Joseph and his brothers by Thomas Mann

Author:Thomas Mann [Mann, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Joseph (Son of Jacob), Bible
Publisher: New York : Everyman's Library
Published: 2005-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

of correspondence between the scribes Hori and Amenemone, plus religious and magical texts and tracts on wisdom in a dark, elaborate language, as well as lists of kings from the days of the gods down to the alien shepherd kings, along with dates for the reign of each son of the sun and annals of notable historical events, such as extraordinary levies of taxes and important jubilees. Nor did he lack the Book of Breathing, works entitled Striding Through Eternity and May the Name Flourish, or a learned geography of the world beyond.

Potiphar knew them all well. He hstened in order to hear something familiar, the way one listens to music. This response to what was offered him was all the more appropriate since for the great m.a-jority of these works it was not their contents or the fable that counted, but instead, the important factor was the charm of the style, the rarity and elegance of the rhetoric. With his feet drawn up under him or standing at a kind of liturgical lectern, Joseph made an excellent reader—fluent, precise, without pretensions, moderately dramatic, and so natural in his command of words coming from his lips that even the most difficult formal writing had the sound of conversational palatability and improvised ease. He literally read his way into his listener's heart, and for a better understanding of the simple fact of his well-known rise in the Egyptian's favor, these hours of reading should certainly not go unremarked.

Potiphar, by the way, would often soon doze off as he listened, lulled by the reserved, yet pleasant voice speaking to him so evenly and intelligently. But he would also interrupt the reading sometimes to correct Joseph's pronunciation, to call both his own and his reader's attention to some rhetorical flourish or to offer literary criticism of what he had heard; he might even discuss some obscure passage with Joseph, so taken was he by the lad's keen mind and exegetical talents. Over time the master's personal and emotional bias for certain literary works became evident—for example, his preference for the "Song in Praise of Death by a Man Weary of Life," which he often had Joseph read to him as his days of service wore on and in which a yearning, but steady voice compared death with many good and gentle things: with recuperation from a grave illness, with the fragrance of myrtle and lotus blossoms, with sitting beneath the shelter of an awning on a windy day, a cool drink beside the shore, a path in the rain, the homecoming of a sailor from his battleship, a reunion with family and home after years of captivity,

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