JEAN CHRISTOPHE, zhan Icrls't6f, by Romain Rolland. One of the most noteworthy novels to appear in France, from the death of Zola to the opening of the World War, was the 'Jean Christophe' of Romain Rolland. Its im portance lies partly in the novelty of its infor mal manner and partly in the range and import ance of its theme. With regard to manner, Rolland has put away rhetoric and eloquence, climax, dramatic effect and all the traditional methods of the novelist, to tell his story in the simple language of conversation and to follow in his meandering and now and then clogged and almost tedious narrative, the slow-moving processes of life. With regard to his theme, he had set himself the task of studying the un folding of a musical genius, tracing him from infancy through childhood and adolescence in Germany, to full maturity in Paris, at a time of unsettled, shifting and conflicting ideals. This gradual unfolding of the temperament of Jean Christophe provides the principle of unity which links the 10 small volumes of the French edi tion. But the analysis of Jean Christophe's psychology is but one element of interest; for the larger aspects of the theme imposed them selves upon the author as he proceeded and as he brings his hero into contact with the ruling classes in Germany, with new-found French friends and with the world of music and letters. His minute study of a single great man thus widens, until it becomes a dispassionate yet keen survey of the national ideals of leading European peoples in the sombre twilight that marked the closing of the 19th century. Teacher and critic rather than great creative artist. Rolland had been moved to write the history of the inner life of the generation that came to maturity before the Great War and to present its account to posterity.
The task was a large one and the results were uneven. The earlier volumes, especially the first, dealing with the childhood of Jean Christophe in the old-fashioned south German town, have the clearness, quaintness and charm of old engravings and are artistically the most perfect. As he proceeds and his subject broadens, the author loses himself in disquisi tions on art and politics, but especially on music, which even when correct in substance are out of focus. The later volumes therefore give an impression of diffuseness and lack of artistic mastery and are marked by the touch of resent ment of one who had struggled long and bitterly for recognition. No author of the time, however, had shown greater penetration, and the con trast between Teuton and Latin character and civilizations was clearly and truthfully drawn. Rolland knew the hidden springs from which France grew her strength and was conscious of the coming °revival" of the spirit of France. He foresaw also the rapidly approaching era of force and war, and his later volumes read like a prophecy of the coming cataclysm which he deplored. This is a testimony to the truth of his diagnosis. When, however, after the outbreak of the war he pleaded in Above the Conflict, as he had done in his novel, for mutual understanding, he was disowned by the genera tion which had earlier acclaimed him as its spokesman.
When all is said, in spite of the touches of sourness, of inconsistencies, ttiresome disquisi tions and occasionally grotesque psychology, Rolland's scope and range, his earnestness, sin cerity and vision mark his work as one of the truly important achievements in French prose fiction of the last 25 years.