The last three stories by Thomas Mann were written between 1940 and 1953, during the years when he was working on his major novels 'Joseph and His Brothers,' 'Doctor Faustus,' 'The Holy Sinner,' and 'Felix Krull.' The settings of these stories are very different: India in 'The Transposed Heads' (1940), Egypt and Mount Sinai in the Moses story 'The Law' (1943/44), and Germany in 'The Deceived' (1953). Accordingly, the themes are also contrasting. Following the tale of the beautiful-hipped Sita and her two husbands is the Moses story 'The Law,' which Franz Werfel referred to as a prelude on the organ, and finally 'The Deceived' presents death in Düsseldorf, a kind of counter-creation to death in Venice.