This tetralogy was, for Thomas MannThe project of his life. It occupied him throughout his later years, because he began writing the book in 1926 and did not finish it until 1943. He had published only two years before the initial deadline. The Magic Mountain, and four after the final, Doctor FaustusMore than 120 years earlier, Goethe had also been fascinated by the biblical story of Joseph and had wanted to give it his own interpretation, but he was unsuccessful. This became an inspiration for Mann, who did complete his work (he considered it a "divine picaresque novel"). Today we are fortunate to be able to read the first two books of the tetralogy, in a very thorough translation by Ramon Monton. Let me also applaud his edition: free of typos and sloppy work, something unfortunately rare in Catalan publishing.

"I'm used to releasing a finished work with a shrug of resignation, with no confidence in its potential for dissemination," he wrote. Thomas Mann (Lübeck, 1875 - Zurich, 1955) to Summary of my life, in Spanish in Nórdica, translated by Isabel Hernández. Mann wrote this short text – it doesn't exceed a hundred pages – on the occasion of being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929, still in the midst of the international expansion of The Magic Mountain, which in the author's words had achieved "a curious success", "less epic" than that of his "youth novel", The Buddenbrooks (1901; in Catalan in Navona, translated by Joan Fontcuberta): at just 25 years old, Mann had already become a literary star, and between this book and The Magic Mountain (1924; in Catalan to Navona, translated by Carme Gala) had built a robust literary career, displayed both in novels and in stories and essays.