worldwide the brothers enjoyed.

[Lloyd Earickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprising no one, I found the most difficult part of reading this biography of the Grimm brothers resisting the urge to add every piece of folklore, ancient Germanic epic, and traditional fairy tale to my reading list (provided I could find an English translation) – I managed, though my reading list did not escape entirely unscathed.  Alas, additions to my reading list are the main takeaway I have from reading Schmiesing's biography of the Grimm brothers.  It’s not poorly written, but it struggles to convey enough of who the Grimm brothers were as people to be compelling in the way the best biographies are.

More surprising than the number of books I added to my reading list is how little I knew about the Grimms before reading this book.  And it is properly the Grimm brothers, without separating much between the two, for Jacob and Wilhelm were all but inseparable throughout their lives, worked closely together on all their major projects, and even shared a single salary.  For instance, I didn’t realize the Grimms were from the nineteenth century, thinking for some reason they were at least as far back as the early eighteenth or late seventeenth.  This puts their work in a different light, perhaps even akin to Fairy and Folktales of the Irish Peasantry, collected in the early twentieth century, as a collection assembled deliberately to preserve, after the advent of semi-modern scholarship, as the kinds of tales the Grimms wanted to collect were beginning to fade from their traditional fora.

Underlying their experience, values, and decisions, perhaps more than any other single factor, was the convulsion of the Napoleonic conflict across Europe.  The main events of the conflict overshadowed their formative years, but the ripples affected the continent for most of the century, and especially the Germany/Prussia region.  Indeed, the Prussians essentially invented the modern professional military academy in an attempt to prevent another Napoleon from rolling over them, the idea being that a trained, professional cadre of moderately trained military leaders could counter the kind of random, lone, strategic genius like Napoleon.  Military matters aside, Napoleon’s short-lived conquest and the societal factors that underlaid it were a catalyst for the varied and divided states in the Germanic region to pursue some level of coherent national and cultural identity, which was a major theme in the Grimms’ work.

To that end, the Grimms sought to explore the idea of Germanness through fairy and folk tales.  This did not mean delving into musty ruins in search of ancient manuscripts, like the booksellers of Florence and their associates seeking to recover the wisdom of the ancient world; it meant making new copies and translations of extant epics, poems, and stories, along with transcribing oral literature.  Schmiesing makes much of whether or not they really drew their tales from and wrote them as representative of the “peasantry,” despite emphasizing the vital role at least one peasant woman played in providing a significant portion of the fairy tales the Grimms collected.  What Schmiesing dances around in her slantwise critiques of the Grimms’ treatment and transcription of tales and how they (inevitably) filter the stories through their own experiences is the fundamental conversation of translation, both from other languages and between different forms.

It's something we’ve written about somewhat extensively on the site.  Bringhurst and Zolbrod approach the discussion thoughtfully, and I’ve written in conversation with their thoughts on the matter; Schmiesing clearly has opinions on the matter, but they don’t come across in the text as fully formed, and she engages with the matter shallowly, passing slantwise judgements on the Grimms’ editorial decisions and their intersection with contemporary and modern mores, without engaging in a deeper analysis.  Frankly, that shallowness is somewhat reflective of Schmiesing's approach to the biography as a whole.  It never drew me in and gave me an immersive understanding of who the Grimm brothers were and why they did the work they did the way other biographers can for their subjects.  And no, this is not only in comparison to Chernow’s masterpieces.  The Brothers Grimm at times reads simply like a list of events, without deepening context or insight.

Lest you take the wrong impression, The Brothers Grimm is interesting.  Schmiesing's research is thorough, her facts are well supported, and she does attempt to provide context with events in the wider world beyond the Grimms’ immediate surroundings and interactions.  There is plenty to be learned, especially for those who matriculated through the American educational system, which tends to gloss over the Napoleonic conflict, its significance, and its aftereffects.  I sometimes neglect the nineteenth century more than I should, for it truly was a dynamic, pivotal century.  There’s an argument to be made that a lot of modern history has its foundation in the eighteenth century and a climax of sorts in the twentieth (not an end, no matter what some post Cold War pundits and scholars thought), but was formed primarily in the nineteenth.  The Grimms were part of that history, serving a role in defining cultural Germanness which saw them become notable public figures later in life.  It is significant that Jacob, an introverted philologist whose primary occupations were librarian and reluctant professor, was asked to participate in the creation of a new German constitution.

As Schmiesing observes, a new biography of the Grimm brothers seems to pop up every decade or two; unsurprising, perhaps, given the enduring popularity of the Grimms’ fairytales and derivatives thereof.  Schmiesing's The Brothers Grimm is not, perhaps, the new definitive masterpiece in the genre, but it’s a worthy, approachable entry replete with detail that captures a three-dimensional view of its subjects, if not one as immersive and life-like as other biographies convey.  It’s also a fine way to add a dozen or so new pieces of historical literature to your reading list.

[Joseph Leake]

This biography provided me with a new favorite Brothers Grimm anecdote (I collect these): how some important person or another came to see the renowned and distinguished Grimm brothers at their house, and upon entering was surprised to find Wilhelm holding a diapered baby being spoon-fed by Jacob. (I also enjoyed learning that Jacob would sometimes take a book off of a shelf, look at it lovingly— as if to say "Ah. This book. I have this book" — and then return it to the shelf, because I do this too.)

I enjoyed this biography very much, and it is a most welcome addition to the too-few Grimms biographies in English. The book does have an unfortunate shortcoming, a strain of repetitiveness when it comes to assessing the Grimms' works and writings: the author reiterates certain specific points again and again, beyond the point of usefulness; separate sections of analysis could (and should) have been merged to eliminate redundancies.

Still, although I found the repetitiveness tedious and wearing, I also learned (gleaned) a lot. And this repetitiveness did not, interestingly, apply to the parts of the book dealing with the Grimms' personal lives, which were the parts I most delighted in. (Though I can't help but reflect that there could have been more of that content had the author trimmed back the superfluous stuff.)

[Caitlin]

DNF at 30%

As someone who really loves learning history of all periods, I picked this up because I know a) very little about the Brothers Grimm aside from them collecting fairytales and b) very little about that time period in Germany. In a lot of ways, this book satisfies that. Unfortunately, it does so in more granular detail than I was really looking for and the writing style itself leans towards dry and academic.

For folks who are really into biographical details, The Brothers Grimm is a much better choice because Schmiesing provides a great view of their early lives, the situation of the family and the context of the part of Germany that they lived in. As someone who typically doesn't read a lot of biography and favors history that spends less time on individual lives, this was just too much for me. I did really like the parts that were more focused on German attitudes and context of the time period though.

Thanks to NetGalley and Yale University Press for early access to the book, opinions are my own.

[Peter Tillman]

WSJ review: https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/book...
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
Excerpt:
"“Our entire fatherland has now cured itself, in its blood, of the French leprosy and reinvigorated itself with youthful life,” the Grimms wrote in the preface to their 1815 edition of the medieval poem “Poor Heinrich,” which came out after the liberation of Hessen from Napoleon Bonaparte. With a sales pitch like that, no wonder a patriotic public relished their stories. It is surprising, though, to read that all the time Jacob was salvaging the German soul, he had been working for the French occupation as librarian to the king of Westphalia, Napoleon’s brother Jérôme."

[Jessica Hembree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating! I love the Grimm tales and was looking forward to learning more about the brothers through this book. I was absolutely fascinated by their lives and what they lived through. Also, I never knew just how much other writing they had been responsible for. This thorough and interesting account of their lives was a wonderful read!

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Thank you Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a review copy of this book.*

I fell in love with The Brother's Grimm fairy tales ever since I discovered them as a teenager. Getting to read a biography about the brothers was incredibly interesting and insightful. I loved learning about their rich past. It makes me better appreciate the work they put into their fairytales

[MoonlightCupOfCocoa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and Yale University Press for the advance copy. As always, any thoughts shared in my review are 100% my own.

"The Brothers Grimm: A Biography" by Ann Schmiesing is a thorough biography of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, usually referred to as the Grimm Brothers. You know, the ones who published all those fairytales? Reading this meaty book, however, quickly introduces the readers to a much more comprehensive view of the brothers as well as the history of Germany.

From their childhood and education to their political stances and literary accomplishments, the book has everything. While the author takes the readers through the lives of the two brothers, we learn about their social connections and literary contemporaries. We are given much context regarding the dramatic political upheavals that Germany, and Europe as a whole, was experiencing at the time. We are introduced as well to their unusually strong bond, seeing one or both of them suffering emotionally, mentally and physically at the mere idea of being separated.

While I went into the book expecting to learn about the fairytales and how they came to be collected, I ended up learning much about their other works as well such as their German Dictionary and 'The German Grammar'. The book also discussed the reception of each of the works, so we're exposed to what their critics and contemporaries agreed and disagreed with.

In addition to that, we explore how the different editions and iterations of their books transformed over time. How the same fairytale changed across the different editions highlighting the brothers' own biases and methodology such as the effect of the widespread antisemitism on their writing, as well as, that of their religious beliefs and general societal expectations and norms. An example is how Rapunzel's story was edited in later editions to remove references to pregnancy out of wedlock.

This is not a light read and can be very academic in its presentation, but I still found it very approachable despite knowing next to nothing about the men or Germany's history. All in all, I feel I've emerged from the deep dive much more knowledgeable and better equipped to critique the brothers' works.

I recommend this book if you would like a well-researched, in-depth biography of the Brothers Grimm and an exploration of their works as well as the history of Germany.

[Joanne Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Schmiesing’s The Brothers Grimm is a masterful and meticulously researched biography that breathes new life into the story of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the German brothers whose names are forever associated with some of the world’s most enduring fairy tales. It’s the first English-language biography in over fifty years to offer a comprehensive exploration of these literary icons, and Schmiesing’s work goes beyond the brothers’ folklore to examine their vast contributions to linguistics, mythology, and cultural preservation.

Through her extensive use of archival research, Schmiesing not only recounts the familiar tale of the Grimms’ fairy-tale collection but also digs into the brothers’ efforts to document German cultural identity during the turbulent Napoleonic Wars. She paints a vivid portrait of their bond, resilience, and unwavering commitment to scholarship amid personal and political upheaval. From their groundbreaking work on mythology to the ambitious but unfinished German dictionary, Schmiesing shows how the Grimms’ scholarship laid the foundation for modern linguistics, especially with Jacob’s significant linguistic discovery, Grimm’s Law.

Set against a historical backdrop filled with conflict and change, the biography is both academically rigorous and emotionally compelling. Schmiesing presents the Grimms not only as scholars but as complex individuals navigating a world rife with loss and hardship, and she brings out the depth of their relationship and shared mission.

With a fresh perspective on the brothers’ enduring legacy, The Brothers Grimm is essential reading for anyone interested in folklore, linguistics, or the cultural history of Germany. Schmiesing’s biography is magisterial yet accessible, offering an intimate and thoughtful account of two men who not only captured the world’s imagination but reshaped scholarly fields in the process.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I saw this book on NetGalley, I was really excited. I love folk and fairy tales and have several copies of the Brothers Grimm tales. I have read journal articles by Maria Tatar about German Folklore but I realised I don’t really know much about the Grimm Brothers other than their stories. This book is really detailed about the lives of the brothers, spanning their entire lifetimes. It is also about the history of Germany throughout the nineteenth century. It was interesting to know about their other academic projects and their passion not just for folktales but also for language with studies into grammar and lexicon, writing many books on the subject. Their lives were centred around local and national politics, not shying away from writing about their political beliefs.

This book is a great historical biography. It is a little scholarly but an easy read. I part read the book on my Kindle and listened to the audiobook on Audible. The book splits their lives into different categories of their work. They liked to review their work and then adjust and explain certain points in the next print. They moved around Germany and France but Hesse-Kassel was their home. Even when living elsewhere they would visit when they could. This book does an amazing job at explaining how close the family was. Jacob and Wilhelm lived together throughout their lives, but they also kept their siblings close and cared for as much as possible.

I recommend this book to anyone who is intrigued by the history of the tales, and how the books were compiled and changed over time. I would also recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about the political history of Germany in the nineteenth century. It is an easy read and the audiobook is very good and easy to follow.

Thank you to NetGalley and Yale University Press for allowing me to read this ARC.


3.5⭐️

[Ristretto · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a child I was fascinated by the Grimm’s fairy tale collection of stories and would read them again and again and devour any animated media from Disney’s Snow White to the Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics tv show. But actually I knew little to nothing about the brothers themselves. So I was excited to read Ann Schmiesing’s The Brother’s Grimm: A Biography.

Detailed yet accessible this biography delves deep into the lives of Jacob and Wilhelm whose lives were inextricably intertwined and the historical and life events that shaped them and their life’s work. It also explores their accomplishments in philology that have been overshadowed by their collection of folklore. Reading about the passionate discourse and scholar drama was also so interesting. I also never realized just how young the brothers were and how many of the stories collected were from young cosmopolitan women rather than the image of an elderly woman in the countryside.

The brothers were complex figures and are thoroughly explored flaws and all. The impact of their life’s work after their passing is also discussed in the conclusion. It really was a fascinating and informative read that made me appreciate those stories I use to love so much even more.

For anyone who loves fairy tales and ever wondered just who exactly were the brothers Grimm this is a must read.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publisher. I received an advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Maksim Karpitski · Rating 4 out of 5]

While their achievements are remarkable, the Grimm brothers were neither really good, nor evil, and their lives were definitely far from exciting, so their biographer's task seems especially daunting. To make things harder still, Ann Schmiesing doesn't want to impose a story upon the minor events that their lives are made up of, to dwell on interpretations apart from the most necessary and established as fact by numerous other researchers, or to embellish the dull and rather dry flow of text with literary flourishes. So considering all that, it's not the most obvious choice for summer reading, or even just reading, unless you're very much into the brothers themselves, XIX century Germany, or have to study the subject for college. Still, over time I found myself gradually drawn into the book and found it more and more rewarding. While Schmiesing doesn't share a lot of her own thoughts, she provides ample information, and if one wishes, there's enough there to better understand not just the titular brothers, but romanticism, nationalism, and modernity overall. One realizes that even though Jena circle romantics might've been more "fun", the Grimms brothers' lives are essential to understanding both their time and ours.

[Adri Holt · Rating 4 out of 5]

“And if they have not died, then they are still living today.”.

As most people, I too grew up on fairy tales and as I got older was introduced to the first fairy tales before they were Disney-fied, the Grimms Fairy Tales. The ones that were more macabre, gory, and dark than those of Disney’s retellings. Due to the twisting of these original tales by the Brothers Grimm, there are a lot of misconceptions that revolve around these brothers and not enough truth. Schmiesing delves into the brothers history and attempts to dispel as many misconceptions as possible whilst letting you relive the lives of these two brothers.
This biography is the first I’ve ever read on Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. I find it endearing concept how close to one another they were in life and their work. There were many facts that I learned about them and their accomplishments in just the first chapters of this book.
If you are not a scholar and are just reading this for funsies, take it piece by piece, and only if you’re really interested in the content. It takes time to absorb all the information being unpacked in this hefty biography. However, if you have the time, then pop a squat and learn more about these wonderful brothers.

#ThxNetGalley #AnnSchmiesing #TheBrothersGrimm

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a review copy of this book.

Biographies aren't something I'm usually drawn to, but I was intrigued by this biography on the Grimm brothers and was hoping to learn more about them as someone who only knows about them from their collection of fairytales.

This is a very detailed biography of the lives of the Grimm brothers, covering their lives from birth and exploring how events throughout their childhood and teenage years as well as political and social changes shaped their lives and their works. It is so detailed and fact heavy that I feel it's only really going to be fully understood and appreciated by other people with an academic background specialising in the same or very similar topics, it does not feel like it's designed for an everyday, general audience.

I found this biography very hard to read and, unfortunately, don't feel like I really took in many of the details about the Grimm brothers and their works. This is not something I would recommend reading unless you are studying the life and works of the Grimm brothers or have a background in studying the life and works of people.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

For many people, the Brothers Grimm evokes only such fairy tales as Snow White or Hansel and Gretel. But the Grimms were highly trained professionals, trained in law and linguistics, who played a crucial part in the history of Germany, particularly the progression toward German unification in the mid-19th century. Jacob Grimm also developed something called “Grimm’s Law” about how languages change over time. The Grimms efforts on behalf of medieval German literature and mythology would subsequently influence Richard Wagner, and indeed helped promote interest throughout Europe in “national” stories and languages. I recall shocking students in history classes by saying that the Grimms played a role in shaping trends that would eventually lead to World Wars I and II…I think Ann Schmiessing’s biography makes that case quite clearly. The book is also very informative of how tumultuous Germany was in the 19th century. Germans used the term “1848” for a situation that is chaotic…reading this book helped me understand what they mean.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

WoW ...........The Brothers Grimm by Ann Schmiesing was a fantastic book full of so much information about the famous Brothers Grimm and what a wonderful read this was. The Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, were German academics who together collected and published folklore. They are so famous for he best-known tales include “Hansel and Gretel,” “Snow White,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Tom Thumb,” “Rapunzel,” “The Golden Goose,” and “Rumpelstiltskin.” and so many more......Everyones childhood stories we all grew up with.
They also wrote the goriest, creepiest fairy tale in the whole Grimm canon, which was The Juniper Tree is a story of infanticide and revenge and what a scary book this was........Great for Halloween season!

This book was a great read especially as it was full of so much history of these great storytellers. I loved re-reading about them and re living my childhood favourites I used to read to my sisters.

A great book and a must read.

[Rosa Daiger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Schmiesing’s The Brothers Grimm is a fascinating and well-crafted biography that truly brings to life the world of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. What I appreciated most was how vividly she portrayed not only the brothers themselves, but also their close relationship, their family, and the historical context in which they lived. The book offers a rich and immersive look into 19th-century Germany, and I came away with a much deeper understanding of both the Grimms and their era.

That said, I did find myself wanting more engagement with a central question: why were these two men so personally fascinated with language? Schmiesing touches on it, but by the end, it still felt like something of an open mystery. For that reason, I’m giving it four rather than five stars. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and learned a great deal—not just about the Grimms, but about the cultural and intellectual world that shaped them

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remembered now primarily for their folk tales, the Brothers Grimm were scholars of the highest order and prolific in many areas of scholarship, including a vast German dictionary project and discoveries in the field of linguistics. Certainly not mere storytellers. In this first English language biography for 50 years, their lives and times are explored in comprehensive detail and all has been meticulously researched. Although extremely interesting, it is admittedly dry, dense and academic in tone, and not for the faint-hearted. I was forced to take it slowly but overall definitely found it worth the effort and concentration needed. It’s been described as magisterial and that seems the apt word to me. An impressive work.

[Ember Moto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well researched book, the pages are packed with information about the Grimm Brothers life. This does mean that the biography is rather dense and is probably best read in several sitting unless you are a serious academic. I like many others grew up reading Grimm's fairytales but new very little at all about the brothers who collected and preserves the tales. I knew so little about them in fact that until reading this book I didn't know there first names and thought Jacob and Wilhelm where twins! I am very glad to have read this book and learned so much about the brothers whos collected stories brought and continue to bring such joy to my life.Thank You to Netgalley for the ARC copy.

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really detailed biography of the Grimm Brothers, so big fans of theirs will be thrilled to read it. I listened to the audiobook, so because it was very detailed, dense and sometimes veered into slightly unrelated history, it was easy for me to zone out at times.

However, it was really interesting to learn more about the brothers’ lives, philosophies, other work besides fairy tales, and their differing personalities, viewpoints and lives — individualizing (and humanizing) them rather than seeing the two of them as one.

[Denice Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be difficult to find a person who has not enjoyed a story from the library of the Brothers Grimm. Not many know the life stories of the brothers. Ann Schmiesing's well researched and skillfully written biography is as engrossing as the fairy tales that have entertained many generations of children, teens and adults. So much of this information was new to me. Now I'll need to see how much of their history I can find worked into their fiction.

[Meagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography is well written and I learned a lot about the brothers.

It is just so interesting to dive deep into the stories I grew up reading and listening to at night.

I may be a nerd when it comes to facts but I like to read between the lines and have a better understanding of things.
This book helps me with that aspect.

Special thanks to #NetGalley and #YaleUniversityPress for the #ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to an audio book version of The brothers Grimm. I liked the cover of the book but, had no idea who the brothers grimm were before I listened to the book.

I had trouble remembering who all the brothers were so it was hard for me to follow what was going on in their lives or what they did.

So I want to listen to The Brothers grimm again so that I can remember their names and what they did in their lifetimes.