Romain Rolland's tremendous output of plays, novels, music criticism, biographies, polemics, and correspondence has secured for him a place in European letters and thought. Well known and widely read in his day, he was the apostle of an idealism which holds less appeal for modern audiences. Much of his writing seems dated. Readers are no longer shocked by illegitimacy, pacifism, or communism, and enough time has passed since the world wars that the sense of immediacy needed to appreciate much of Rolland's work has vanished. Yet perhaps it is because of these very reasons that Rolland will be remembered, for his work stands as a reflection of the complex and conflicting issues of the world in which he lived.

During his lifetime and for several years after his death, Rolland commanded a tremendous popular and intellectual following. In 1926 a special issue of the journal Europe was devoted to...