Romain Rolland is perhaps best known for his political writings. His collection of antiwar writings, Above the Battle(1913) became a prominent and controversial work in the pacifist movement during World War I, although the book caused protests in France. After the war, Rolland’s plays were more popular in Germany than in France.

In the 1920s Rolland became interested in Indian philosophy and wrote a biography of Mahatma Gandhi(1924). The spiritual leader of India visited him in Villeneuve, Switzerland. In 1923 Rolland founded the international magazine Europe, which opposed nationalism. He had welcomed the Socialist movement almost as a spiritual event, but he never was a member of the Communist Party. In 1935 Rolland met Gorky and Stalin in Moscow. He eventually rejected Stalinism and supported nonviolent social change. He had as early as in 1900 written a play, Danton, in which the spirit of revolution is sacrificed to revolutionary discipline – a view that was not popular during the Moscow purge trials, orchestrated by Stalin.

Books on Romain Rolland at Amazon.com

Selected Books of Romain Rolland

Jean Christophe:
Rolland’s massive roman-fleuve about a great composer and his art was published in three volumes between 1902 and 1912.

Beethoven:
The Creator by Romain Rolland

Mahatma Gandhi by Romain Rolland
 A biographical account of the man who became one with the universal being. Gandhi is considered the father of India and was an Indian nationalist and spiritual leader. The literal translation of Mahatma, the name which the people of India gave to Gandhi, is “the great soul.

The Life Of Ramakrishna
Romain Rolland’s account of the great Saint of Calcutta Sri Ramakrishna. Sri Ramakrishna was himself uneducated and lead a very simple life. However Ramakrishna radiated spirituality attracting the attention of one of Europe’s great writers .