Jean-Christophe ("JC") was the last book I read as part of my "Powys project": 18 months of great reading, and 100 books. In a way this sprawling monster of a book was an appropriate way to end it, so many of the prior writers were mentioned and many of the earlier themes, so many opportunities were provided to compare JC to the other reading. It was finished in 1911, just five years before Powys put together his list of 100 greatest books, so it captures a lot of the thinking at the time.
JC is the original "roman-fleuve" (river novel), a term coined by Rolland, the other great example of which is Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past." It is incredibly long, 1,534 pages, and while not difficult reading from a stylisitic view was extremely dense and required considerable concentration.
Approaching a novel of this length, it's rather difficult to summarize, but I would divide the book into different topics or themes as follows: 1) sections dealing with JC's various love relationships, platonic with both men and women, and not platonic with some of the women, 2) a general narrative of the life of a musician, first in Germany, second in Paris, and at the end in Switzerland, Italy, and then back in Paris, 3) a series of "portraits" of various people in European society, describing their lives in a page or a few pages, 4) occasional sequences of dialogue which seemed to come straight out of a play (and Rolland was a playwright as well), 5) a book of artistic theory through the lens of music, and 6) a book of social discourse on the various events and thoughts occurring in Germany and France at the time of the Third Republic and the rise of Bismark, and also dealing with events such as the rise of socialism and the Dreyfus Affair.
Rolland is most successful in the book when he describes the non-platonic relationships of JC with women, particularly Ada and Anna. The book at these times seems very realistic, and the book is quite powerful. Until the Ada chapter, the first 300 pages of the book were sort of like "Goethe light", and almost unbearable. These relationships had by far the greatest impact on me as the reader.
Rolland has JC fall in love with two men, first Otto, his first love, and then later his great love/friendship with Olivier. Rolland's description of these relationships is very frank. Less successfully done are his numerous platonic relationships with women, of which are there almost too many to list. These seems a little unrealistic and even disappointing, particularly towards the end.
Outside of JC's various "loves" are the friends he has that he does not love, the most successful portrayal of this is his relationship with his elderly admirer "Stolz", in fact this particular episode to me was the most successful in the book.
Next, Rolland describes the history of JC as an artist and a musician, as JC moves from being a very hot tempered creator to being more subdued in later life. The description of the creative process is described in rather elevated terms. I found this to be fairly successful, although - jokingly - I kind of wanted to hear the music.
Rolland's portraits, most famously done in the "House" chapter (which describes, floor by floor, the inhabitants of Rolland's lodging in Paris) are incredibly interesting, but truly falls in the realm of the "tell, not show" way of writing, which gives it to me more sociological than literary interest. There are so many of these - hundreds? - the book is endless - and yet they are never boring.
Rolland does not use dialogue often, but when he does, it is usually in a set scene that runs on for a few pages. These scenes are very well done and are a welcome relief from the rest of the book, as you are finally being shown how the characters are rather than being told. Rolland has a nice taste for the dramatic.
The general artistic theory passages, which are extensive, are largely incomprehensible, as Rolland can't seem to articulate anything concrete. This can be incredibly frustrating at times, in particular, the critics are constantly being complained about without any meaningful sense of "why". Rolland seems wrapped up on vagaries.
Finally, where Rolland is at his weakest and most painfully naïve (in light of future events) is the sociological criticism, whether discussing the differences between the French and the Germans, his thoughts about French society, and his discussion of Jews (while Rolland is not anti-Semetic per se, some of his comments are disturbing). It is all very "race-conscious", and while incredibly interesting as a reflection of what society at the time was thinking about itself (as opposed to later historians), it is almost sad to read.
That being said, one of the most interesting things about the book is how society back then reflected society today. There is a long discussion about feminism and working women which could have been written yesterday. The discussion of the Dreyfus Affair and the way it divided families and the French nation seems similar to recent discussions of Donald Trump. One very interesting thing is how prevalent atheism or "free thinking" was - religion was in decline even before the World Wars accelerated the process. So the book has to me incredible value to someone studying the history of that period and looking for what people were thinking at the time. It also shows how utterly distant from the mind of today people were back then.
All of the foregoing being said (I apologize for the length of this review, but this book is so incredibly long, I left the need to approach it in this fashion), the question remains of the book as a whole. In that regard I have to start by saying that although there are certain similarities to the coming of age novels of many of the writers in the Powys list, Rolland's book was a unique experience, in that I really felt I was "living the life" of JC, and rather than "observing" his life, I was brought in so deeply into his thoughts and experiences, reading the book was a much more meaningful experience than the Maugham book or the Meredith book. That being said, JC was not a particularly admirable person - he was deeply flawed throughout, and often behaved abominably. On the other hand, he wasn't an anti-hero, he was meant to be sympathetic, particularly in his artistic endeavors, and sometimes he showed heroic qualities. Nonetheless, at all times he seemed very real to me, and on a personal level his experiences had meaning, I felt like I was living an alternative version of my own life, rather than reading about someone else's life. I don't know if this is because of a personal artistic temperament of mine, but there was a different kind of realism to this book which I can only describe as emotional.
Powys' description of the book makes sense - it would be a good book to use to create your own artistic philosophy of life, but as noted, I did find that to be one of the weaker parts of the book, and I'm not sure if the comment would be applicable today.
Finally - who would I recommend this to? Well, if you want to experience the "roman-fleuve", a different reading experience than what you may have previously had, this is a good example. If you are interested in literary and sociological thinking at the time of the Third Republic (1890 to 1910), or if you love music (particularly Beethoven) and want to revel in the story of a musician, this novel would be worth exploring. Rolland was famous in his day - he won the Nobel Prize in 1914, he was with Joyce in Zurich in 1917 (and was one of the signatories asking for the complete Ulysses to be published), he was an ardent pacifist, he carried on a long correspondence and was a major influence on Freud, and Jean-Christophe was read by pretty much all of his literary contemporaries until it largely disappeared after WWII, and was largely ignored by the modernist movement. While I don't view it as a masterpiece or even a work of particular genius, it is an incredible achievement. It is the furthest thing from a quick and easy beach read that you could possibly imagine. So there - I recommend it as an "extreme reading experience" - there should be a special club for those who have made it through the whole thing (and by the way, don't give up! - it's always getting better). Let me know when you finish, I'm happy to take you out to dinner, we could talk all night about it.