Romain Rolland is recognized worldwide as a writer and playwright. But not every fan of his work knows that the French novelist was an excellent musician, music historian and actively participated in social activities. Rolland was a friend of the Soviet Union and closely followed the changes in the country of victorious socialism.
Romain Rolland: facts from the biography
The famous French novelist Romain Rolland was born in Burgundy in 1866. He studied at the Higher Normal School in Paris, where he graduated. After leaving school, the future writer spent two years in Italy. Here he studied fine arts, comprehended the work of great composers. In his student years, Rolland seriously studied music, played the piano excellently. He wrote the first doctoral dissertation on music in the history of the Sorbonne. Rolland served as professor of music history at the Sorbonne.
Rolland was in correspondence with Leo Tolstoy, whose influence played a role in the formation of the pacifist and humanistic views of the novelist. The mysticism and romanticism inherent in Rolland's work became an echo of the writer's acquaintance with German literature.
The creative path of the writer
Romain Rolland began his career as a playwright. In this field, he quickly achieved success. His plays The Tragedy of Faith, The Triumph of Reason, and Saint Louis were not historical in the true sense of the word. These works were followed by the plays "Danton", "July 14", "Robespierre", where the connection of the plot with the real events was traced more clearly. Rolland actively advocated the creation of a completely new type of drama.
Simultaneously with his dramatic works, Rolland worked on prose. One of his most famous works was the novel "Jean-Christophe". The hero of the book is a composer who was born in a small town on the banks of the Rhine and ended his life in Italy. His music was not universally recognized. In overcoming life's difficulties, Jean-Christophe relies on love and friendship.
One of the hobbies of the French novelist is the biography of historical figures. Romain Rolland created a number of vivid biographies, depicting the life of Beethoven, Tolstoy, Michelangelo, Mahatma Gandhi.
Social activity
After the outbreak of the First World War, Rolland remained in Switzerland. He made more than one attempt to reconcile the intellectual elite of France, Germany and Belgium. The novelist's arguments were set forth by him in a series of articles that were subsequently included in the collection Above the Fight. Romain Rolland's literary merits are recognized all over the world. In 1915 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. During the award ceremony, the high level of his works, sympathy and love for truth were noted.
Rolland embraced the February Revolution in Russia with enthusiasm and approved of the events of October. However, he did not fully accept the methods of the Bolsheviks who came to power. Rolland believed that not every good end justifies the means. The writer was closer to the ideas of Gandhi, who preached the idea of non-resistance to evil by violence.
After the end of the Civil War in Russia, Rolland met Maxim Gorky. In 1932, Rolland was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Being invited to Moscow in 1935, the writer communicated with Joseph Stalin. Later Rolland wrote to the head of the Land of Soviets, trying to stand up for the repressed N. I. Bukharin. However, he never received an answer to his message. The writer passed away in 1944 in France after contracting tuberculosis.