Evening star., 1944-06-25
The Nev Books
Joseph the Provider

By Thomas Mann. Translated
From the German by II. T..
Lot0e-Porter. (fKnopt.)
With this volume. Thomas Mann
brings his long Joseph story to its
end. The vast rugged structure
which for decade has been rising,
volume by volume, before a duly
awe-stricken world Of literates, now
stands complete. A sigh of en-
chanted acquiescence may we'll 60
up from readers who have followed
the progress Of the enormous labor
The novel-and by novel the re-
viewer means the whole Joseph
series-is an anomaly in the htera-
ture of its time. Both materially and
spiritually, 1t stands across the cur
rent. It has the structural char
acter of work of cyclopean ma
sonry-laborious, gigantic, amazing
to the modern eye. And In spirit
it is diametrically opposed to the
preoccupation of its day. which is
almost wholly given to the particu-
lar aspects Of human conduct.
With a boldness which is so sim
pie as to be heroic, it goes back to
the source of all our conduct, to the
root from which all our institu-
tions and codes have derived their
existence-the concept of human
ity's relationship to God The
Joseph story, in DR.. Manns words,
is indeed, the "God-story" and this
he means us to take In a primitive
sense which sweeps aside and makes
wreckage of all rationalization-his
Joseph story is starkly of God, the
sentient Being who ordained "the
moral world" and intervened in hu-
man affairs to make His will ap-
parent. The actions set in motion
in the Joseph plot, says DR.. Mann,
have given direction to subsequent
history and are continuing still; we
live today, in other words, within
the Joseph plot. 1t is this interpre-
tation which makes his novel a
thing apart from other novels based
on promitive legends. The earnest
ness with which he reiterates his
theme of perpetuity and historical
inclusiveness has character that
is priestly
And how, one may ask, does the
very old Joseph story include his
tory to the present? The answer
which DR.. Mann gives lies in the
drama of election. 1t was the chill
dren of Jacob, he says, who were
elected to bring knowledge Of the
One God into the world, and in the
tale of Joseph the consequences Of
that bringing are implicit. Joseph,
himself. the exile who always held
the kinsmen who had wronged him
above the strangers who had done
him honor, Joseph the keen busi-
nessman, the worldly wise and cyni-
cal-he is plainly personif1catio
In Egypt, he meets the tender and
sentimental religion of love" which
the boy Pharaoh is endeavoring to
establish, whence we see a fore
|shadowing OF Christianity and the
interplay and conflict resulting.
And finally, almost at the close Of
the book, we have the assertion that
the children of Jacob, bowling
down to the One God, worshipped
Him as Triune Being comprising
the Father, the Good Shepherd and
the Doye-of which Dr. Mann says
simply, Il cannot tell whether all
that goes home to YOU" But the
Implication is clear to any one who
will read-the Joseph novel is a
statement Of the unique destiny of
the Jewish people in the material
and spiritual progress of the world.
That is by no means all that q
review of the book should include,
but it is the essence and as much
as the prevailing paper shortage
will permit. The rest must be
summed up in word-Masterpiece.