The relevance of Lucky Per to contemporary readers

Nearing the end of Henrik Pontoppidan's monumental novel, Lucky Per, as Per - now broken off from his erstwhile fiancee, Jakobe, and her wealthy Jewish family (the Salomons) - goes back to rural Jutland and puts himself under the sway of the friendly Pastor Blomberg, whose vision of Christianity is something like what today we call "new wave," open, friendly, celebratory - and, in Per's view, probably all too easy. He's look for some version of Xtianity that will be a test and a challenge, though not as cold and strict as this practice of his father. Meanwhile, he proposes to Blomberg's daughter, Inger, and now they're engaged, though not w/out some trepidation, as Per seems forever in need of funds and living on credit. At the other end of the spectrum, Jakobe has moved to German to give birth to her child - a secret she's kept from everyone; the child dies in childbirth, sending J. into a deep depression, from which she gradually emerges when she begins a program to help and support the children of the working-class families in her community: She develops a real commitment to doing good, so who's the real Christian in this novel? She represents another way in which this noel is way ahead of its time, politically, ecologically, culturally. One quite fascinating section for a reader today is a discussion among some cynical, dull-witted workers who say they're not impressed w/ science or progress. Jokingly, they say the phone is a great invention, but why can't we call someone in China? Why can't we see him, and know what he's thinking? And why can't we have transportation that will bring us to America in a few hours - or even to the moon? Hm, well - but to be fair the novel also recognizes and wrestles w/ the harm that progress can bring to the environment, particularly in rural communities. Stylistically, Lucky Per is a novel of the 19th century, but some of its contents and themes are very much in the 20th, or even the 21st.