Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland is a French writer born on January 29 1866 in Clamecy, Nièvre and died at Vézelay on December 30 1944.
He won the Nobel Prize for Literature 1915 for his masterpiece Jean-Christophe.
His first work was published in 1902. He was 36 years old.
The Teaching Career
History teacher at Lycée Henri IV and at the Lycée Louis le Grand, history teacher at the École française de Rome, professor of The History of Music at the Sorbonne, History Professor at the École Normale Supérieure.
An Active Loner
His mind sculpted by a passion for music and hero-worship, he sought a means of communion between men for his entire life. Because of his insistence upon justice and his humanist ideal, he looks for peace during and after the First World War, in the works of the philosophers of India (Conversations withRabindranath Tagore-Gandhi), then in the new world that the Soviet Union initally wanted to achieve. But he will not find peace except in writing his works.
Being born in Clamecy, to a familly of notaries, he found many peasants and wealthy townspeople in his lineage. His introspective Voyage intérieur (1942): proves to him that he is a representative of an "antique species". He will cast these ancestors in a truculent bawdy tale « Colas Breugnon (1919) ».
Accepted to the École normale supérieure in 1886, he begins work for a degree in philosophy, which he abandons, so he won't have to submit to the dominant ideology - a manefestation of his creed of independence of the mind. He recieves his degree in history in 1889.
Next, he spends two years in Rome, where his meeting with Malvida von Meysenbug, who had been the girlfriend of Nietzsche and of Wagner, as well as his discovery of Italian masterpieces, were decisive for the development of his thought. When he returned to France in 1895, he recieves his doctoral degree with his thesis « The origins of modern lyric theatre, A History of Opera in Europe before Lully and Scarlatti ».
This demanding, yet timid, young man did not like teaching. Not that he was indifferent to the youth : Jean-Christophe, Olivier and their friends - his romanesque heros - are young people. But with living youths, like adults, Rolland only maintains distant relationships. He is above all a writer. Assured that litterature will provide him with a modest income, he presents his resignation to the university (1912).
Working for Peace
Romain Rolland was a pacifist for his entire life. In 1924, his book on Gandhi contributed to the latter's reputation, and the two men met in 1931.
He moves to the shores of Lake Léman to devote himself to writing. his life is interrupted by health problems, and by travels to art exhibitions. His voyage to Moscow (1935), on the invitation of Gorky, was an opportunity to meet Stalin, and he served unofficially as a diplomat of French Artists to Russia.
In 1937, he comes back to live in Vézelay. In 1940, Vézelay is occupied by the Germans. During the occupation, he isolated himself in complete solitude.
Never stopping his work, in 1940, he finishes his Memoirs. He also places the finishing touches on his musical research on the life of Beethoven. Next he writes Péguy (1944) in which he examines religion and socialism through the context of his memories.
External Links
http://www.nobel-winners.com/Literature/romain_rolland.html
Referenced By
1866 | 1866 in literature | 1904 in literature | 1915 in literature | 1918 in literature | 1919 in literature | 1925 in literature | 1944 in literature | 29 January | 29th January | January 29 | January 29th | Lanza del Vasto | List of people by name: Ro | NobelPrize/LiteraturE | Nobel Prize/Literature | Nobel Prize for Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Prix Femina | Prix Fémina | Robert Conquest | Theodore Dubois | Théodore Dubois
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