First published in German in 1944,

It was with an immense sense of achievement (and a huge sigh of relief) that I finished this classic, which I read over a period of several months. This weighty tome comprising almost 1,500 pages of closely-printed text, is in fact four novels combined, and took the author some seventeen years to write. The translation into English by John E. Woods, reads fluently and convincingly, presumably mirroring the original German.

The novel follows the course of the life of Joseph, beloved son of the patriarch Jacob, as outlined in the Bible, but goes into events in far greater detail. In fact, what is described in the first of the four novels, entitled ‘The Stories of Jacob,’ goes far back into the history of that venerable ancestor, describing in vivid similitude the events surrounding his life, his love for Rachel, his being cheated by Laban, Rachel’s father, and the way he turned the tables and eventually duped Laban to enrich himself. Even Rachel, the beloved wife, tricked her father and stole his idols when Jacob decided to leave Laban’s household. In fact the entire history of our venerable........

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