Non-Christian here. What, if anything, is the usual narrative and feelings about Isaac, Jacob, Esau and Rebecca, not limited to the matter of the birthright?

Full disclosure, I'm asking about this because of House Of Leaves.

I've tried studying a bit about the various Abrahamic religions, coming from outside them as I do, but one thing I've become aware of is how much the framing can matter, so much more than text. A book I'm reading talks more than a bit about Isaac, Jacob, Rebecca and Esau, particularly about Esau's birthright. I'm fairly certain the author is coming from a Jewish perspective on these characters, though few of the characters in the book are Jewish themselves, but as an outsider I don't know how almost *anyone* is taught to speak about these characters. What cultural assumptions am I intended to come in with, whether or not they're intended to be challenged by it? Does it vary considerably, or are there some pretty broadly accepted feelings and teachings about these figures metatextually? Obviously there's the scriptures themselves, but that tells me almost nothing. I assume this is covered in the Talmud, but (again as an outsider to all this) I don't know how much of what's written in the Talmud enters into common discourse on these figures.

(And my glance just now at the Midrash was somewhat dizzying, that looks really dense. "@\_@ )