Joseph and His Brothers: The Stories of Jacob, Young Joseph, Joseph in Egypt, Joseph the Provider

This is the third of Mann's long works that I've read, the first two being "The Magic Mountain" and "Buddenbrooks," in that order, the former being one of my favorites. I'd once read a quote by Mann saying he considered "Joseph and His Brothers" to be his masterpiece. If so, I used to think, why wasn't it still in print? I suspected it may have been disingenuous on Mann's part. The two novels I just mentioned had already secured Mann's reputation as a master novelist and their staying power must have seemed all but assured at the time. Joseph, on the other hand, was a different story. Apparently, it never attracted near as much attention as those other creations of his. Whether or not Mann truly believed Joseph was worthy of being considered his best work, it was his longest and the one on which he spent his most strenuous effort. Its neglect clearly caused him anxiety. This is all discussed in the translator John E. Woods' introduction to this edition of Joseph, as well as in Mann's introduction from a much older edition which is also included here. Will this latest edition from Everyman help Joseph finally garner the critical acclaim Mann thought it deserved? A potential reader must seriously ponder at the outset the problem of deciding whether or not to read a 1500 page novel based on a quite familiar biblical story of about 40 pages in length. It would seem that the legend of Joseph has done just fine on its own in its inherited form. The main reason I would say to read this, if for no other, is that Mann demonstrates here that he is the consummate scholar-novelist. Beyond its novel aspect, Joseph is really an elaborate commentary and explication on the Book of Genesis and, in a most indirect manner, its impact on the Judeo-Christian heritage. The novel is rewarding in that regard, as well as for its magnificent historical set pieces. We are presented with vignette after vignette of how the people of this time lived and viewed the world, and particularly how myth blended with, indeed was synonymous with, their consciousness and how that determined their actions. Through Mann's glosses of the ancient myths of Egypt and Mesopotamia, one is able to trace the origins of many of the primary theological concepts of the Christian and Jewish faiths. If, however, the astounding scholarship is the novel's strength, then it is also its weakness, for it labors under it. There is too little mystery to the story - we all know what happens from the outset. Mann takes the biblical myth, blows it up, and refills the lacunae. Thus, one can get a better understanding of the motives of the players, and why things may have happened in the biblical myth as presented. To me this is all very interesting, yet academic. In reading a novel I desire the novel experience, and in this I look for characters not pre-determined. This would present quite a challenge to Mann were he not to alter the story. He is often successful in breathing new life into the players. For instance, his portrayal of Esau as the piping, uncouth goat-man and the disdain which Jacob feels for him in that regard; or Abraham as the shadowy figure who spurns the moon citadel of Ur and wanders Mesopotamia, forging a new religion along the way. Yet I feel the novel seldom becomes more than a presentation of exquisite detail, and the character Joseph is always as one would expect him to be. If you love Joseph already, as Mann clearly does, and feel he holds a special place in your faith or worldview, then this will be quite a delightful book. If not, if Joseph is looked upon only as a very important mythical figure with some basis in history, then it may not be so easy to share Mann's 1500 page enthusiasm for him.

Thomas Mann’s claim that “Joseph and his Brothers” was his masterpiece always took me by surprise. Surely, this book isn’t better than “Death in Venice” or “Magic Mountain,” critics respond. Well, perhaps not but it is in the same ballpark and that’s no mean accomplishment.This sweeping, often comedic, novel was a joy to read despite some initial frustrations and one of the most rewarding books I’ve come across in some time. John Wood’s translation brings this great book back to relevancy as Mann offers an interesting take on Genesis, life, death, family bonds, love and mythology. Wood’s introduction is stellar as well. Still, this is not a book for everyone and I suspect many readers will give up as they try to make sense of it all. I’d encourage them to slog through though the introduction is a bit cryptic and there are often strange and bewildering asides that only become clearer as the reader continues. The payoff is worth it to say the least though I’d advise readers to bone up on Genesis before reading this novel. Mann was one of the finest craftsmen to ever assemble a novel and readers will be swept up in his plot and characters. I finished this novel, which clocked in around 1,500 pages, and wanted more. Easily one of the best books I’ve come across in years.

For long this has been one of my very favorite novels. When I read the last page I wanted to start all over again. I would read a passage in the Bible and then turn in awe to see how Thomas Mann had managed to embroider the simple story, while remaining true to its inner resonances. It is a novel in every good sense of the word, but it is also a superb exegesis of the meaning within the story. I read it first in its entirety maybe when I was 30 years old or so and now in my 79th year am rereading it in the new translation by Woods. If you are a first time reader of the novel, I would probably on balance suggest that if you can find it, you are better off with the original Lowe-Porter translation. The Woods translation is probably more faithful to the German but does not read as smoothly in English. I find this one of the world's great novels and I have over a life time, read pretty much all of them. You have to be a patient reader, however, and be willing to tax yourself somewhat to go with the flow of the novel.

Joseph and His Brothers was Thomas Mann's "Humane Comedy" of the 1930's and 1940's. As his European world was collapsing in ideological extremism and descending into chaos, Mann turned his imagination to the Semitic and Egyptian worlds of 1600 BCE and invested the prodigious gifts of his ironic imagination in the all-too-human desires and deities of that world. Though it is enormously long--over 1400 pages of smallish print--the Joseph Saga unfolds its treasures of humane perception to the patient reader who savors Mann's delicious comedy. Read it slowly for full effect. Formerly available in Lowe-Porter's impossibly stilted Biblical prose, John Woods continues his Mann-cycle of translations here in what must have been a labor of love. No doubt the audience for this work is only a tiny fraction of that for his earlier Mann translations--especially Magic Mountain and Buddenbrooks. Let's hope Woods is still game for Felix Krull or, perhaps, a large selection of the shorter works. Woods' English is smooth and agreeable most of the time (consistent with Mann's German) and tart and biting when Mann's irony deserves it.

I'm not afraid of long books. I liked Moby-Dick and Infinite Jest. I read A Remembrance of Things Past, and only wanted more of the Narrator's maunderings. I would have read The Magic Mountain for seven years together, if that's what it took. This book is too long. It is, of course, a retelling of the stories of Jacob and Joseph from Genesis, which are excellent stories, but they don't bear the 1,500 page treatment. Mann adds a good deal of flavor from Persian and Sumerian legend, and the historical grounding of this novel in the reign of Akhenaton is a clever idea, but it's not quite enough to stretch a book out that much. Every Bible verse gets ballooned to at least twenty pages, and I'm not one to insist on a rigorous plot, but it loses something to spend 200 pages reading about how Potiphar's wife fell in love with Joseph, when you already know exactly how that will turn out. Even the nature of the story works against him. Mann makes note of how the story of Joseph parallels the story of Jacob -- a young man has to flee to a distant country because of his brother's jealousy, but then outsmarts the natives and becomes rich -- but that redundancy only makes the book drag heavier: The story of Jacob is a comparatively brisk 300 pages (and by far the best part of the book), and then we treat the same themes at quadruple the length. Occasionally Mann bucks this tendency to good effect. The climactic scene between Joseph and Potiphar's wife in her bedroom is coyly dealt with in half a page. But he actually seems aware that it's a slog. On page 1382, after Joseph and his brothers are reconciled, he pleads with his readers not to put the book down. Sarcastically, he imagines the reader saying, "So that was it, the lovely 'It is I' has been spoken, and it can't get any lovelier than that. That was the high point, and now the rest will just be played out, and we already know how, so there's nothing exciting left." This hypothetical reader is exactly right. --------------------- I'd also like to say a few words about the translator. Of course there's no accounting for taste, and (not speaking German) I can't say how accurate or suave the translation is. I know people seem to like him, but Woods' translation is very disappointing. It has no zest. I often think of Lowe-Porter's mellifluous phrasing, and some lovely passages from The Magic Mountain and the short stories stick with me, even now. This translation is literal, staid and straightforward. For a writer like Mann who is dreamy and discursive, it is not a good match.

The volume includes four novels meant to be read in sequence. This review deals with the first of those: The Stories of Jacob. You should read this in conjunction with Anita Diamant's Red Tent. Both recount the same mythic/biblical tale in very different ways. Diamant empathizes with the participants and helps the reader feel the immediacy and reality of the story. Mann deliberately distances the people and the events, introducing the reader to a different cultural reality, fraught with uncertainty, in which details matter little and repeating mythic patterns are more important than mere facts. "Let us consider the possibilities. Either Yitzehak [Isaac] experienced in Gerar the same thing, with minor modifications, that his father had experienced there or in Egypt -- in which case what we have before us is a phenomenon we might call imitation or devolution, a view of life, that is, that sees the task of individual existence as pouring the present into given forms, into a mythic model founded by one's forefathers, and making it flesh again. Or, however, Rebekah's husband did not 'himself' experience the story, not in the narrower fleshly confines of his own ego, but nevertheless regarded it as part of his own life story and passed it on to those who came later because he differentiated less sharply between 'I' and 'not-I' than we are accustomed to doing (with what dubious right has already been indicated), or at least were accustomed to doing before stepping into this tale; since for him the life of the individual was separated more superficially from that of the race, birth and death meant a less profound alteration of existence ... In word, it is the phenomenon of a more open identity, which stands alongside that of imitation or devolution and, locking arms with it, defines one's sense of self." p. 98 In Mann's narrative world the characters' perspective often differs sharply from what we now take for granted: "At the morning side of the world the chronological vigilance of the Occident was almost unknown. With far greater composure, time and life were left to themselves and to darkness, without subjecting them to the discipline of measuring and counting; and the question as to a person's age was so uncommon that anyone putting it might well be prepared for the shrugging nonchalance of an answer varying as much as whole decades and for hearing something like 'forty maybe, or seventy?' Jacob, too, was no longer quire certain about his own age and had no problem with that." p. 304 But yet he sometimes uses detailed description to bring characters to life: "But prettiest and most beautiful of all was the look in her black and slightly slanting eyes, sweetened and strangely transfigured by her nearsightedness, a look inot which nature, let it be said without exaggeration, had poured all the charm it can lend to any human gaze -- a deep, flowing, melting, cordial night that spoke both in earnest and in play -- such as Jacob had never seen before, or had ever thought to see." p. 182

Mann considered this novel to be his greatest achievement. History and critical opinion have begged otherwise. But could Mann maybe have been right? Part of the problem, at least for English speakers, was the lack of a suitable translation. (The only other translation I know of, by Helen Lowe-Porter, was senselessly rendered into stilted King James English. I find it incredible that Mann actually lent his blessing to that translation.) A few years ago, Woods solved that problem brilliantly, rendering Joseph into clear flowing English. To my surprise and delight, Joseph and his Brothers is actually compelling and entertaining reading, and really a far easier read than, say, Doktor Faustus. So, don't let its size scare you off. If you like Mann's other work even a little, try this one.

Goes without saying that this is one of the all time greatest historical novels and a great translation by Mr. Woods.BUT and this is a big BUT... This is the perfect book for Kindle reading due to its size and small print. Plus wouldn't it be nice to help protect the environment? At 1400+ pages that must be about a few trees per each book. Just charge $50 for the Kindle version if that's the issue. I would have gladly pay for it.

Great translation and lovely edition

Boa edição! Porém as folhas são fininhas e a fonte é pequena.

My book was delivered with pages 617 to 632 missing. What a disappointment for such a high quality publisher and production. Disappointed

Excellent

This book is a miracle. It is a miracle of Mann’s imaginative and creative mind, and of the remarkable power of his thought and expression. It is a miracle that Thomas Mann could take the short narrative about Jacob and his son Joseph in the Bible and from that create the whole ancient biblical world, with its ideas, beliefs and actions. Mann’s writing is exquisite and the power of his imagination extraordinary. Remarkably it is a book replete with sophisticated and subtle humour. It is true that this book is only for someone who is into the “long read”, four volumes will be off putting to many, but for those who are willing to cast themselves onto the voyage it is a journey which satisfies every day. The new translation by John E. Woods, is masterful. Literary German, and Mann’s German, is notorious for its complexity, but Woods makes it all comprehensible in clear, straightforward modern English. While Woods suggests it might be best to start on part 3, I personally would not recommend that. I think the best place to start is at the beginning, just where Thomas Mann started. This book is a joy to read and is truly Mann’s masterpiece.