Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



481 



TRUTH AND SINCERITY IN LITERATURE. 



M. ROMAIN Roi.LAXD AND HlS MESSAGE. 



Is the October number of the Bibliotheqiie Univer- 

 scl'e, a Swiss review, we have what is probably the 

 first article of any importance in French on M. 

 Romain RoUand, the author of "John Christopher," 

 a story of a musical genius, which is to run to twelve 

 volumes, and which has already been described as the 

 greatest novel of the time. 



THE CAHIERS DE LA QflNZAlNE. 



M. I'aul Seippel, the writer, says that he does not 

 know of an author in French literature to-day so true 

 and sincere as .M. Rolland. Disgusted by the 

 " intellectual prostitution " of the time, M. Charles 

 Pcguy, a friend and a former fellow-student with M. 

 Rolland at the Ecole Xormale, founded, with the 

 most modest resources, the Cahiers de la Quinzaine, 

 a periodical publication of little volumes, each con- 

 jtaining a complete work or an instalment of an 

 'important work. M. Fcguy was resolved to ignore 

 the system of puffs. There was not even an advertise- 

 ment to announce the series. Away from the tumult 

 of the boulevards he retired like a hermit to a little 

 obscure shop in the old Rue de la Sorbonne. It was 

 a serious venture, but he has succeeded. Besides 

 being an interesting writer himself, he has discovered 

 during the twelve years of the existence of the Cahiers 

 a large number of young talents — the majority of the 

 rising talents of .to-day, nearly all those who have 

 since been crowned by the Academic Goncourt, and 

 above all M. Romain Rolland, who has in their first 

 edition, given all his works to the Ca/iiers, first his 

 dramas for the people, then his biographies of heroes, 

 and lastly his masterpiece, " John Christopher." 



WITHOUT HONOUR IN HIS OWN COUNTRY. 



I'he conspiracy of silence of the " merchants of 

 glory," the Press, has not prevented "John Chris- 

 topher" from making its way slowly but surely. As 

 his work advanced M. Rolland has found himself 

 surrounded by an ever-widening circle of sympathisers. 

 Outside the small and faithful group of French sub- 

 scribers, it was in England and in French Switzer- 

 land that he found his most ardent admirers. 

 .•\ppearing in instalments like the works of Dickens, 

 each new "John Christopher" has been hailed with 

 delight. .'Vs .\I. Rolland says, " it was his unknown 

 friends, scattered here and there in all parts of the 

 world, who gave him courage to continue in an enter- 

 prise the success of which seemed almost impossible." 

 But in spite of everything he has triumphed even 

 before the corap'etion of his work. The story is now 

 being translated into other languages, and by way of 

 England and other countries it has found its way 

 back to Paris, and edition after edition is being 

 issued. Mr. Heinemann is publishing the li^nglish 

 translation, and the three volumes which have 

 been issued contain seven volumes of the French 

 original. 



RLiifKM ul' FRENCH DRAMA. 



Born at Clamecy in 1866, M. Rolland as a child 

 had a passion for music, and desired to adopt it as 

 his profession. But his father preferred him to enter 

 the Ecole Xormale. Here the youth and a few of 

 his companions used to read Tolstoy, whose works 

 were then appearing in French, and Tolstoy's influence 

 on M. Rolland has no doubt been very great. Next, 

 he went to Rome, having won the Prix de Rome, 

 and there met Malwida von Meyscnbug, a remarkable 

 woman who had been associated with the revolution- 

 aries of 1848, and other great men of the century— 

 Wagner, Liszt, Ibsen, Nietzsche, and many others. 

 A charming friendship grew up between the octogen- 

 arian lady and M. Rolland, the attraction for her 

 being not only the musical attainments of the youth, 

 but his gifts in other domains of intellectual life. 

 This lady also introduced him to Bayreuth, and it was 

 about this time that he made up his mind to devote 

 his life to a reform of the French theatre. In spite 

 of Tolstoy, \Vagner, and others, Shakespeare was to 

 be his master. 



VENERATION OF BEETHOVEN. 



Meanwhile he had specialised in the history of 

 music, and a chair was created for him first at the 

 Ecole Normale, and later (1903) at the Sorbonne. 

 From this teaching he derived the material for several 

 books. At the same time he had risen to the first 

 rank as a musical critic, and some of his essays have 

 since been published in volume form. He belongs 

 to no coterie, he says, and he recognises art in all the 

 old masters as well as in the moderns. In the great 

 musicians, especially Beethoven, he finds the best 

 response to his profound aspirations. Though his 

 own predilections are in favour of the great classics, 

 no one has written more sympathetically of Richard 

 Strauss or Hugo Wolf. All the time he has never 

 lost sight of his projects of dramatic reform. In 1903 

 he published a book, " The People's Theatre," 

 but up to the present his hopes have not been 

 realised. 



HIS SERIES OF HEROES. 



Without being discouraged by the poor success of 

 his theatrical schemes, he has pursued his idealistic 

 crusade in another direction, by writing a series of 

 short biographies of great men, appreciations some- 

 what after the manner of Carlyle in " Heroes and 

 Hero-\Vorship." These include Beethoven, Handel, 

 Millet, Michel .Angelo, and Tolstoy. Of these 

 " Tolstoy " alone appears to have been translated 

 into English, Mr. Fisher Unwin having just issued 

 the Volume. 



finally, in 1904, in the fifth series of the Cn/iicn 

 lie la Quinzaine, he gave to the world " Dawn," the 

 first volume of his long novel, and it is hoped that 

 the Cahiers will this winter bring out the remaining 

 );arts of the Vjook. 



