Jean-Christophe

Christophe leans on a pine-tree that he has plucked up, and it bends. His back also bends. Those who saw him set out vowed that he would never win through, and for a long time their mockery and their laughter followed him. Then the night fell and they grew weary. Now Christophe is too far away for the cries of those standing on the water’s brink to reach him. Through the roar of the torrent he hears only the tranquil voice of the Child, clasping a lock of hair on the giant’s forehead in his little hand, and crying: “March on.”⁠—And with bowed back, and eyes fixed straight in front of him on the dark bank whose towering slopes are beginning to gleam white, he marches on.

Suddenly the Angelus sounds, and the flock of bells suddenly springs into wakefulness. It is the new dawn! Behind the sheer black cliff rises the golden glory of the invisible sun. Almost falling Christophe at last reaches the bank, and he says to the Child:

“Here we are! How heavy thou wert! Child, who art thou?”

And the Child answers:

“I am the day soon to be born.”

Endnotes

1. Jean-Christophe’s letter to the Grand Duke Leopold is inspired by Beethoven’s letter to the Prince Elector of Bonn, written when he was eleven. ↩

2. A nickname given by German pamphleteers to H.M. (His Majesty) the Emperor. ↩

3. The anthologies of French literature which Jean-Christophe borrowed from his friends the Reinharts were:

   1. Selected French Passages for the Use of Secondary Schools, by Hubert H. Wingerath, Ph. D., director of the real-school of Saint John at Strasburg. Part II: Middle forms.⁠—7th Edition, 1902, Dumont-Schauberg.

   2. L. Herrig and G. F. Burguy: Literary France, arranged by F. Tendering, director of the real-gymnasium of the Johanneum, Hamburg.⁠—1904, Brunswick.

   ↩

4. See “Morning.” ↩

5. See “Revolt.” ↩

6. See “Revolt.” ↩

7. See “Revolt.” ↩

8. See “Morning.” ↩

9. See “The Marketplace.” ↩

10. The hymn to Truth here introduced is an abridgment of an article by Giuseppe Prezzolini (La Voce, April 13, 1911). ↩

11. “When a thing has happened, even the fools can see it.” ↩

12. “I have had my fill, brother: save thyself!” ↩

List of Illustrations

1. Musical notation of an excerpt of Prelude and Fugue No. 8 in E-Flat Minor, BWV 853, by J.S. Bach.

2. Musical notation of an excerpt of Act II of Handel’s opera Jephtha, with the caption “What ever is, is right.”

3. Handwritten musical notation and lyrics of “Comme le Fenix je suis” by Jacques Mauduit and Jean-Antoine de Baïf.

4. Handwritten musical notation of the opening notes of Schubert’s “An die Musik,” with “Du holde Kunst, in wie viel grauen Stunden” written underneath.

5. Handwritten musical notation of an excerpt of J.S. Bach’s “Bleib Bei uns, denn es will Abend werden.”

Colophon

Jean-Christophe
was published between 1904 and 1912 by
Romain Rolland.
It was translated from French between 1911 and 1913 by
Gilbert Cannan.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Bob Reus,
and is based on transcriptions produced in 2005 by
William Flis, Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks, and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
The Musician,
a painting completed in 1914 by
Louis Marcoussis.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
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