(The life of Michelangelo offers one of the most striking ...)
The life of Michelangelo offers one of the most striking examples of the influence that a great man can have on his time. At the moment of his birth in the second half of the fifteenth century, the serenity of Ghirlandajo and of Bramante illuminated Italian art. Florentine sculpture seemed about to languish away from an excess of grace in the delicate and meticulous art of Rossellino, Disiderio, Mino da Fiesole, Agostino di Duccio, Benedetto da Maiano, and Andrea Sansovino.
The Fourteenth of July; and Danton: Two Plays of the French Revolution
(It is perhaps a little surprising to learn that the autho...)
It is perhaps a little surprising to learn that the author of Jean-Christophe has written at least sixteen full-length plays. Most of these; it is true; antedate the publication of the first parts of his epoch-making novel; but since nothing that comes from the brain of Romain Rolland can fail to possess significance and interest; a brief inquiry into his dramatic writings and theories on the drama will reveal an aspect of the man which has hitherto strangely enough scarcely been touched upon. His plays for a people's theater; and his book of projects; are as integral a part of his development as Jean-Christophe itself.
Mahatma Gandhi, The Man Who Became One with the Universal Being
(He is modest and unassuming; to the point of
sometimes s...)
He is modest and unassuming; to the point of
sometimes seeming almost timid; hesitant; in
making an assertion. Yet you feel his moment-
able spirit. He makes no compromises and
never tries to hide a mistake.
(This Western biography of Ramakrishna, written by a winne...)
This Western biography of Ramakrishna, written by a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in the early 1900s, has become a classic. The beautiful translation from French presents the story of Sri Ramakrishna in a captivating manner. Used in many colleges as an introduction to the saint.
(I must beg my Indian readers to view with indulgence the ...)
I must beg my Indian readers to view with indulgence the mistakes I may have made. In spite of all the enthusiasm I have brought to my task; it is impossible for a man of the West to interpret men of Asia with their thousand years’ experience of thought; for such an interpretation must often be erroneous. The only thing to which I can testify is the sincerity which has led me to make a pious attempt to enter into all forms of life.
Romain Rolland was a French historian, critic, educator, and author. He wrote in the early twentieth century, but his narrative style was sweeping and idealistic, and his subject matter usually dealt in some way with nineteenth-century German composers.
Background
Romain Rolland was born on January 29, 1866, in Clamecy, Nièvre, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France. He was the son of Emile and Antoinette-Marie Courot Rolland. His mother came from a family of iron-masters and notaries, while his father was a lawyer.
Education
In 1880 Romain Rolland's family moved to Paris in order to obtain better schooling for him. He attended the Lycée Saint-Louis. In 1886 Rolland entered the École Normale Supérieure. After passing his agrégation examination in history, Rolland continued his studies at the French School of Art and Archaeology in Rome, where he formed a lasting friendship with Malwida von Meysenbug. He received his doctorate in art in 1895, with the first dissertation on music ever presented at the Sorbonne.
Romain Rolland was a professor of art history at the École Normale in Paris. In 1904 he continued his academic career as a professor of the history of music at the Sorbonne. While still a teacher, Rolland's first literary vocation was the theatre. In his mid-30s he wrote successful dramas about the French Revolution. After his best-known work, Jean-Christophe (1904-1912), was finished, Rolland devoted himself entirely to writing. It was published serially in Cahier de la Quinzaine from 1903 to 1912 and published in translation from 1910 to 1913.
Rolland had already published a biography on Beethoven in 1903. Although this work was partly based on the life of the composer, it also took elements from Mozart's and Wagner's careers. Rolland portrayed his protagonist as a heroic figure, a fighter for social justice. He is a courageous, uncompromising soul.
Rolland often used his fame to promote his ideals. As forces of war gathered in Europe he became an outspoken pacifist, urging internationalism. He moved to Switzerland in 1914, hoping to help build a cosmopolitan society. He wanted to escape the intense nationalism that he felt was ripping Europe apart. During World War I, he wrote several antiwar essays, a response to which was mixed. In his most famous essay, "Au-dessus de la melee," he condemned all forms of violence. He published a collection of essays opposing the conflict between Germany and France during the war, also titled Au-dessus de la melée, in 1915. That year Rolland won the Nobel Prize in literature. In 1913 Rolland wrote the novel Colas Breugnon, which came out in 1919. It depicted the life of a 16th-century woodcarver. With the antiwar article 'Au-dessus de la mâlée' (1914, Above the Battle) published in Swiss newspapers. From 1914 Rolland lived principally in Switzerland. After the war, Rolland's plays were more popular in Germany than in France. Their declamatory, didactic nature probably influenced Brecht's concept of epic theatre.
In 1923 Rolland founded the magazine Europe, which opposed nationalism. Taking an interest in Indian philosophy, he wrote a biography of Mahatma Gandhi (1924) – the spiritual leader of India visited him in Switzerland in Villeneuve, on the shore of Lake Leman, in 1931. While traveling in the Soviet Union in 1935, Rolland met Gorky, whose Manichean views shocked him, and Stalin; he was granted two interviews with the dictator. In Switzerland Rolland, he completed the second novel cycle, The Enchanted Soul (1922-1933). The seven-volume novel centers on a female counterpart of Jean-Christophe, and a woman, Annette, who becomes disenchanted with material possessions and struggles to achieve her spiritual freedom. Other central characters are Sylvie, Annette's half-sister, and Annette's son Marc.
Following the burning of books by the Nazis, the German exile writers founded in 1934 a German Freedom Library under the presidency of Rolland. It soon housed 11,000 volumes. In 1938 he and his second wife returned to France. During the last years of his life, Rolland lived in Vézelay and worked on the biography of the poet and essayist Charles Péguy (1873-1914). Among Rolland's other works are several psychological biographies of artists and politicians (Michelangelo, Danton, Beethoven, Tolstoy, etc.). His cycles of plays include The Tragedies and Faith, Saint Louis (1897), The Triumph of Reason (1899), and Theater of Revolution, dramas concerning the French Revolution.
Romain Rolland was raised a Catholic. He had lost his religious faith as a young man. Influenced by the thought of Baruch Spinoza, Romain Rolland adopted a pantheistic faith in nature.
Politics
Romain Rolland welcomed the international Socialist movement, but he never was a member of the Communist Party and did not read Marx nor Engels. Rolland never joined any party but he acquired a reputation as an ardent Communist.
Rolland’s uncompromising pacifist stance outraged the French, who felt justified in defending against German attacks. Rolland was accused of pro-Germany sympathies. Sentiment against Rolland did not fade after the war, and he remained in Switzerland until 1936. He thought the Treaty of Versailles had settled nothing; if anything, it had aggravated tensions. He appealed for international cooperation during the years between the world wars and enlisted the help of other prominent European intellectuals to organize an international community. He succeeded in forming the International Congress against War and Fascism in 1932. But through the rest of the decade, Germany’s simmering threat made war seem inevitable. Even Rolland came to admit self-defense as a necessary evil.
Views
Romain Roland’s most successful literary technique is using the river as his dominant thematic motif. In the novel cycle, life is the flow of phenomena. Its parts, humanity and the natural world, are all formed from the same essential elements, governed by the same laws, and are interdependent. Important to the novel cycle is Roiiand’s belief that art should express moral truth and combat the disintegration of values. Rolland was enamored with German artists. He was attracted to the metaphysical orientation and power of German Romantic art and claimed an affinity with the Teutonic people. Yet as a trained historian and critic, he was as objective and accurate as possible.
Quotations:
"There is only one heroism in the world: to see the world as it is, and to love it."
"Any man who is really a man must learn to be alone in the midst of others, to think alone for others, and, if necessary, against others."
"Discussion is impossible with someone who claims not to seek the truth, but already to possess it."
"The friend who understands you, creates you."
Membership
Romain Rolland was an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Personality
Romain Rolland wrote in 1890, "I would not be a professor for anything in the world... I am an artist at heart."
Interests
music, painting, history, literature
Philosophers & Thinkers
Baruch Spinoza
Writers
William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Artists
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
Music & Bands
Ludwig van Beethoven
Connections
In 1892 Romain Rolland married Clotilde Breal. In 1901 the couple divorced. In 1934 he married Maria Pavlovna Koudacheff.