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A review by oleksandr
The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington
3.0
There is a fantasy novel set in the Medieval Europe during the period masterfully described by [a:Barbara W. Tuchman|137261|Barbara W. Tuchman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1229046503p2/137261.jpg] in her [b:A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century|568236|A Distant Mirror The Calamitous 14th Century|Barbara W. Tuchman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403200553l/568236._SX50_.jpg|227267]. The story tells about two brothers, Manfried and Hegel and their travel across war-torn and devastated by plague Europe.
The brothers Grossbarts are bad. As the book says at the start “To claim that the Brothers Grossbart were cruel and selfish brigands is to slander even the nastiest highwayman, and to say they were murderous swine is an insult to even the filthiest boar. They were Grossbarts through and true, and in many lands such a title still carries serious weight. While not as repugnant as their father nor as cunning as his, horrible though both men were, the Brothers proved worse. Blood can go bad in a single generation or it can be distilled down through the ages into something truly wicked, which was the case with those abominable twins, Hegel and Manfried.”
Unlike many stories, were a person introduced as bad, but in reality is good, this is not the case. The story starts with them coming to a farmer who beat them as boys when they stole from his garden. They start punching him, and when farmer’s wife tries to run them off with an axe, they kill her and later cut a throat to the farmer’s son and set fire to his house, killing two daughters. What is worse, they think that they are completely justified in doing so, proud (!) of their righteous deed.
As such the book is well researched and well written. The author clearly alludes to [b:The Canterbury Tales|2696|The Canterbury Tales|Geoffrey Chaucer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1261208589l/2696._SY75_.jpg|986234] and to sophistic debates from the period. Brothers’ heresy is quite interesting and in line with medieval sensibilities. At the same time, on emotional level it is very hard to read about people committing heinous deeds and then calling in full seriousness each other a Living Saint.
The brothers Grossbarts are bad. As the book says at the start “To claim that the Brothers Grossbart were cruel and selfish brigands is to slander even the nastiest highwayman, and to say they were murderous swine is an insult to even the filthiest boar. They were Grossbarts through and true, and in many lands such a title still carries serious weight. While not as repugnant as their father nor as cunning as his, horrible though both men were, the Brothers proved worse. Blood can go bad in a single generation or it can be distilled down through the ages into something truly wicked, which was the case with those abominable twins, Hegel and Manfried.”
Unlike many stories, were a person introduced as bad, but in reality is good, this is not the case. The story starts with them coming to a farmer who beat them as boys when they stole from his garden. They start punching him, and when farmer’s wife tries to run them off with an axe, they kill her and later cut a throat to the farmer’s son and set fire to his house, killing two daughters. What is worse, they think that they are completely justified in doing so, proud (!) of their righteous deed.
As such the book is well researched and well written. The author clearly alludes to [b:The Canterbury Tales|2696|The Canterbury Tales|Geoffrey Chaucer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1261208589l/2696._SY75_.jpg|986234] and to sophistic debates from the period. Brothers’ heresy is quite interesting and in line with medieval sensibilities. At the same time, on emotional level it is very hard to read about people committing heinous deeds and then calling in full seriousness each other a Living Saint.