Books › Joseph und seine Brüder
Joseph und seine Brüder
First published 1934 · 2039 pages
A monumental, symphonic descent into the well of human myth, blending ancient history with profound psychological irony.
What it feels like
Reading this monumental epic feels like slowly descending into the bottomless well of human history. It is a deeply immersive, leisurely experience that demands patience but rewards it with a symphonic exploration of myth, time, and consciousness. The narrative voice is unmistakably modernist, erudite, philosophical, and laced with a gentle, knowing irony that makes the ancient world feel startlingly intimate and psychologically complex. You are wrapped in a grand, sweeping atmosphere of sun-baked deserts, opulent pharaonic courts, and the quiet, starry nights of nomadic patriarchs. It is a book for those who love to get lost in massive, intellectually rigorous tapestries, where every sentence feels like a deliberate step through the cyclical echoes of human destiny.
- Mood
- mythic
- contemplative
- sweeping
- ancient
- grand
- Tone
- philosophical
- ironic
- erudite
- majestic
- psychological
- Pace
- leisurely
- Themes
- the birth of consciousness · cyclical time · myth versus history · hubris and redemption · the ego and the collective
- The writing
- Dense, symphonic, and endlessly digressive, weaving a rich tapestry of ancient voices, philosophical musings, and subtle modernist irony.
- The arc
- Begins in the deep, ancestral shadows of mythic origins, moving through personal hubris and profound suffering to arrive at a mature, worldly reconciliation.
- Who it's for
- Patient readers who crave massive, intellectually rigorous epics that treat ancient mythology as a canvas for exploring the depths of human psychology.
Content notes
- familial betrayal
- slavery
- imprisonment
- sexual coercion
About the book
This remarkable new translation of the Nobel Prize-winner’s great masterpiece is a major literary event.
Thomas Mann regarded his monumental retelling of the biblical story of Joseph as his magnum opus. He conceived of the four parts–The Stories of Jacob, Young Joseph, Joseph in Egypt, and Joseph the Provider–as a unified narrative, a “mythological novel” of Joseph’s fall into slavery and his rise to be lord over Egypt. Deploying lavish, persuasive detail, Mann conjures for us the world of patriarchs and pharaohs, the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, and the universal force of human love in all its beauty, desperation, absurdity, and pain. The result is a brilliant amalgam of humor, emotion, psychological insight, and epic grandeur.
Now the award-winning translator John E. Woods gives us a definitive new English version of Joseph and His Brothers that is worthy of Mann’s achievement, revealing the novel’s exuberant polyphony of ancient and modern voices, a rich music that is by turns elegant, coarse, and sublime. --front flap
Description from Open Library.
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