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Loading... Jean-Christophe (original 1913; edition 1908)by Romain Rolland (Author)
Work InformationJean-Christophe by Romain Rolland (1913)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. The life and times of a musical protege. Fascinating when reading it, not too memorable afterward. ( ) This is a massive multi-volume novel that, with music and humanity at its heart, is one of my favorites joining the pantheon beside Musil, Proust, and Shakespeare. The central character of the novel is Jean-Christophe Krafft, a German musician whose life is traced from his birth until his death. Using a wide canvas, Rolland broadened his scope to explore many aspects relating to different stages of life. The story starts when the hero is born in a small German village on the banks of the Rhine to an alcoholic musician father and loving, care-worn mother. Christophe discovers the world of fears, suffering and social injustice whilst at the same time his musical genius takes form. He also experiences childhood love, adolescent romances and the need to support the household as a musician following the death of, first, his grandfather, and then his father. Romain Rolland did not see his novel as belonging to the accepted literary genres of the day. He was the first to designate it as a “roman-fleuve”. His “created” character took form as Rolland himself observed and experienced life and many of the comments in the novel reflect Rolland’s personal thoughts on social, political and cultural matters at the time of writing. Rolland’s musical background also played a determining role in how he structured Jean-Christophe. Consistent with his overall philosophy Rolland's underlying message conveyed in the novel is that peoples of different countries and backgrounds could and should come together in harmony. The power of the novel derives from his thirst for truth, his need for morality and his love of humanity. The aesthetic life for him is not just to create beauty, but above all it is a means to create an act of humanity. The power and the beauty of his prose made this long novel one I will always remember. no reviews | add a review
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"Jean-Christophe Krafft, born, like Beethoven, to an alcoholic, exploitative father and a doting, chambermaid mother, is an exquisitely talented musician growing up in the German-occupied Rhineland. Splendidly capturing the development of Jean-Christophe's personality and his musical talent alike, Rolland progressively follows his hero through the states of his life: his innocent but ultimately disillusioned boyhood; his escape from his provincial home; his travels to pre-World War I Paris; his friends, lovers, and pupils, as they enter, leave, and reappear in his life through the years; and his passionate search for his spiritual role as an artist, while censuring the decadent European civilization around him." "The novel's form - and Jean-Christophe's life - flows like a river, with vast shapelessness on the surface but an immense momentum towards its goal. Through a vivid portrait of his hero's creative life, Rolland's work is a deeply personal examination of art's power to express moral truth and to combat disintegrating values."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)843.912Literature French French fiction Modern Period 20th Century 1900-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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