Jean-Christophe, Volume I

Jean-Christophe begins his life in a German backwater, born to a failed composer father sinking into drink and a mother who loves him fiercely but cannot shield him from the household's collapse. Rolland traces the boy's journey from infancy through adolescence with revolutionary intensity: we watch Christophe discover his gift, wage war against petty authorities, form passionate friendships, and refuse every compromise that might dull his fire. This is a novel about artistic genius as a form of rebellion - the insistence on living at full volume in a world that demands conformance. Rolland wrote it in the years before the Great War, and the book pulses with that era's faith in the individual will, its belief that one person armed with conviction could shake the stars. It's a portrait of the artist as a young hothead, full of fury and tenderness, and it demands everything from its hero - and from anyone brave enough to follow him.