"The Thibaults" (a unified cycle of seven novels and an epilogue) is the life's work of French author Romain Rolland (1866-1944), one of the most important prose writers of the first half of the twentieth century, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1915.

The work is an ambitious fresco of France from the beginning of the twentieth century to the declaration of the First World War. At its center is the Thibault family: the father and his two sons, Antoine and Jacques. Around this trio, other characters move, who are directly or indirectly connected to them.

The first six novels lead to the seventh and largest in scope, "The Summer of 1914," which is the reason for the existence of the entire work. It is a nearly day-by-day description of the events that led to the First World War. We witness the futile efforts of French and German socialists to prevent the war, the chess game played by governments, the intrigues of the military staffs, and the apathy of the masses. Jacques, now a young man, is an active member of an idealistic socialist group (let us not forget that we are in the October Revolution, and therefore the roles of socialists and communists have not yet been distinguished) led by Pilote, a theoretician of the revolution and the brain behind the group.

An enthralling representation of the historical moment that preceded the First World War.