Part One is wonderful. The remainder is very outdated. I can appreciate the man's spirit but am not really interested in early 20th century discourses on European culture and nationalism. Rolland, like Sinclair Lewis, was probably deserving of the Nobel in his time, but the lack of attention both receive today is indicative of how confined to their time their works were, IMHO. By the way, if we're going to read early 20th greats let's not forget Tagore.

I read this book when I was in high school. All summer nights in 1994!! I even felt bad as I progressed through the pages as if the book was a bag of cookies. Ideal, spiritual, as pure as the sound of a wood wind instrument.

A decade later I revisited this book this summer. The protagonist were no more as inspirational as before. First of all this Jean Christophe person is such a super moral man that I don't see any reality in his character. It is hard to imagine that Beethoven was such a character.( Another book by the same author. See how I was intrigued then.) Maybe I'm wrong. People born before WW2 could have lived different lives than our own.

I read it translated in Korean about 12 years ago. Though i felt it was somewhat boring at that time, i couldn't put it down, so i persisted. And now i know the book has been serving all these years as a formative novel to me. I am afraid I don't remember the details, but surely i remember how absolutely it absorbed me and arrested me. I want to get a copy of it now and read it again, for now I am sure i will be fully enjoying it, even loving the memory of boredom it gave me when i was a novice and dull reader. So sad it is out of print.

It is very nice book I like very much the historical books and the music books. Romain Rolland is a very good writer.

I'm ordering this book as a replacement copy for a brittle book in our music library, so I had occasion to review it briefly. It's well written and pleasant to read as well as giving an interesting glimpse of musical culture at the turn of the nineteenth century. I would consider it worth purchasing for either a library or a student who has interest in music history.