# Jean-Christophe, Volume I

An audiobook by Romain Rolland, read by LibriVox volunteers (24 h 55 min, English).

The central character, Jean-Christophe Krafft, is a German musician of Belgian extraction, a composer of genius whose life is depicted from cradle to grave. He undergoes great hardships and spiritual struggles, balancing his pride in his own talents with the necessity of earning a living and taking care of those around him. Tormented by injustices against his friends, forced to flee on several occasions as a result of his brushes with authority and his own conscience, he finally finds peace in a remote corner of Switzerland before returning in triumph to Paris a decade later. Summary from Wikipedia.

[Listen](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/librivox/15426)
[Read the book](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/gutenberg/7979/read)