Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-182) and index
Introduction : wrestling with the book of Genesis -- Adam, Eve and the serpent : Mark Twain -- Cain and Abel : John Steinbeck -- From the flood to Babel : Jeanette Winterson -- The sacrifice of Isaac : Jenny Diski -- Rachel and her sisters : Anita Diamant -- Joseph and his brothers : Thomas Mann
This book considers a range of twentieth-century novelists who practise a creative mode of reading the Bible, exploring aspects of the Book of Genesis which more conventional biblical criticism sometimes ignores. Each chapter considers some of the interpretive challenges of the relevant story in Genesis, especially those noted by rabbinic midrash, which serves as a model for such creative rewriting of the biblical text. All the novelists considered, from Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Thomas Mann to Jeanette Winterson, Anita Diamant and Jenny Diski, are shown to have been aware of the midrashi
