One of the things I love about the level of detail in this biography is how it shows the day-to-day interactions among family and community. Yes, C&S were accepted and cherished by their community, but that doesn't mean everything was constant sunshine and roses. They had family squabbles. People may have accepted them as a couple but that doesn't mean there were never any qualms about the propriety of women living without a man in charge of the household. C&S had a comfortable and secure life at the cost of an unrelenting work schedule, but was it that different from the unrelenting schedule either would have had as a farmwife? When discussing their religious lives, I keep getting the feeling that Cleves sees them as considering their relationship in some way "sinful" but I would have like a better comparison with what other people in their circle considered "sinful" in their own lives. This was a religious community strongly focused on the sins of everyday life and everyone's need for religious redemption, so I question whether they were unique in this.
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