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SELECTED LETTERS OF ROMAIN ROLLAND
Edited by FRANCIS DORE
and MARIE-LAURE PREVOST
1990, 139pp., index, ISBN: 0-19-562551-x, Rs 125
(HB)
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This selection of letters of Romain Rolland,
many of which are published here for the first time, was presented on the occasion of the
Festival of France in India. They recall the privileged dialogue between India and French
writer. Attentive to the messages of other cultures, Rolland assigned himself the role of
a sort of archway linking together the minds of men and women, of people and races and
particularly between Asia and Europe.
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Addressed to a wide rage correspondents from
Leo Tolstoy to Albert Schweitzer, Paul Seippel, Pastor Louis Ferriere, and Barbusse, the
theme of Oppressive violence of Human society is the unifying thread. The correspondence
with Nehru, Tagore and Gandhi represents a gradual transition from intensity to a quite
fluid, probing into the nature of man, the creative process and the place of the socially
responsible citizen in the modern world, along with an inner life of reflection.
Even in these few letters, all of the major movements and
issues of the last decades of the 19th century and the first four decades of the 20th
century are laid before us.
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| FRANCIS DORE has had a career both
as a Diplomat and an academician. His links with India are old and deep rooted and he has
written many books on the country. Dr.Dore is a member of the Asiatic Society and Honorary
Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. MARIE-LAURE-PREVOST is curator at the Department of Manuscripts, National
Library of Paris. She has catalogued a number of collections, including the papers of
Louis Pasteur, as well as the Romain Rolland Archives. She is currently a member of the
Institute of Texts and Modern Manuscripts (CNRS), the editorial board of the Bulletin du
Bibliophile, and the Comite’ administratif du Fonds Romain Roland. |
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