" They were the only members of their family, and they were both humble, crushed, and thrust aside by life; they were united in sadness and tenderness by a bond of mutual pity and common suffering, borne in secret. With the Kraffts—robust, noisy, brutal, solidly built for living, and living joyously—these two weak, kindly creatures, out of their setting, so to speak, outside life, understood and pitied each other without ever saying anything about it. "

― Romain Rolland , Jean-Christophe by Romain Rolland (The Complete 10-Volume Novel), Translated by Gilbert Cannan with an Introduction by Nicholas Tamblyn (Illustrated)