{"product_id":"9781589880573","title":"The Tables of the Law","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Brilliant…a little masterpiece.\"—\u003ci\u003eChicago Sun-Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Beautiful…one of the best short novels he has written.\"—\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Can rank with the best of Mann's writing.\"—\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Magnificent…one of the greatest bits of writing which one of the world's greatest writers has ever given us.\"—\u003ci\u003eChicago Herald-American\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Brilliant…one of those splendid novelettes which in this reviewer's opinion represent the very essence of Mr. Mann's literary art.\"—\u003ci\u003eSaturday Review of Literature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Thomas Mann wrote this engaging novella in a few weeks in 1943. (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 done by Helen Lowe-Porter for the original publication.)…What is especially noteworthy about \u003ci\u003eThe Tables of the Law\u003c\/i\u003e among Mann's fictions is its playfulness.\" —Robert Alter, \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"His senses were hot, and so he yearned for spirituality, purity, and holiness—the invisible, which seemed to him spiritual, holy, and pure.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThus Thomas Mann introduces Moses in \u003ci\u003eThe Tables of the Law\u003c\/i\u003e, the Nobel Prize winner's retelling of the prophet's life. Invited in 1943 to write this story as a defense of the Decalogue, Mann reveals how strange and forbidding Moses' task was. As \"the Lawgiver\"—endowed with the wrists and hands of a stonemason—engraves the tablets, so he hews the souls of his people:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Into the stone of the mountain I carved the ABC of human behavior,but it shall also be carved into your flesh and blood, Israel…\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMann's tale of the ethical founding and molding of a people sharply rebukes the Nazis for their intended destruction of the moral code set down in the Ten Commandments. But does his famous irony and authorial license mock or enhance the Biblical account of the shaping of the Jewish people? You know the Bible story. Now read Mann's version—it will grip you anew.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNewly translated from the German by Marion Faber and Stephen Lehmann.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"To present the foundation of law for half the world is no simple task. \u003ci\u003eThe Tables of the Law\u003c\/i\u003e is a historical title following Moses as he is tasked by God to present the ten commandments, providing a human and much different insight on the role of Moses as the Prophet of God. Expertly translated, \u003ci\u003eThe Tables of the Law\u003c\/i\u003e is a solid addition to any literary fiction collection.\"—\u003ci\u003eMidwest Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThomas Mann\u003c\/b\u003e (1875–1955) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. His many works include \u003ci\u003eBuddenbrooks\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Magic Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eConfessions of Felix Krull\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMarion Faber\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eStephen Lehmann\u003c\/b\u003e co-authored a biography of the pianist Rudolf Serkin and have together translated Nietzsche's \u003ci\u003eHuman, All Too Human\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Wood\u003c\/b\u003e is the Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Princeton University.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dry, Paul Books, Incorporated","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47056828858608,"sku":"9781589880573","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781589880573_p0.jpg?v=1763801668","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781589880573","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}