The Tables of the Law

By Thomas Mann

The Tables Of The Law recounts the early life of Moses, his preparations for leading his people out of Egypt, the exodus itself and the incidents at the oasis Kadesh, and the engraving of the stone tables of the law at Sinai. In Thomas Mann's ironic and telling style, this most dramatic and significant story in the Hebrew Bible takes on a new (and at times, witty) life and meaning. Like Joseph and His Brothers, it represents Mann's art at its best. He who dares to retell the story of the exodus must be bold, but to succeed he must be inspired as well. Here one would say Mann was inspired.

Thomas Mann won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. Among his most famous works are Buddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain, Death in Venice and Confessions of Felix Krull.

A new translation by Marion Faber and Stephen Lehmann.

'Brilliant... a little masterpiece.' Chicago Sun

'Can rank with the best of Mann's writing.' The Boston Globe

'Beautiful ... one of the best short novels he has written.' New York Times Book Review

Reviewed in the London Review of Books by Robert Alter. 2 December, Vol 32, No. 23

'The new translation by Marion Faber and Stephen Lehmann, which is brisk and direct, is a welcome replacement of the fussier and less accurate English version...' - London Review of Books.
Click here to see the full review online.