Extraordinary masterpiece …

… Joseph and His Brothers | Thomas Mann | Putting Literary Flesh on Biblical Bones | Masterpiece by Joseph Epstein - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The book is studded with exquisite touches. Laban, Jacob's exploiting father-in-law, possesses "the hands of a having man." Of Jacob's love for Rachel, Mann writes: "Such is love, when it is complete: feeling and lust together, tenderness and desire." Apropos of Jacob's agedness, he writes of "the touching if unattractive misshapenness of old age." Potiphar's wife, distraught over her passion for Joseph, is barely able to eat "a bird's liver and a little vegetable." Rachel's labor in giving birth to Joseph is so well described as to leave the reader exhausted.