Joseph Und Seine Bruder (Die Geschichten Jacobs; Der Junge Joseph; Joseph in Aegypten; Joseph Der Ernahrer)

First Edition. Extremely scarce 4-volume set of Mann's monumental Joseph tetralogy, all volumes being in first edition. The publishing history began conventionally enough with S.V.

Fischer in Berlin in 1933 (Die Geschichten Jacobs). This was followed in 1934 by Der Junge Joseph, also issued in Berlin. By 1936 however, Fischer had been forced by the Nazis to decamp to Vienna and it was there that Joseph in Aegyten (appropriately enough a novel about exile) was published.

The final volume did not come out until 1943, this time in Stockholm and under the Bermann-Fischer imprint. The 10 year time-lag and the turbulent times, as well as the various places of publication mean that complete sets of this major work are hard to find. The first three volumes are in the cream to buff linen bindings used on Mann's books from 1922 (black spine title labels, gilt lettering and decoration, top edges stained red or brown). the fourth volume is in the Stockholm edition cloth binding (brown buckram lettered in gilt).

Vols. 1, 3 & 4 are VG+ to Fine condition. Vol. 2 shows uniform darkening to covers and page edges, a fault common to all copies of this book I have inspected. Still a VG copy.

Vols. 1-3 were all issued in 10,000 copies whilst Vol. 4 is one of just 5,000 copies. All the volumes were issued in both hardback and wrappers simultaneously, and whilst the hardbacks are slightly less scarce, they are rarely encountered in such uniformly nice condition.