Thomas Mann’s “Joseph and His Brothers”

Very few people have read Thomas Mann’s book Joseph and His Brothers. The book is a novel about Joseph in Egypt.  In his book Mann narrates the story of Jacob and his family, but the focus of his book is the story of Joseph.

Joseph Epstein, in his article, “Putting Literary Flesh on Biblical Bones,” published in the Wall Street Journal, has a brief review of the book and some comments on Mann’s reasons for writing his novel.

Epstein concludes his article by saying that “In ‘Joseph and His Brothers’ [Thomas Mann] created a masterpiece, which is to say, a work built to last.”

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary