Rolland, Romain (rômăN` rôläN`), 1866–1944, French novelist, biographer, playwright, and musicologist. After studying in Paris he spent two crucial years in Rome, where he was influenced by German intellectuals. He wrote biographies of Beethoven (1903, tr. 1909), Michelangelo (1905, tr. 1915), Tolstoy (1911, tr. 1911), and Mahatma Gandhi (1924, tr. 1924). His 10-volume novel Jean-Christophe (1904–12, tr. 1910–13), established his reputation in the literary world. An example of the roman-fleuve, or continuous series of novels, it is a fictional biography of a German-born musician and a study of contemporary French and German civilization. Rolland was awarded the 1915 Nobel Prize in Literature. His genuine pacifistic philosophy and the courage of his convictions, reflected in Above the Battle (1915, tr. 1916), led to self-imposed exile in Switzerland, where he remained until 1938. Among his other works are the play The Wolves (1898, tr. 1937), inspired by the Dreyfus Affair; the seven-volume novel The Soul Enchanted (1922–33, tr. 1925–34); and a biography (1945) of Péguy. Journey Within (2d ed. 1959, tr. 1947) and Mémoires (1956) are autobiographical.

Bibliography

See biography by W. T. Starr (1972); study by H. March (1973).

Rolland, Romain

(born Jan. 29, 1866, Clamecy, France—died Dec. 30, 1944, Vézelay) French novelist, dramatist, and essayist. At age 14 he went to Paris to study and found a society in spiritual disarray, and his life and writings came to reflect his concern with major social, political, and spiritual events. From 1910 he taught music history at the Sorbonne. His best-known novel is Jean-Christophe (1904–12), a 10-volume epic whose protagonist is modeled half on Ludwig van Beethoven and half on himself. His pamphlet Above the Battle (1915) calls on France and Germany to respect truth and humanity during World War I. In the 1920s he turned to interpreting the mystical philosophy of Asia, especially India, in works such as Mahatma Gandhi (1924). He wrote several other major biographies, including Beethoven (1910). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.