Romain Rolland biography is short. Romain Rolland - biography, information, personal life

The writer defined his creative credo in the book “The Life of Beethoven”: “There is stuffy, stale air around us. Decrepit Europe falls into hibernation in this oppressive, musty atmosphere... The world is dying, strangled by its cowardly and despicable egoism. The world is suffocating. Let's open the windows! Let's let the free air in! Let us be blown by the breath of heroes!”

It is the affirmation of the heroic principle that dominates in Rolland's work, and it determined his special, high place in all the literature of the past century.

Romain Rolland was born on January 29, 1866 in the town of Clamcy in southern France. Among his ancestors were participants in the French Revolution of 1789.

His father, Emile, was a lawyer, a respected person in the city, and his mother, Antoinette Marie Courto, was a very simple and pious woman. And, nevertheless, it was at her request that in 1880 the family moved to Paris so that her son could receive a good education.

With early years his mother taught him to play the piano. Romain fell in love with music, and especially Beethoven. This hobby remained with the boy even at the time when he studied at the Lyceum of Louis the Great. In 1886, Rolland entered one of the most prestigious institutions of higher education, the Ecole Normale Superier (Higher Normal School). In obedience to his mother's wishes, he studied common history and art history.

While studying philosophy, he became acquainted with the works of Spinoza. He conquered the young man with "spontaneous realism" and a call for human brotherhood. Rolland called his discovery of the work of Leo Tolstoy "an illumination in the darkness of the tunnel" - in 1886 he read "War and Peace". From the philosophy of the great writer, Romain extracted the main thing: “The novel has neither beginning nor end, like life itself. This is life itself, constantly striding forward.

In 1889, having received a teaching diploma, Romain went to Rome for several years, where he studied history at the Ecole Française. After graduating in 1891, he was going to engage in scientific and pedagogical activities. Returning to the Sorbonne, Rolland really taught a course in the history of music for several years. At his suggestion, a department of musicology was even established here.

In Paris, Rolland wrote several plays.

In 1892 he married Clotilde Breal, daughter of a famous philologist. Together they went to Rome so that Romain could complete his doctoral dissertation.

They returned to Paris in 1893, and two years later Rolland defended his doctoral dissertation in music on "The Origin of Modern Lyric Theatre: A History of Opera in Europe Before Lully and Scarlatti". Rolland's scientific work turned out to be so interesting that after defending his dissertation, a department of music history was established especially for him at the Sorbonne. For the next seventeen years, Rolland combined his studies in literature with teaching at the Sorbonne and the Higher Normal School.

Rolland's literary path began with dramaturgy. Since he was influenced by Shakespeare and was interested in "heroic" eras, he began to write not individual plays, but entire cycles: "All events, social or domestic, turned into dramatic works."

“In Rolland’s early work, the search for the heroic is connected with his religious convictions…,” writes F.S. Narkier. – The drama of “turning to God” is the first published (1897) play by Rolland “Saint Louis” (together with two other dramatic works “Aert” (staged in 1898) and “Triumph of Reason” (staged in 1899), the play constituted the cycle “ Tragedies of Faith).

To modern society, infected with mercantilism, poisoned by skepticism, Rolland contrasts the era of the Middle Ages as a time of disinterested heroic deeds.

But already in 1895, Rolland wrote in his diary: "I have barely finished my Catholic drama, when I already feel the soul of a freethinker and rebel in myself."

At the turn of the century, Rolland formed his concept of the new art, because he believes that in the new society there should be a different culture. Of course, it was easiest to create it on samples of the past. And Rolland creates a whole cycle of plays dedicated to the French Revolution: Wolves (1898), Triumph of Reason (1899) (originally included in another cycle), Danton (1900), July Fourteenth (1901).

In 1903, the writer's program work " People's Theater". Here Rolland formulated his credo: "We must create a Theater for the People, created by the People."

The search for his hero led Rolland to the genre of biography. The writer decided to create a cycle of biographies of remarkable people, including: Mazzini, Garibaldi, Schiller, Lazar Gosh, Thomas Paine, Vauban. As a result, in the cycle "Heroic Lives" were written: "The Life of Beethoven" (1903), "The Life of Michelangelo" (1906), "The Life of Tolstoy" (1911).

The writer created the biography of Beethoven as a kind of challenge to the despair that seized him in 1901, after the departure of his beloved wife from him.

I. Lileeva notes: “For the creative development of the writer special meaning had the book "Life of Beethoven" - the first of his books about the great German composer and citizen. Beethoven is Rolland's favorite hero, and throughout his life he will be for the writer the highest example of heroism, the ideal of a person who embodied the victory of the spirit over all life's adversities. Neither poverty, nor loneliness, nor deafness, nor the indifference of others, nothing could break Beethoven. Overcoming misfortune and suffering, he glorifies the joy of struggle and at the end of his life creates the "Ninth Symphony", ending with the triumphant ode "To Joy". Beethoven's words: "Through suffering to joy" became the motto of Rolland's life and work. He boldly countered the pampered, morbid literature of decadence with the image of a rebel.

Rolland became world famous for his multi-volume novel Jean-Christophe, on which the writer worked from 1903 to 1912. Rolland himself admitted that he wrote it under the influence of Tolstoy's monumental epic War and Peace. Indeed, in his novel, against the broad background of the social history of Europe, the life and spiritual searches of the German musician, whose prototype was Beethoven, are depicted.

Here is what the author himself says: “From the end of The Morning to the beginning of The Coming Day - the heroic poem about Jean-Christophe is filled with rebellion - the rebellion of life against everything that from the outside suffocates and poisons it with its stinking embrace (artificially created conventions and moral prejudices , hypocrisy and corruption of society, the corpse of the past, devoured by worms, "Fair in the Square").

F.S. Narkier writes:

“Against the background of the shrinking characters of French literature of the early 20th century, Jean-Christophe stands out as a large, significant figure. It impresses with its strength - physical and spiritual. He is great both in friendship and in love. Jean-Christophe's love feeling, in the tradition of French classicism, is always an absolute feeling. His love is undivided, whether it is a feeling for the petty-bourgeois Minna, the mysterious Sabina, the windy Ada, the actress Francoise Udon, for Anna Brown, passionate in her isolation, and, finally, for the Italian Grazia, who gives Jean-Christophe spiritual clarity, inner harmony (prototype Graces - Sophia di Vierriero-Gonzaga, with whom Rolland was at first in love and who later became a friend of the writer on long years). Jean-Christophe's love is unhappy, it ends either in a break with her beloved, or in her death. The soul of the hero is tempered in the crucible of passion...

Creating "Jean-Christophe", Romain Rolland dreamed of awakening the "spiritual fire dormant under the ashes." To the extent that it was in his power, the writer fulfilled his task. The quest of Jean-Christophe turned out to be consonant with the quest of the intelligentsia in France and in other countries, primarily in Russia. This largely explains the exceptional popularity of the novel in our country.

Indeed, the book quickly became popular far beyond France. “From the most remote countries,” says Rolland, “from the most various peoples- China, Japan, India, both Americas, from all European nationalities, people flocked to me saying: “Jean-Christophe is ours. He is mine. He is my brother. He is me…”

A sign of worldwide recognition was the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Romain Rolland in 1915. It is believed that it was "Jean-Christophe" who allowed the writer to receive this high award "for the high idealism of literary works, for sympathy and love for the truth, with which he describes various human types."

However, the prize itself was awarded to the writer only in 1916 - partly because of the scandal caused by the publication of his cycle of anti-war articles "Over the fight". Rolland immediately boldly and resolutely opposed the criminal policy of his contemporary rulers and sharply condemned the predatory, imperialist nature of the war.

Rolland distributed the entire amount of the prize to charitable organizations in France and Switzerland, including the International Red Cross.

By this time, the writer lived in Switzerland, where he moved in 1912. Here he could work in peace (there was the First World War). In 1914, Rolland created the short story Colas Breugnon, which quickly became popular. This is one of the few historical works of the writer written in prose.

“Cola Breugnon is the embodiment of the people, the embodiment of its indestructible life force, courage and diligence, - notes I. Lileeva. “For half a century of his life, Brugnon had to go through a lot: many times the raids of soldiers ruined and destroyed his house and the plague carried away loved ones, all his life he was strangled by taxes and requisitions, but Brugnon always, in spite of everything, enjoyed life.”

“This book was completely printed and ready for publication even before the war, and I am not changing anything in it,” the writer wrote in the preface. – The bloody epic, the heroes and victims of which were the grandchildren of Col Brugnion, proved to the world that “the smoking room is alive” ... And the peoples of Europe, covered with glory and bruises, will, it seems to me, rubbing their sides, find a share common sense in the reasoning that indulges in “a lamb from our lands, between a wolf and a shepherd.”

Although all his life Rolland tried not to tie himself to work in any public organizations, he made no secret of his commitment to socialist ideals. True, he rejected violence as a form of struggle, therefore he did not accept the dictatorship of the proletariat, which was established in Russia after 1917.

In search of new forms free from bloodshed historical activity Rolland turned to Indian philosophy and the teachings of M. Gandhi. The writer even met with the latter in 1931 in Switzerland. He expounded his views in the biographies of Ramakrishna (1929) and Vivekananda (1930).

“The thirties were the years of Rolland's ideological and creative upsurge. Rolland takes an active part in the struggle for peace and democracy, against war and fascism, writes I. Lileeva. – The voice of Rolland, a writer embodying the “conscience of Europe”, sounds loudly in defense of the victims of fascist terror: Thälmann, Gramsci, Dimitrov. Together with Barbusse, Rolland is the initiator and organizer of international congresses in defense of culture. Truly amazing was the energy of this already middle-aged, very sick person. Rolland considers his task as a writer and citizen to be the struggle to rally people of different views and beliefs in the name of peace.

chief artwork between the two world wars was his seven-volume novel The Enchanted Soul, on which the writer worked from 1925 to 1933. In this work, the narrative focuses on the fate of a woman, Annette Riviere, who is fighting for her civil rights defending the right to independence in life and work.

A peculiar result of Rolland's reflections on acute problems recent history and politics was the tragedy "Robespierre", which the writer completed in 1939.

In 1934, Rolland married Maria Pavlovna Kudasheva, a translator of his works into Russian. It was the second marriage in the writer's life. Despite the difference in age, this marriage, which lasted ten years, can be called happy. Rolland also accepted Kudasheva's son, Sergei.

During the Second World War, an elderly sick writer was cut off from the world, being under the vigilant supervision of fascist thugs. Exhausted by hunger and disease, Rolland lived only in the hope of the liberation of France. The writer waited for the happy days of the summer of 1944, when his homeland was liberated from the fascist invaders.

Rolland(Rolland) Romain (January 29, 1866, Clamecy, ‒ December 30, 1944, Vezelay), French writer, public figure, musicologist. Born in the family of a notary. Got liberal education at the Higher Normal School in Paris.

In 1895 he defended his dissertation at the Sorbonne "The Origin of the Modern Opera House. The history of opera in Europe before Lully and Scarlatti. Since 1897 professor (course of music history) at the Normal School, in 1902‒12 at the Sorbonne, on the instructions of which he organized and headed the musical section of the School of Higher social sciences. Together with J. Combarier, P. Aubry and others, he founded the magazine Revue d "histoire et critique musicale" ("Revue d" histoire et critique musicale, 1901). Author of studies on the history of music, monographs, articles. Already in the early dramas "Saint Louis" (1897), "Aert" (1898) the originality of the R.-artist was affected: wit moral issues, attraction to active heroic characters. His ideological and aesthetic position is substantiated in the book "People's Theater" (1903). In the late 90s. R. began work on a series of dramas about the French Revolution: The Wolves, The Triumph of Reason, Danton, and The Fourteenth of July (1898‒1902).

R.'s essay on L. Beethoven (1903) opened a series of biographies of great people - creators of art. In 1907, The Life of Michelangelo appeared, in 1911 - The Life of Tolstoy. R. still in his student years wrote to L. N. Tolstoy and received an answer from him; the Russian writer, according to R. himself, had a serious influence on him. The search for a broad epic form in the spirit of "War and Peace", echoes of Tolstoy's thoughts about artistic creativity as an ascetic activity for the benefit of people - all this was reflected in R.'s 10-volume epic novel, which brought him world fame, ‒ "Jean-Christophe" (1904‒12). The image of the German musician - an innovator and a rebel - reflects Beethoven's personality traits. R. embodied here his dream of a creative genius, formed in the fight against the despotism of the authorities, the corrupt world of the bourgeoisie and its painfully refined art. The work is full of passionate journalism. The epic reveals the spiritual biography of the hero, traced with great wealth psychological analysis, penetration into secrets creative process; the background is the panorama of Europe. Predicting an imminent world war, R. opposes to it the idea of ​​the brotherhood of peoples.

The problems that actively occupied R. - the fate of culture, art in a historically critical era, the relationship of "thought and action", creative personality and the people - are placed again and on new way in the story "Cola Breugnon" (completed in 1914, published in 1918), written in the manner of folklore stylization with colorful and lively rhythmic prose. The action takes place in Burgundy at the beginning of the 17th century. The hero, recalcitrant and mocking Cola Breugnon, is a living embodiment of the national spirit.

1st World War 1914–18 found R. in Switzerland. From August 1914 he began to appear systematically in the press as an anti-war publicist. His articles are combined in the collections Over the Fight (1915) and Forerunners (1919). R. appealed to the reason and conscience of the "killed peoples", denounced the capitalist magnates as the perpetrators of the worldwide slaughter, without calling, however, to revolutionary action. R.'s anti-war views were refracted in different ways in the dramatic satire Lilyuli (1919) and in the lyrical story Pierre and Luce (1920). The novel Clerambo (1920) reflected the quest of the Western European intelligentsia, outraged by imperialist barbarism and tragically cut off from the people.

R. welcomed February Revolution 1917 in Russia. Great October socialist revolution he perceived as an event of enormous international significance, but long time rejected the dictatorship of the proletariat and revolutionary methods of fighting the exploiters. R. adhered to this position in the 20s. His dramas about the French Revolution - "The Game of Love and Death" (1925), "Palm Sunday" (1926), "Leonides" (1927), asserting the greatness of the revolution, brought to the fore human tragedies and sacrifices. In search of non-violent forms public action R. turned to the experience of the Indian people and their religious and moral teachings (books about Mahatma Gandhi, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda). At the same time, he continued to closely follow the development of the USSR, corresponded in a friendly manner with M. Gorky, and spoke out against the anti-Soviet campaigns and military preparations of the imperialist bourgeoisie. Gradually, not without difficulties and hesitation, a turning point in R.'s views took place, expressed in his articles Farewell to the Past (1931) and Lenin. Art and Action" (1934), collections of journalistic articles "Fifteen Years of Struggle" and "Peace through Revolution" (both 1935). Together with A. Barbusse, R. participated in the preparation of congresses against war and fascism, and became one of the ideological inspirers of the international anti-fascist front. In 1935 R. visited the USSR at the invitation of M. Gorky.

R.'s main artistic work after World War I was the novel The Enchanted Soul (1922–33). In history ideological development The heroines of the novel by Annette Riviere and her son Mark reflect the typical processes of the spiritual life of the advanced European intelligentsia, the path from individualistic rebellion or individual acts of humanity to participation in the organized struggle of the masses against the forces of the old world. The novel warns humanity about the dangers of fascism. The death of Mark, who died in a street fight with an Italian fascist, causes a sharp mental fracture and brings her into the ranks of the fighters. The heroes of the novel often turn in their disputes and thoughts to the experience of the Soviet Union. In 1939, R. completed the monumental tragedy Robespierre, ie. completing work on a cycle of dramas about the French Revolution.

Pictures of the death of Robespierre and his associates are illuminated by the idea of ​​greatness, the indestructible power of the liberation movement of mankind.

R. spent the years of World War II (1939–45) in Vézelay, in the zone of occupation, sick and cut off from his friends. The autobiographical memoirs completed at that time sometimes bear the imprint of severe depression. However, R. worked hard, considering his literary work as a form of resistance to the invaders. During the war, he completed a multi-volume work on Beethoven (a series of books under common title"Beethoven. Great creative eras”, publ. 1928–45), then a biography of Sh. Pegi(published after the liberation of France, in December 1944).

R. left a significant mark on the history of French and world literature. Early realizing the historical uniqueness of the era, he based his work on the principle of heroic deeds. R.'s searches and doubts reflected the objective contradictions in the development of a significant part of the Western intelligentsia in the era of the transition from capitalism to socialism. Standing on the side October revolution, R. gave an instructive example to Western European cultural figures, helped them find their place in public life and wrestling. R.'s innovation as an artist is closely connected with the ideological nature of his work. The original features of R.'s artistic manner helped him to pose the acute problems of the era and convey the dramatic nature of the movement of mankind towards the future. Nobel Prize (1915).

Op.: Cahiers Romain Rolland, v. 1‒23, P., ; Romain Rolland. Journal des annees de guerre, P., 1952; Textes politiques, socialux et philosophiques choisis. P., 1970; in Russian per. ‒ Collection. cit., vols. 1–20. L., ‒1936; Sobr. cit., vol. 1–14, Moscow, 1954–58; Soch., vol. 1–9, Moscow, 1974; Memories, M., 1966.

Lit. : Gorky M., [Article], Sobr. op. in thirty volumes, v. 24, M., 1953; Lunacharsky A. V., [Articles], Sobr. cit., vol. 4–5, Moscow, 1964–65; Balakhonov V. E., R. Rollan in 1914‒1924, L., 1958; his own, R. Rolland and his time ("Jean-Christophe"), L., 1968; his own, R. Rolland and his time. Early years, L., 1972; Motyleva T., R. Rolland's Creativity, M., 1959; her, R. Rollan, M., 1969; Duchen I., "Jean-Christophe" R. Rolland, M., 1966; "Europe", 1926, No. 38; 1955, No. 109‒ 110; 1965, No. 439–40; Cheval R., R. Rolland, l "Allemagne et la guerre, P., 1963; Barrère J.-B., R. Rolland par luimême, ; Pérus J., R. Rolland et M. Gorki, P., 1968 .

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