Jean le Bleu, a story like a Russian doll, and a fractal work

In its relation to the author’s other works, both earlier and later, Jean le Bleu is like a Russian doll from which one can extract and develop stories that all revolve around a family triad of avatars of “fathers” and “sons,” competing against each other in the pursuit of a young woman. But the principal narrative provides a rebuttal of this Oedipal scenario: a hymn to the glory of the father by a loving son, in a united family. It is therefore both an invented novel and a crypto-autobiography.