JEAN-CHRISTOPHE
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE(约翰·克里斯多夫)
When I was a senior middle school student,some of my classmates were extremely like to read all kinds of books, except the textbook. I still remmbered that the most popular books are those fictions written by Mr.Jin Yong.Maybe everyone would know several marvelous Kongfus: The classics of tendon changing(易筋经)、Sunflower Bible（葵花宝典）、Lonely with nine swords(独孤九剑)、Deep blue press （黯然销魂掌）. By accident, I came across a book called “Fu Lei's Home Letters”,and then I have the chance to know a world famous novelist,music critic---- Romain Rolland（罗曼·罗兰）, and also his beautiful works----“ JEAN-CHRISTOPHE ”.
Before we talk about this wonderful novel--- JEAN-CHRISTOPHE ,I would like to say something about this novel’s author---- Romain Rolland. He was a French writer and dramatist, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915. He died in 1944 at France. He was born at a middle class family in France in 1866. Then the whole family moved to Paris in 1880 in order to obtain a better schooling for Rolland. In 1886 Rolland entered the école Normale Supérieure and then he received his doctor degree in art at Rome in 1895. His first book was published in 1902, when he was 36 years old.Rolland became professor of art history at the école Normale in Paris. In 1904 he continued his academic career as a professor of the history of music. While still a teacher, Rolland's first literary vocation was the theatre. In his mid-30s he wrote successful dramas about the French Revolution. After his best-known work,
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE, was finished in 1912, Rolland devoted himself entirely to writing.Three years later, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature “as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings.”(文学作品中的高尚理想和他在描绘各种不同类型人物时所具有的同情和对真理的热爱) .
Jean-Christophe is a two-thousand-page novel originally published in ten volumes.Some of your may be have already read it,what’s your feeling about this nov el? I was deeply absorbed by it’s character-Christophe,absorbed by it’s sprit towards truth,love and art,absorbed by translator’s powderful language. the painstaking record of the artistic development of a musical genius. Romain Rolland set out to portray the adventures of the soul of his hero and succeeded magnificently; in addition he broke down the artistic barrier between France and Germany. The experiences of Jean-Christophe are those of every genius who turns from the past to serve the future.
Although some literay critic at present think this novel is too much idealism,but I think just this kind of spirit,this kind of heroism and so on are the most valuable points,especially for our young people. Rolland also said like this: The heart of soul is like the great mountains, I am not talking about ordinary human beings can survive in the peak. Where they may come and go in the pulmonary respiration, and blood flow in the vessel. There, they will feel more imminent eternal. Later, they would return to the wilderness of life, hearts full of day-to-day fighting courage.
As the translator Mr Fu Lei said in the preface: “The true brightness is not without any darkness, but it will never be covered by it. The true hero is not without any humble feelings, but he will never be subdued by them.”Once you read Jean-Christophe,your mind will be shocked,your soul will be purified,your future life will be affected by an unconscious but magical way.