The chronological structure of the stories written between 1916 and 1939 conveys a precise picture of Joseph Roth's literary development: the arc of his storytelling art spans from the early work The Preferred Pupil to The Legend of the Holy Drinker, »one of the most beautiful legends written in the 20th century became« (Marcel Reich-Ranicki), to the novella Der Leviathan, Roth's last allegorical story about the coral trader Nissen Pizenik.