Joseph and His Brothers: Book 1

The Tales of Jacob

By: Thomas Mann

Narrated by: Mark Elstob

Published over a ten-year period between 1933 and 1943, Thomas Mann’s Joseph and his Brothers is an epic four-part novel that works as a retelling of chapters twenty-one to thirty of the Book of Genesis. Described as a “Mythological novel”, It took Mann over sixteen years to write the novel and was considered by the writer as his greatest ever literary achievement.

in this first volume subtitled ‘The Stories of Jacob’, Mann begins with a meditative prelude named “Descent into Hell”, which contextualises the story against a variety of historical, mythological, and historical contexts, before moving on to the story of Joseph’s father Jacob. The following chapters follow Jacob as we learn of him stealing his brother’s birthright, before fleeing to his uncle Laban and his later marriages to Rachel and Leah.

Deploying Mann’s signature capacity for incredible, often mesmerising detail, Joseph and His Brothers brings to life a world of mythology and legend, set within the ancient kingdoms of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Palestine. The result is an immersive, awe-inspiring work of psychological depth – one that is replete with historical detail, ironic humour, and breathtaking grandeur.

This recording is based on John E. Woods definitive English translation, providing an authoritative retelling that is worthy of Mann’s landmark work.©1930 Thomas Mann (P)2025 W. F. Howes Ltd

Joseph and his brothers book1, the tales of Jacob.

This book is one of the best books I have read. The story, translation, and performance far exceeded my expectations.

Masterpiece

This masterpiece combines the stark realism of Biblical story telling with a profound philosophy of history informed by ancient religions and Jungian psychology. All four volumes should be taken as one novel. What a great event to have these four volumes made available on audio, with such a great reader!

sugoi nee!

bastante increíble que esta obra esté por fin disponible en audio! espero terminar pronto y seguir con las siguientes entregas! fascinante!

Beautiful

I have waited for years for this to be on Audible, and finally it is, and beautifully read. Magnificent achievement. Please hurry and do the rest of the Joseph books before I die.—(note! I’m 74: get on it!)

No More, Thanks

I liked Buddenbrooks just fine, but this is something else. The reviews of those who read J&HB in its entirety are mostly along the lines of, "It was really long, but I finished, and isn't that an achievement!" Not too many seem enamored of the actual content.
While listening to Book 1, I repeatedly got the mental picture of a big, overloaded cargo plane that's lumbering SLOWLY toward the runway, then struggling almost in vain to lift off. The plane gets a little air below its wings but never gains much altitude and repeatedly sinks to scrape the ground before bumping up a bit again.
Mann's pedantic tone grates on me ("This is how Scripture tells the story, but I'm going to tell you what REALLY happened"...as if he had some secret source of authoritative information that contradicts the written record.) The syncretism and heterodoxy are relentless. And there's no real dialogue until about hour 12 of this recording. The tedium is just too much for me to want to continue.
Nor is the narrator to my liking. The voices of Joseph and Rachel are particularly grating, and the narrator repeatedly places emphasis on (what I believe to be) the wrong words in a sentence. If anyone can listen to the death of Rachel and say, "Yes, I think that's what a dying woman would sound like when speaking her final words," then they will like the narrator, after all. To me, it was more like the dying opera star belting out the aria at full volume until she expires suddenly at the end. That can make for good (though fanciful) opera, but it doesn't make for good narration of a novel.
As you might guess, I'll be skipping Books 2-4.