Alfred Grimm
Joseph und Echnaton: Thomas Mann und Ägypten.
Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1992. First edition. 3805314124 468 pages.
Hardcover volume, measuring approximately 7" x 10", shows very light shelfwear. Binding is firm. Interior is clean and bright. 
Companion publication to the special exhibition "Joseph and Akhenaten – Thomas Mann and Egypt" (Lübeck, Munich, Berlin, Zurich, Bern 1992–1993).
"An Egyptologist reads Thomas Mann’s Joseph novels. He is fascinated not only by the author’s power of empathy regarding the world of the ancient Nile Valley but also finds himself in familiar surroundings; for the writer’s words translate well-known images of ancient Egyptian artworks—statues, reliefs, and paintings found in Egypt and in museums around the world—into text. Yet Thomas Mann also adheres closely to the wording of the Egyptological works that served as his raw material.
In a collage of text and images, Egyptologist Alfred Grimm reveals for the first time the astonishingly close connections between Thomas Mann’s text and egyptological source materials, while uncovering an impressive wealth of previously overlooked visual sources that served as direct models for the novel’s characters, locations, and situations. A disillusioning revelation, an indiscreet glimpse into the writer’s workshop, an exposé of Thomas Mann? Quite the opposite: a tribute to the genius who transforms scholarship into art—to the twentieth-century poet who brings ancient Egypt into the present and integrates it into the mindset of our own time."