Ion Luca Caragiale (; commonly referred to as I. L. Caragiale;
[According to his birth certificate, published and discussed by Constantin Popescu-Cadem in ''Manuscriptum'', Vol. VIII, Nr. 2, 1977, pp. 179-184] – 9 June 1912) was a
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
n playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist. Leaving behind an important cultural legacy, he is considered one of the greatest playwrights in
Romanian language
Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Moldova, Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communi ...
and
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
, as well as one of its most important writers and a leading representative of
local humour. Alongside
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active membe ...
,
Ioan Slavici
Ioan Slavici (; 18 January 1848 – 17 August 1925) was a Romanians, Romanian writer and journalist from Hungary, later from Romania.
He made his debut in ''Convorbiri literare'' ("Literary Conversations") (1871), with the comedy ''Fata de biră ...
and
Ion Creangă, he is seen as one of the main representatives of ''
Junimea
''Junimea'' was a Romanian literary society founded in Iași in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi. The foremost personali ...
'', an influential literary society with which he nonetheless parted during the second half of his life. His work, spanning four decades, covers the ground between
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...
,
Realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
*Classical Realism
*Literary realism, a move ...
, and
Naturalism, building on an original synthesis of foreign and local influences.
Although few in number, Caragiale's plays constitute the most accomplished expression of Romanian theatre, as well as being important venues for criticism of late-19th-century Romanian society. They include the
comedies
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term origin ...
''
O noapte furtunoasă
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), pl ...
'', ''
Conu Leonida față cu reacțiunea
Coni ( tly, Çoni) is a village and municipality in the Lerik Rayon of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental co ...
'', ''
O scrisoare pierdută
''O scrisoare pierdută'' (Romanian for "A Lost Letter") is a play by Ion Luca Caragiale. It premiered in 1884, and arguably represents the high point of his career.Vianu, Vol. II, p.180
It was adapted into a 1953 film ''A Lost Letter''.
Characte ...
'', and the
tragedy
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...
''
Năpasta''. In addition to these, Caragiale authored a large number of essays, articles, short stories,
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
s and
sketch stories
A sketch story, literary sketch or simply sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The genre was invented after the 16th century in England, as a result of increasing public ...
, as well as occasional works of poetry and autobiographical texts such as ''
Din carnetul unui vechi sufleur''. In many cases, his creations were first published in one of several magazines he edited — ''
Claponul'', ''
Vatra'', and ''
Epoca''. In some of his later fiction writings, including ''
La hanul lui Mânjoală
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...
'', ''
Kir Ianulea'', ''
Abu-Hasan,'' ''
Pastramă trufanda'' and ''
Calul dracului Calul may refer to the following rivers in Romania:
*Calu, a tributary of the Bicaz
Bicaz ( hu, Békás) is a town in Neamț County, Western Moldavia, Romania situated in the eastern Carpathian Mountains near the confluence of the Bicaz and B ...
'', Caragiale adopted the
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
genre or turned to
historical fiction
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...
.
Ion Luca Caragiale was interested in the politics of the
Romanian Kingdom
The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
, and oscillated between the
liberal current and
conservatism
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...
. Most of his
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
works target the liberal
republicans and the
National Liberals, evidencing both his respect for their rivals at ''Junimea'' and his connections with the literary critic
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu (; 15 February 1840 – 18 June 1917) was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the ''Junimea'' Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of ...
. He came to clash with National Liberal leaders such as
Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza (, in full Dimitrie Alexandru Sturdza-Miclăușanu; 10 March 183321 October 1914) was a Romanian statesman and author of the late 19th century, and president of the Romanian Academy between 1882 and 1884.
Biography
Born in Iași ...
and
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu ( 26 February 1838 – ) was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history.
Life
He was born Tadeu Hâjdeu in Cristineștii Hotinului (now Kerstentsi in Chernivtsi ...
, and was a lifelong adversary of the
Symbolist
Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...
poet
Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski (; also rendered as Al. A. Macedonski, Macedonschi or Macedonsky; 14 March 1854 – 24 November 1920) was a Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in h ...
. As a result of these conflicts, the most influential of Caragiale's critics barred his access to the cultural establishment for several decades. During the 1890s, Caragiale rallied with the
radical
Radical may refer to:
Politics and ideology Politics
*Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change
*Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
movement of
George Panu, before associating with the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
. After having decided to settle in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, he came to voice strong criticism for Romanian politicians of all colours in the wake of the
1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt, and ultimately joined the
Conservative-Democratic Party
The Conservative-Democratic Party (, PCD) was a political party in Romania. Over the years, it had the following names: the Democratic Party, the Nationalist Conservative Party, or the Unionist Conservative Party.
The Conservative-Democratic Part ...
of
Tache Ionescu.
He was both a friend and rival to writers such as Mihai Eminescu, Titu Maiorescu, and
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea ; pen name of Barbu Ștefan; April 11, 1858 in Bucharest – April 29, 1918 in Iași) was a Romanian writer and poet, considered one of the greatest figures in the National awakening of Romania.
Early life and ...
, while maintaining contacts with, among others, the ''Junimist'' essayist
Iacob Negruzzi
Iacob C. Negruzzi (December 31, 1842 – January 6, 1932) was a Moldavian, later Romanian poet and prose writer.
Born in Iași, he was the son of Constantin Negruzzi and his wife Maria (''née'' Gane). Living in Berlin between 1853 and 1863, he at ...
, the
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
philosopher
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 1855, village of Slavyanka near Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), then in Imperial Russia – 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and j ...
, the literary critic
Paul Zarifopol
Paul Zarifopol (November 30, 1874 – May 1, 1934) was a Romanian literary and social critic, essayist, and
literary historian. The scion of an aristocratic family, formally trained in both philology and the sociology of literature, he emer ...
, the poets
George Coșbuc
George Coșbuc (; 20 September 1866 – 9 May 1918) was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best remembered for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, its many travails but also its occasions for joy. In 19 ...
and
Mite Kremnitz
Mite Kremnitz (4 January 1852, Greifswald – 18 July 1916 in Berlin), born Marie von Bardeleben (pen names ''George Allan'', ''Ditto and Idem''), was a German writer.
Biography
Kremnitz was the daughter of the famous surgeon Heinrich Adolf ...
, the psychologist
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru (; born Constantin Rădulescu, he added the surname ''Motru'' in 1892; February 15, 1868 – March 6, 1957) was a Romanian philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, logician, academic, dramatist, as well as left-nat ...
, and the
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
n poet and activist
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga (; 1 April 1881 – 7 May 1938) was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.
Life and politics
Goga was born in Rășinari, near Sibiu.
Goga was an active member in the Romanian nationalisti ...
. Ion Luca was the nephew of
Costache and Iorgu Caragiale, who were major figures of the 19th century Romanian theatre. His sons
Mateiu and
Luca
The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent—the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth. This includes all cellular organisms; th ...
were both
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
writers.
Biography
Background and name
Ion Luca Caragiale was born into a family of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
descent, whose members first arrived in Wallachia soon after 1812, during the rule of
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
Ioan Gheorghe Caragea—Ștefan Caragiali, as his grandfather was known locally, worked as a cook for the court in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
.
[ Rosana Heinisch]
"Grecii, mai interesaţi de opera lui I.L.Caragiale decit conaţionalii săi"
, in '' Evenimentul'', 8 June 2002[ Lucian Nastasă]
''Genealogia între ştiinţă, mitologie şi monomanie''
p. 18, at the Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its byl ...
's George Bariţ Institute of History, Cluj-Napoca. Retrieved 3 July 2007.
Ion Luca's father, who reportedly originated from the
Ottoman capital of
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
, settled in
Prahova County
Prahova County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploiești.
Demographics
In 2011, it had a population of 762,886 and the population density was 161/km². It is Romania's third mos ...
as the curator of the Mărgineni Monastery (which, at the time, belonged to the
Greek Orthodox
The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek language, Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the Eastern Orthodox Church, entire body of Orthodox (Chalced ...
Saint Catherine's Monastery
Saint Catherine's Monastery ( ar, دير القدّيسة كاترين; grc-gre, Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Katherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, ...
of
Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai ( he , הר סיני ''Har Sinai''; Aramaic: ܛܘܪܐ ܕܣܝܢܝ ''Ṭūrāʾ Dsyny''), traditionally known as Jabal Musa ( ar, جَبَل مُوسَىٰ, translation: Mount Moses), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is ...
). Known to locals as Luca Caragiali, he later built a reputation as a lawyer and judge in
Ploiești
Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest.
The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commu ...
, and married Ecaterina, the daughter of a merchant from the
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
n town of
Brașov
Brașov (, , ; german: Kronstadt; hu, Brassó; la, Corona; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the administrative centre of Brașov County.
According to the latest Romanian census (2011), Brașov has a popu ...
.
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 176][ Georgeta Ene, , in '']Magazin Istoric
''Magazin Istoric'' ( en, The Historical Magazine) is a Romanian monthly magazine.
Overview
''Magazin Istoric'' was started in 1967. The first issue appeared in April 1967. The headquarters is in Bucharest. The monthly magazine contains articles ...
'', January 2002, pp. 12-17 Her
maiden name
When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse, in some countries that name replaces the person's previous surname, which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name ("birth name" is also used ...
was given as ''Alexovici'' (''Alexevici'')
or as ''Karaboa'' (''Caraboa''). She is known to have been Greek herself,
[ Ioan Holban]
"I.L. Caragiale, fiul unui emigrant din Cefallonia (III)"
in '' Evenimentul'', 25 May 2002. and, according to historian Lucian Nastasă, some of her relatives were
Hungarian members of the Tabay family.
The couple also had a daughter, named Lenci.
Ion Luca's uncles,
Costache and Iorgu Caragiale, managed theater troupes and were very influential figures in the development of early Romanian theatre — in Wallachia and
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...
alike.
[Dan Mănucă, "Caragiale", in Jean-Claude Polet, ''Patrimoine littéraire européen: anthologie en langue française'', De Boeck Université, Paris, 2000, pp. 478-479; ] Luca Caragiali had himself performed with his brothers during his youth, before opting to settle down. All three had stood criticism for not taking part in the
Wallachian Revolution, and defended themselves through a
brochure
A brochure is originally an Information, informative paper document (often also used for advertising) that can be folded into a template, pamphlet, or Folded leaflet, leaflet. A brochure can also be a set of related unfolded papers put into a po ...
printed in 1848. The Caragiali brothers had two sisters, Ecaterina and Anastasia.
[ Doina Tudorovic]
"Caragiale: 'ai avesi, tomnilor, cu numele meu?'"
in ''Ziarul Financiar
''Ziarul Financiar'' is a daily financial newspaper published in Bucharest, Romania. Aside from business information, it features sections focusing on careers and properties, as well as a special Sunday newspaper. ''Ziarul Financiar'' also publish ...
'', 5 July 2000.
Especially in his old age, the writer emphasized his family's humble background and his status as a
self-made man
"Self-made man" is a classic phrase coined on February 2, 1842 by Henry Clay in the United States Senate, to describe individuals whose success lay within the individuals themselves, not with outside conditions. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Foun ...
.
On one occasion, he defined the landscape of his youth as "the quagmires of Ploiești".
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 197] Although it prompted his biographer
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 1855, village of Slavyanka near Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), then in Imperial Russia – 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and j ...
to define him as "a
proletarian
The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philoso ...
", Caragiale's account was disputed by several other researchers, who noted that the family had a good social standing.
Ion Luca Caragiale was discreet about his ethnic origin for the larger part of his life. In parallel, his foreign roots came to the attention of his adversaries, who used them as arguments in various polemics.
Sorin Antohi
Sorin Antohi (born 20 August 1957) is a Romanian historian, essayist, and journalist.
Biography
Antohi was born in Târgu Ocna, Bacău County. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Iași and a DEA fro ...
"Romania and the Balkans. From Geocultural Bovarism to Ethnic Ontology"
in ''Tr@nsit online'', Nr. 21/2002, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen
The Institute for Human Sciences (german: Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, IWM) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences based in Vienna, Austria.
History and core idea
The IWM was found ...
As his relations with Caragiale degenerated into hostility,
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active membe ...
is known to have referred to his former friend as "that Greek swindler".
[Cristea-Enache, chapter "Corespondenţa inedită Mihai Eminescu – Veronica Micle. Filigranul geniului"] Aware of such treatment, the writer considered all references to his lineage to be insults.
On several occasions, he preferred to indicate that he was "of obscure birth".
![Caragiale costum balcanic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Caragiale_costum_balcanic.jpg)
Nevertheless, as literary critic
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary criticism, literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Literature of Roma ...
noted, Caragiale's outlook on life was explicitly
Balkan
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
ic and
Orient
The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...
al, which, in Vianu's view, mirrored a type "which must have been found in his lineage".
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 195] A similar opinion was expressed by
Paul Zarifopol
Paul Zarifopol (November 30, 1874 – May 1, 1934) was a Romanian literary and social critic, essayist, and
literary historian. The scion of an aristocratic family, formally trained in both philology and the sociology of literature, he emer ...
, who speculated that Caragiale's conservative mindset was possibly owed to the "lazyness of one true Oriental"
[ ]Paul Zarifopol
Paul Zarifopol (November 30, 1874 – May 1, 1934) was a Romanian literary and social critic, essayist, and
literary historian. The scion of an aristocratic family, formally trained in both philology and the sociology of literature, he emer ...
''Introduceri la ediţia critică I.L. Caragiale, opere''
(wikisource) (elsewhere, he referred to the writer as "a lazy southerner, fitted with definitely supranormal intelligence and imagination").
[ ]Paul Zarifopol
Paul Zarifopol (November 30, 1874 – May 1, 1934) was a Romanian literary and social critic, essayist, and
literary historian. The scion of an aristocratic family, formally trained in both philology and the sociology of literature, he emer ...
,
Artiști și idei literare române: Publicul și arta lui Caragiale
' (wikisource)
In his main work on the history of Romanian literature,
George Călinescu
George Călinescu (; 19 June 1899, Bucharest – 12 March 1965, Otopeni) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the mos ...
included Caragiale among a group of "Balkan" writers, whose
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
status and often foreign origin, he argued, set them apart irrespective of their period—others in this category were, in chronological order,
Anton Pann
Anton Pann (; born Antonie Pantoleon-Petroveanu , and also mentioned as ''Anton Pantoleon'' or ''Petrovici''; 1790s—2 November 1854) was an Ottoman-born Wallachian composer, musicologist, and Romanian-language poet, also noted for his act ...
,
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi (; 21 May 1880 – 14 July 1967) was a Romanian writer, best known for his unique contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest, he explained that his pen name was related to ''Argesis'', th ...
,
Ion Minulescu
Ion Minulescu (; 6 January 1881 – 11 April 1944) was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, and playwright. Often publishing his works under the pseudonyms I. M. Nirvan and Koh-i-Noor (the latte ...
,
Urmuz
Urmuz (, pen name of Demetru Dem. Demetrescu-Buzău, also known as Hurmuz or Ciriviș, born Dimitrie Dim. Ionescu-Buzeu; March 17, 1883 – November 23, 1923) was a Romanian writer, lawyer and civil servant, who became a cult hero in Romania's ava ...
,
Mateiu Caragiale
Mateiu Ion Caragiale (; – January 17, 1936), also credited as Matei or Matheiu, or in the antiquated version Mateiŭ,Sorin Antohi"Romania and the Balkans. From Geocultural Bovarism to Ethnic Ontology" in ''Tr@nsit online'', Institut für die ...
, and
Ion Barbu
Ion Barbu (, pen name of Dan Barbilian; 18 March 1895 –11 August 1961) was a Romanian mathematician and poet. His name is associated with the Mathematics Subject Classification number 51C05, which is a major posthumous recognition reserved ...
. In contrast, critic
Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu (; May 23, 1871 – March 11, 1936) was a Romanian-Armenians in Romania, Armenian Literary criticism, literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, University of Iași professor ...
proposed that Caragiale's Wallachian origin was of particular importance, serving to explain his political choices and alleged social bias.
[ ]Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu (; May 23, 1871 – March 11, 1936) was a Romanian-Armenians in Romania, Armenian Literary criticism, literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, University of Iași professor ...
''Spiritul critic în cultura românească: Spiritul critic în Muntenia – Critica socială extremă: Caragiale''
(wikisource)
On one occasion, Caragiale mentioned that his paternal grandfather was "a Greek cook".
In several contexts, he referred to his roots as being in the island of
Hydra.
In one of his photographs, he posed in Oriental costume and sitting cross-legged, which was interpreted by Vianu as an additional reference to his Balkan background. Two of his biographers, Zarifopol and
Șerban Cioculescu
Șerban Cioculescu (; 7 September 1902 – 25 June 1988) was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iași and the University of Bucharest, as well as m ...
, noted that a section of Caragiale's
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
''
Kir Ianulea'' was a likely self-reference: in that fragment of text, the
Christian Devil, disguised as an
Arvanite
Arvanites (; Arvanitika: , or , ; Greek: , ) are a bilingual population group in Greece of Albanian origin. They traditionally speak Arvanitika, an Albanian language variety, along with Greek. Their ancestors were first recorded as settler ...
trader, is shown taking pride in his
Romanian language
Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Moldova, Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communi ...
skills.
Investigations carried out by the Center of Theatric Research in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
and made public in 2002 offered an alternative take on the Caragiales' origin. According to this perspective, Ștefan Caragiali was a native of
Kefalonia
Kefalonia or Cephalonia ( el, Κεφαλονιά), formerly also known as Kefallinia or Kephallenia (), is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece and the 6th largest island in Greece after Crete, Euboea, Lesbos, Rhodes and Chios. It ...
, and his original surname, ''Karaialis'', was changed on Prince Caragea's request.
Various authors also believe that Caragiale's ancestors were
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
or
Aromanian.
Originally, Ion Luca was known as ''Ioanne L. Caragiali''.
["Casele lui Caragiale"]
, in ''Adevărul
''Adevărul'' (; meaning "The Truth", formerly spelled ''Adevĕrul'') is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in Iași, in 1871, and reestablished in 1888, in Bucharest, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published dur ...
'', 30 January 2002. His family and friends knew him as ''Iancu'' or, rarely, ''Iancuțu''—both being antiquated
hypocoristic
A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek: (), from (), 'to call by pet names', sometimes also ''hypocoristic'') or pet name is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive form of a person's name, such as ''Izzy'' for I ...
s of ''Ion''. The definitive full version of his features the syllable ''ca'' twice in a row, which is generally avoided in Romanian due to its scatological connotations. It has however become one of the few
cacophonies accepted by the
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its byl ...
.
Early years
![Ilcaragiale adolescent](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Ilcaragiale_adolescent.jpg)
Born in the village of
Haimanale, Prahova County (the present-day I. L. Caragiale
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
,
Dâmbovița County
Dâmbovița County (also spelt ''Dîmbovița'', ) is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Târgoviște, the most important economic, political, administrative and cultural center of the county.
It has an area of ...
), Caragiale was educated in Ploiești. During his early years, as he later indicated, he learned reading and writing with a teacher at the
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; ro, Biserica Ortodoxă Română, ), or Patriarchate of Romania, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches, and one of ...
of Saint George.
[Mîndra, p. 272] Soon after, he was taught
literary Romanian by the Transylvanian-born Bazilie Dragoșescu (whose influence on his use of the language he was to acknowledge in one of his later works). At the age of seven, he witnessed enthusiastic celebrations of the
Danubian Principalities
The Danubian Principalities ( ro, Principatele Dunărene, sr, Дунавске кнежевине, translit=Dunavske kneževine) was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th ce ...
' union, with the election of Moldavia's
Alexandru Ioan Cuza
Alexandru Ioan Cuza (, or Alexandru Ioan I, also anglicised as Alexander John Cuza; 20 March 1820 – 15 May 1873) was the first ''domnitor'' (Ruler) of the Romanian Principalities through his double election as prince of Moldavia on 5 Januar ...
as
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
of Wallachia;
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 192] Cuza's subsequent reforms were to be an influence on the political choices Caragiale made in his old age. The new ruler visited his primary school later in 1859, being received with enthusiasm by Dragoșescu and all his pupils.
Caragiale completed
gymnasium at the Sfinții Petru și Pavel school in the city, and never pursued any form of higher education. He was probably enlisted directly in the second grade, as records do not show him to have attended or graduated the first year. Notably, Caragiale was taught history by Constantin Iennescu, who was later the mayor of Ploiești.
[Mîndra, pg. 9] The young Caragiale opted to follow in his uncles' footsteps, and was taught declamation and mimic art by Costache at the latter's theater school in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
, where he was accompanied by his mother and sister.
It is also probable that he was a
supernumerary actor
Supernumerary actors are usually amateur character actors in opera and ballet performances who train under professional direction to create a believable scene.
Definition
The term's original use, from the Latin ''supernumerarius'', meant someon ...
for the
National Theater Bucharest
The National Theatre Bucharest ( ro, Teatrul Naţional "Ion Luca Caragiale" București) is one of the national theatres of Romania, located in the capital city of Bucharest.
Founding
It was founded as the ''Teatrul cel Mare din București'' ("Gra ...
.
He was not able to find full employment in this field, and, around the age of 18, worked as a
copyist for the Prahova County Tribunal. Throughout his life, Caragiale refused to talk about his training in the theater, and hid it from the people closest to him (including his wife Alexandrina Burelly, who came from an upper middle class environment).
[Cioculescu, pg. 6]
In 1866, Caragiale witnessed Cuza's toppling by a coalition of
conservatives
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
and
liberals — as he later acknowledged in his ''Grand Hotel "Victoria Română"'', he and his friends agreed to support the move by voting "yes" during a subsequent
plebiscite
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
, and, with tacit approval from the new authorities, even did so several times each. By the age of 18, he was an enthusiastic supporter of the liberal current, and sympathized with its
republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
ideals. In 1871, he witnessed the
Republic of Ploiești — a short-lived stated created by the liberal groups, in an attempt to oust ''
Domnitor
''Domnitor'' (Romanian pl. ''Domnitori'') was the official title of the ruler of Romania between 1862 and 1881. It was usually translated as "prince" in other languages and less often as "grand duke". Derived from the Romanian word "''domn''" ...
''
Carol I
Carol I or Charles I of Romania (20 April 1839 – ), born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He w ...
(the future
King of Romania
The King of Romania (Romanian: ''Regele României'') or King of the Romanians (Romanian: ''Regele Românilor''), was the title of the monarch of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when the Romanian Workers' Party proclaimed the Romanian ...
). Later in life, as his opinions veered towards
conservatism
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...
, Caragiale ridiculed both the attempted ''
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
'' and his participation in it.
He returned to Bucharest later that year, after manager
Mihail Pascaly hired him as one of the
prompts at the National Theater in the capital, a period about which he reminisced in his ''
Din carnetul unui vechi sufleur''.
The poet
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active membe ...
, with whom Ion Luca was to have cordial relations as well as rivalries, had previously been employed for the same position by the manager Iorgu Caragiale. In addition to his growing familiarity with the
repertoire
A repertoire () is a list or set of dramas, operas, musical compositions or roles which a company or person is prepared to perform.
Musicians often have a musical repertoire. The first known use of the word ''repertoire'' was in 1847. It is a l ...
, the young Caragiale educated himself by reading the philosophical works of
Enlightenment-era ''
philosophe
The ''philosophes'' () were the intellectuals of the 18th-century Enlightenment.Kishlansky, Mark, ''et al.'' ''A Brief History of Western Civilization: The Unfinished Legacy, volume II: Since 1555.'' (5th ed. 2007). Few were primarily philosophe ...
s''.
It was also recorded that, at some point between 1870 and 1872, he was employed in the same capacity by the
Moldavian National Theater in Iași. During the period, Caragiale also
proofread
Proofreading is the reading of a galley proof or an electronic copy of a publication to find and correct reproduction errors of text or art. Proofreading is the final step in the editorial cycle before publication.
Professional
Traditional ...
for various publications and worked as a
tutor
TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...
.
Literary debut
![Ion Luca Caragiale - Foto08](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Ion_Luca_Caragiale_-_Foto08.jpg)
Ion Luca made his literary debut in 1873, at the age of 21, with poems and humorous chronicles printed in
G. Dem. Teodorescu's liberal-inspired satirical magazine, ''Ghimpele''. He published relatively few articles under various
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
s — among them ''Car.'', the contraction of his family name, and the more elaborate ''Palicar''. He mostly performed basic services for the editorial staff and its
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...
, given that, after Luca Caragiali died in 1870, he was the sole provider for his mother and sister. Following his return to Bucharest, he became even more involved with the
radical
Radical may refer to:
Politics and ideology Politics
*Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change
*Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
and republican wing of the liberal trend—a movement commonly referred to as "the Reds". As he later confessed, he frequently attended its congresses, witnessing the speeches held by Reds leader
C. A. Rosetti; he thus became intimately acquainted with a
Populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...
discourse, which he later
parodied in his works. Working for ''Ghimpele'', he made the acquaintance of republican writer
N. T. Orășanu
Nicolae T. Orășanu (1833?–August 7, 1890) was a Wallachian-born Romanian poet, prose writer and newspaper editor.
Born in Craiova, he attended high school at Saint Sava College in the national capital Bucharest. As a young man, Orășanu e ...
.
[Mîndra, pg. 273]
Several of his articles for ''Ghimpele'' were sarcastic in tone, and targeted various literary figures of the day. In June 1874, Caragiale amused himself at the expense of
N. D. Popescu-Popnedea, the author of popular
almanac
An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and other ...
s, whose taste he questioned.
[Cioculescu, pg. 52] Soon after, he ridiculed the rising poet
Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski (; also rendered as Al. A. Macedonski, Macedonschi or Macedonsky; 14 March 1854 – 24 November 1920) was a Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in h ...
, who had publicized his claim that he was a "Count Geniadevsky", and thus of
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
origin. The article contributed by Caragiale, in which he speculated that Macedonski (referred to with the
anagram
An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...
''Aamsky'') was using the name solely because it reminded people of the word "genius",
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 177] was the first act in a long polemic between the two literary figures. Caragiale turned Aamsky into a character on his own, envisaging his death as a result of overwork in editing magazines "for the country's political development".
Caragiale also contributed poetry to ''Ghimpele'': two
sonnet
A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...
s, and a series of
epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...
s (one of which was another attack on Macedonski). The first of these works, an 1873 sonnet dedicated to the
baritone
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...
Agostino Mazzoli, is believed to have been his first contribution to the ''
belles-lettres
is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pejora ...
'' (as opposed to journalism).
In 1896, Macedonski reflected with irony:
"As early as 1872, the clients of some beer garden
A beer garden (German: ''Biergarten'') is an outdoor area in which beer and food are served, typically at shared tables shaded by trees.
Beer gardens originated in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital city, in the 19th century, and remain co ...
s in the capital have had the occasion to welcome among them of a noisy young man, a bizarre spirit who seemed destined, were he to have devoted himself to letters or the arts, to be entirely original. Indeed, this young man's appearance, his hasty gestures, his sarcastic smile .. his always irritated and mocking voice, as well as his sophistic reasoning easily attracted attention."
Over the following years, Caragiale collaborated on various mouthpieces of the newly created
National Liberal Party, and, in May 1877, created the satirical magazine ''
Claponul''. Later in 1877, he also translated a series of
French-language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
plays for the National Theater:
Alexandre Parodi
Alexandre Parodi (b. 1 June 1901 - d.15 March 1979) liases Quartus and Cératwas a French senior civil servant, a member of the French resistance, General de Gaulle's appointee in charge of the French provisional government during World War I ...
's ''Rome vaincue'' (it was showcased in late 1877-early 1878),
Paul Déroulède
Paul Déroulède (2 September 1846 – 30 January 1914) was a French author and politician, one of the founders of the nationalist League of Patriots.
Early life
Déroulède was born in Paris. He was published first as a poet in the magazine '' ...
's ''L'Hetman'', and
Eugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of ma ...
's ''Une camaraderie''.
[Vianu, Vol. II, p. 178] Together with the
French republican
Frédéric Damé
Frédéric and Frédérick are the French versions of the common male given name Frederick. They may refer to:
In artistry:
* Frédéric Back, Canadian award-winning animator
* Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor
* Frédéric Bazille, Impress ...
, he also headed a short-lived journal, ''Națiunea Română''.
It was also then that he contributed a serialized overview of Romanian theater, published by the newspaper ''
România Liberă
''România liberă'' ("") is a Romanian daily newspaper founded in 1943 and currently based in Bucharest. A newspaper of the same name also existed between 1877 and 1888.
History and profile
The name ''România liberă'' was first used by a dai ...
'', in which Caragiale attacked the inferiority of Romanian
dramaturgy
Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the Representation (arts), representation of the main elements of drama on the stage.
The term first appears in the eponymous work ''Hamburg Dramaturgy'' (1767–69) by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing ...
and the widespread recourse to
plagiarism
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...
. According to literary historian
Perpessicius
Perpessicius (; pen name of Dumitru S. Panaitescu, also known as Panait Șt. Dumitru, D. P. Perpessicius and Panaitescu-Perpessicius; October 22, 1891 – March 29, 1971) was a Romanian literary historian and critic, poet, essayist and fiction wri ...
, the series constituted "one of the most solid critical contributions to the history of our theater".
Macedonski later alleged that, in his contributions to the liberal newspapers, the young writer had
libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
ed several
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
politicians—when researching this period,
Șerban Cioculescu
Șerban Cioculescu (; 7 September 1902 – 25 June 1988) was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iași and the University of Bucharest, as well as m ...
concluded that the accusation was false, and that only one polemical article on a political topic could be traced back to Caragiale.
''Timpul'' and ''Claponul''
![Russian Army in Bucharest, The Illustrated London News, 1877](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Russian_Army_in_Bucharest%2C_The_Illustrated_London_News%2C_1877.jpg)
The young journalist began drifting away from National Liberal politics soon after 1876, when the group came to power with
Ion Brătianu
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conven ...
as
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
.
[Cioculescu, p. 20] According to many versions, Eminescu, who was working on the editorial staff of the main Conservative newspaper, ''
Timpul
''Timpul'' (Romanian for "The Time") is a literary magazine published in Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine t ...
'', asked to be joined by Caragiale and the Transylvanian prose writer
Ioan Slavici
Ioan Slavici (; 18 January 1848 – 17 August 1925) was a Romanians, Romanian writer and journalist from Hungary, later from Romania.
He made his debut in ''Convorbiri literare'' ("Literary Conversations") (1871), with the comedy ''Fata de biră ...
, who were both employed by the paper.
This order of events remains unclear, and depends on sources saying that Eminescu was employed by the paper in March 1876.
[Ornea, p. 246] Other testimonies indicate that it was actually Eminescu who arrived last, beginning work in January 1878.
Slavici later recalled that three of them engaged in lengthy discussions at ''Timpuls headquarters on
Calea Victoriei CALEA may refer to:
*Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, an act by the US Congress to facilitate wiretapping of U.S. domestic telephone and Internet traffic
*Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, a private accredit ...
and in Eminescu's house on Sfinților Street, where they planned to co-author a massive work on
Romanian grammar.
According to literary historian
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary criticism, literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Literature of Roma ...
, the relationship between Caragiale and Eminescu partly replicated that between the latter and the
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...
n
Ion Creangă.
Over that period, ''Timpul'' and Eminescu were engaged in a harsh polemic with the Reds, and especially their leader Rosetti.
[Vianu, Vol. II, p. 147] It was also then that Romania entered the
Russo-Turkish War
The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histo ...
as a means to secure her complete independence from the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
.
Caragiale reportedly took little interest in editing ''Timpul'' over that period, but it is assumed that several unsigned chronicles, covering foreign events, are his contributions (as are two short story adaptations of works by the
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
author
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
, both published by ''Timpul'' in spring-summer 1878).
The newspaper was actually issued as a collaborative effort, which makes it hard to identify the authors of many other articles. According to Slavici, Caragiale occasionally completed unfinished contributions by Eminescu whenever the latter had to leave unexpectedly.
He concentrated instead on ''Claponul'', which he edited and wrote single-handedly for the duration of the war. Zarifopol believed that, through the series of light satires he contributed for the magazine, Caragiale was trying out his style, and thus "entertaining the suburbanites, in order to study them".
A piece he authored of the time featured an imaginary barber and amateur artist, Năstase Știrbu, who drew a direct parallel between art, literature and cutting hair—both the theme and the character were to be reused in his later works. Similarly, a fragment of prose referring to two inseparable friends, Șotrocea and Motrocea, was to serve as the first draft for the
Lache and Mache
The Lache ( ; sometimes simply Lache) is a housing estate in the city of Chester, in Cheshire, United Kingdom, with a population of around 10,000. It is located approximately southwest of the ancient city, with good local transport links en ...
series in ''
Momente și schițe
''Momente'' (Moments) is a work by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written between 1962 and 1969, scored for solo soprano, four mixed choirs, and thirteen instrumentalists (four trumpets, four trombones, three percussionists, and two ...
''.
Another notable work of the time is ''Pohod la șosea'', a rhyming
reportage
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
documenting the
Russian Army
The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска В Sukhoputnyye voyska V, also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces.
The primary responsibilities of the Russian Gro ...
's arrival to Bucharest, and the street reactions to the event. ''Claponul'' ceased publication in early 1878.
''Junimea'' reception
It was probably through Eminescu that Ion Luca Caragiale came into contact with the
Iași
Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...
-based ''
Junimea
''Junimea'' was a Romanian literary society founded in Iași in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi. The foremost personali ...
'', the influential literary society which was also a center for anti-National Liberal politics.
Initially, Caragiale met with ''Junimea'' founder, the critic and politician
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu (; 15 February 1840 – 18 June 1917) was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the ''Junimea'' Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of ...
, during a visit to the house of Dr. Kremnitz, physician to the family of ''
Domnitor
''Domnitor'' (Romanian pl. ''Domnitori'') was the official title of the ruler of Romania between 1862 and 1881. It was usually translated as "prince" in other languages and less often as "grand duke". Derived from the Romanian word "''domn''" ...
''
Carol I
Carol I or Charles I of Romania (20 April 1839 – ), born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He w ...
. The doctor's wife and Maiorescu's sister-in-law,
Mite Kremnitz
Mite Kremnitz (4 January 1852, Greifswald – 18 July 1916 in Berlin), born Marie von Bardeleben (pen names ''George Allan'', ''Ditto and Idem''), was a German writer.
Biography
Kremnitz was the daughter of the famous surgeon Heinrich Adolf ...
, was herself a writer, and later became Eminescu's lover.
During several meetings, Caragiale was asked by Maiorescu to write down a series of
aphorism
An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...
s in an album. His concise musings are contemplative in tone, and some of them have been construed by some present-day reviewers to contain evidence of
misanthropy
Misanthropy is the general hatred, dislike, distrust or contempt of the human species, human behavior or human nature. A misanthrope or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings. The word's origin is from the Greek words μῖσ ...
and, to a certain degree,
misogyny
Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced fo ...
.
In 1878, Caragiale and Maiorescu left for Iași, where they attended ''Junimea''s 15th anniversary, and where Caragiale read his first draft of the celebrated play ''
O noapte furtunoasă
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), pl ...
''. The work, ridiculing the ''
petite bourgeoisie
''Petite bourgeoisie'' (, literally 'small bourgeoisie'; also anglicised as petty bourgeoisie) is a French term that refers to a social class composed of semi-autonomous peasants and small-scale merchants whose politico-economic ideological st ...
''s mix of liberal values and
demagogy
A demagogue (from Greek , a popular leader, a leader of a mob, from , people, populace, the commons + leading, leader) or rabble-rouser is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, e ...
over a background of superficial culture, immediately struck a chord with the majority-conservative grouping. Its reception was one of the pivotal moments in the second period of ''Junimea'' activities, characterized by the society's expansion to Bucharest and its
patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
of the arts. Other writers who marked this stage were Creangă, Slavici,
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri (; 21 July 182122 August 1890) was a Romanian patriot, poet, dramatist, politician and diplomat. He was one of the key figures during the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia. He fought for the unification of the Romani ...
and
Vasile Conta
Vasile Conta (; hy, Վասիլե Գրիգորեիի Կոնտա (Գոնտա); November 15, 1845 – April 21, 1882) was a Romanian philosopher, poet, and politician.
He was born in Ghindăoani, a village in Bălțătești commune, Neamț County ...
—together with Caragiale, they soon became the foremost representatives of ''Junimea''s direct influence on literature. To varying degrees, they all complimented the main element of ''Junimist'' discourse, Maiorescu criticism of "forms without a foundation"—the concept itself referred to the negative impact of
modernization
Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
, which, ''Junimea'' argued, had by then only benefited the upper strata of Romanian society, leaving the rest with an incomplete and increasingly falsified culture.
Ion Luca Caragiale also associated with ''Junimeas mouthpiece, ''
Convorbiri Literare
''Convorbiri Literare'' ( Romanian: ''Literary Talks'') is a Romanian literary magazine published in Romania. It is among the most important journals of the nineteenth-century Romania.
History and profile
''Convorbiri Literare'' was founded by ...
'', and continued to contribute there even after 1885, when the society began to decline in importance. It was here that all his major comedies were first presented to the public.
He did not, however, join
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp (; also Petrache Carp, Francized ''Pierre Carp'', Ioana Pârvulescu"O adresă high-life", in ''România Literară'', Nr. 25/2010 occasionally ''Comte Carpe''; 28 Mircea Dumitriu"Petre P. Carp – un suflet, un caracter, o idee", in ...
's movement, which aimed to consolidate ''Junimea'' as a third force in Romanian politics, and remained a staunch independent over the following years.
[Cioculescu, p. 21] Caragiale was nevertheless associated with the ''Junimist'' journal ''
Constituționalul''.
[Ornea, pg. 200]
In early January 1879, ''O noapte furtunoasă'' was first staged by the National Theater. Its production brought the first association between Caragiale and comedian
Mihai Mateescu, who went on to portray some of his most popular characters. The play was a hit, and acclaim reached Caragiale despite the fact that he had refused to have his name printed on the posters. Caragiale was soon outraged to discover that, by the second staging, his text had been toned down by the government-appointed Head of Theaters, the National Liberal
Ion Ghica
Ion Ghica (; 12 August 1816 – 7 May 1897) was a Romanian statesman, mathematician, diplomat and politician, who was Prime Minister of Romania five times. He was a full member of the Romanian Academy and its president many times (1876–1882, ...
. When he asked for an official explanation, ''O noapte furtunoasă'' was removed from the season's program. Over the following years, independent troupes staged the play or its
plagiarized
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...
versions for their own benefit. It was restored to the National Theater's repertoire in 1883, and was so successful that state theaters in cities such as
Craiova
Craiova (, also , ), is Romania's 6th Cities in Romania, largest city and capital of Dolj County, and situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximatel ...
and
Iași
Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...
made efforts to have it included in their own programs.
Caragiale subsequently took part in directing his plays at the National Theater, where his main collaborator was actor and manager
Constantin I. Nottara.
[Cioculescu, pg. 323] Together, they are credited with having put a stop to the techniques favored by
Mihail Pascaly, replacing emphatic declamation with a more natural and studied perspective on acting.
Inspector general
In 1880, he printed ''Conu Leonida față cu reacțiunea'' — a play centered on an uncultured "Red" pensioner and his naive wife, who overhear a street brawl and believe that a revolution is imminent.
It was also then that his first memoirs from the world of theater were published, which coincided with the release of
Ion Creangă's own book of memoirs, the well-known volume ''
Amintiri din copilărie''.
Accompanied by Maiorescu, Caragiale left for
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
. In
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, the two of them attended a staging of
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...
'', hosted by the
Burgtheater
The Burgtheater (literally:"Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater"), originally known as '' K.K. Theater an der Burg'', then until 1918 as the ''K.K. Hofburgtheater'', is the national theater of Austria in Vi ...
.
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 180] He was practically unemployed after returning, and, in 1881, gave up his position at ''Timpul''.
Nevertheless, that autumn,
V. A. Urechia
V. A. Urechia (most common version of Vasile Alexandrescu Urechia, ; born Vasile Alexandrescu and also known as Urechiă, Urechea, Ureche, Popovici-Ureche or Vasile Urechea-Alexandrescu; 15 February 1834 – 21 November 1901) was a Moldavian, ...
,
Minister of Education in the
Ion Brătianu
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conven ...
National Liberal cabinet, assigned him the office of inspector general for the Moldavian counties of
Suceava
Suceava () is the largest urban settlement and the seat town ( ro, oraș reședință de județ) of Suceava County, situated in the historical region of Bukovina, northeastern Romania, and at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central and Eastern E ...
and
Neamț.
Profiting from the proximity between his new residence and Iași, Ion Luca Caragiale became a regular participant in ''Junimeas activities, becoming good friends with some of its most important representatives (
Iacob Negruzzi
Iacob C. Negruzzi (December 31, 1842 – January 6, 1932) was a Moldavian, later Romanian poet and prose writer.
Born in Iași, he was the son of Constantin Negruzzi and his wife Maria (''née'' Gane). Living in Berlin between 1853 and 1863, he at ...
,
Vasile Pogor
Vasile V. Pogor ( Francized ''Basile Pogor''; August 20, 1833 – March 20, 1906) was a Moldavian, later Romanian poet, philosopher, translator and liberal conservative politician, one of the founders of ''Junimea'' literary society. Raised in t ...
, and
Petru Th. Missir
Petru Th. Missir (October 8, 1856–June 10, 1929) was a Romanian literary critic, journalist and jurist.
Born in Roman into a family of ethnic Armenian merchants, he graduated from Iași's National College in 1873. While a student at the Univer ...
). With Negruzzi, he dramatized ''Hatmanul Baltag'', a short story by
Nicolae Gane
Nicolae Gane (February 1, 1838 – April 16, 1916) was a Moldavian, later Romanian prose writer, poet and politician.
Born in Fălticeni, his family were '' boyars'' of small and medium importance; his parents were ''postelnic'' Matei Gane and his ...
.
He became close to
Veronica Micle
Veronica Micle (born Ana Câmpeanu; 22 April 1850 – 3 August 1889) was an Imperial Austrian-born Romanian poet, whose work was influenced by Romanticism. She is best known for her love affair with the poet Mihai Eminescu, one of the most im ...
, a woman writer who was also Eminescu's mistress. For a while, Caragiale and Micle had a love affair, although she continued to see the poet.
This caused the friendship between Eminescu and Caragiale to sour.
The former was jealous of Cargiale's relations with Micle, while she resented the poet's affair with Mite Kremnitz.
![IL and Mateiu Caragiale](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/IL_and_Mateiu_Caragiale.jpg)
Just one year after, Caragiale was moved back to Wallachia, becoming inspector general in
Argeș and
Vâlcea. He was ultimately stripped of this position in 1884, and found himself on the verge of
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
; he thus accepted the lowly position of
clerk
A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...
for the
civil registry
Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events (births, marriages, and deaths) of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database has different names in different countries and even in differen ...
administration.
It is probably during this period that his
melodrama
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...
''
O soacră'' was written and published — Caragiale, who was aware of its faults, indicated that it was a work from his youth, and dated it to 1876. His account is challenged by several details in the text.
In June 1883, while visiting Maiorescu's house, he received news that Eminescu had suffered the first in a series of
dementia
Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
attacks (owing to a disease that was to kill him in 1889). Caragiale reportedly broke into tears. This succession of events also saw him becoming involved in conflicts among ''Junimea'' members: like Pogor, Caragiale objected to the style of
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri (; 21 July 182122 August 1890) was a Romanian patriot, poet, dramatist, politician and diplomat. He was one of the key figures during the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia. He fought for the unification of the Romani ...
, an aged ''Junimist'' poet, and was shocked to find out that he was ridiculing the much younger Eminescu. He thus decided to criticize Alecsandri in public, during a March 1884 meeting of the society—Maiorescu recorded in his private notes that "
..Caragiale
asaggressive and rude toward Alecsandri."
Caragiale's wealthy relative, Catinca Momulo Cardini (commonly known Catinca Momuloaia), who was the widow of a famous restaurateur and the cousin of his mother Ecaterina, died in 1885, and the writer had the prospect of inheriting a large fortune.
He nonetheless became involved in a trial with Momuloaia's other relatives, which prolonged itself until the early 20th century.
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 188]
First major successes
Months after this, his new comedy, ''
O scrisoare pierdută
''O scrisoare pierdută'' (Romanian for "A Lost Letter") is a play by Ion Luca Caragiale. It premiered in 1884, and arguably represents the high point of his career.Vianu, Vol. II, p.180
It was adapted into a 1953 film ''A Lost Letter''.
Characte ...
'', was first shown to the public. A fresco of conflicting
political machine
In the politics of Representative democracy, representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a hig ...
s, provincial
corruption
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
, petty ambitions, and incoherent demagogy, it was an instant hit with the public. Arguably the high point of Caragiale's career,
it became one of the best-known works of its kind in Romanian literature. Maiorescu was pleased by its success, and believed that it was a sign of maturity in Romanian society, which, as he put it, was "starting to laugh" at the National Liberal rhetoric.
Ion Luca Caragiale was romantically involved with an unmarried young woman, Maria Constantinescu, who worked for the
Bucharest Town Hall
— in 1885, she gave birth to
Mateiu, whom Caragiale recognized as his son.
![Convorbiri Literare - prima pagina - 1 mai 1885](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Convorbiri_Literare_-_prima_pagina_-_1_mai_1885.jpg)
During the same year, Caragiale's ''D-ale carnavalului'', a lighter satire of suburban morals and amorous misadventures, was received with
booing
Booing is an act of publicly showing displeasure for someone or something, such as an entertainer or an athlete, by loudly yelling "Boo!" and sustaining the "oo" sound by holding it out. People may also make hand signs such as the thumbs down sig ...
and
heckling by members of the public — critics deemed it "immoral", due to its frank depiction of
adultery
Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...
gone unpunished.
The controversy saw Maiorescu taking his friend's side and publishing an essay highly critical of National Liberal cultural tenets (titled ''
Comediile domnului Caragiale'', it was to be reprinted in 1889, as a preface to Caragiale's collected plays). In it, the critic, who was influenced by the ideas of
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
, argued that Caragiale had not failed in uplifting the human spirit, precisely because he had risen above both
didacticism
Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is an emerging conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to ...
and
egotism
Egotism is defined as the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself and generally features an inflated opinion of one's personal features and importance distinguished by a person's amplified vision of one's self and self-importanc ...
(''see
Arthur Schopenhauer's aesthetics
Arthur Schopenhauer's aesthetics result from his philosophical doctrine of the primacy of the metaphysical Will as the Kantian ''thing-in-itself'', the ground of life and all being. In his chief work, ''The World as Will and Representation,'' Scho ...
''). In reference to accusations that the play was
unpatriotic, Maiorescu answered:
" ..the present-day poems with a political intent, the odes on solemn days, the theatrical compositions for dynastic glorifications are a simulacrum of art, and not the real art. Even patriotism, the most important sense for the citizen of a state in his actions as a citizen, has no place in art as an ad-hoc form of patriotism .. Is there a single lyric of French patriotism in Corneille
Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine.
As a young man, he earned the valuable patronag ...
? Is there any national spouting in Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditio ...
? Is there one in Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...
? Is there one in Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
? Is there one in Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
?"
The article played an essential part in reconciling the dramatist to the general public, but also led to a polemic between Maiorescu and the philosopher
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 1855, village of Slavyanka near Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), then in Imperial Russia – 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and j ...
(a
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
who claimed that Maiorescu was contradicting himself).
[ ]Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 1855, village of Slavyanka near Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), then in Imperial Russia – 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and j ...
''Asupra esteticii metafizice şi ştiinţifice''
(wikisource) Dobrogeanu-Gherea argued in favor of Caragiale's work, but considered ''D-ale carnavalului'' to be his weakest play.
Theater leadership and marriage
Despite his earlier conflicts with the National Liberals, Caragiale, who still faced problems in making a living, agreed to contribute pieces for the party press, and thus briefly associated with ''Voința Națională'' (a journal issued by historian and politician
Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol
Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol (; March 23, 1847, Iaşi – February 27, 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian historian, philosopher, professor, economist, sociologist, and author. Among his many major accomplishments, he is the Romanian historian cred ...
). Under the pen name ''Luca'', he contributed two theater chronicles.
In parallel, he taught classes at the privately run Sfântul Gheorghe High School in Bucharest.
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 181] This episode of his career ended in 1888, when Maiorescu ascended to the office of Minister of Education in the
Teodor Rosetti
Theodor Rosetti (5 May 1837, Iași or Solești, Moldavia – 17 July 1923, Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania, Romania) was a Romanian writer, journalist and politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between 23 March 1888 and 22 March 188 ...
cabinet (formed by a group of ''Junimist'' Conservatives).
Caragiale requested to be appointed Head of Theaters, which also implied leadership of the National Theater. Although Maiorescu was initially opposed, Caragiale eventually received the post. The ultimate decision was attributed to Romania's
Queen Elisabeth having asked Maiorescu to reconsider,
or, alternatively, to the support offered by the influential ''Junimist''
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp (; also Petrache Carp, Francized ''Pierre Carp'', Ioana Pârvulescu"O adresă high-life", in ''România Literară'', Nr. 25/2010 occasionally ''Comte Carpe''; 28 Mircea Dumitriu"Petre P. Carp – un suflet, un caracter, o idee", in ...
.
![Alexandrina Burelly](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Alexandrina_Burelly.jpg)
The appointment caused some controversy at the time: Ion Luca Caragiale, unlike all his predecessors (the incumbent C.I. Stăncescu included), was both a professional in the field and a person of modest origins.
As the National Liberals intensified their campaign against him,
the dramatist drafted an
open letter
An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...
for the Bucharest press, outlining his intentions and explaining the circumstances of his appointment. In it, he attributed his own rise to the interest ''Junimea'' had taken in his work, while defending the literary society, which was, as he put it, "lost from the public eye at a time of political obscurity".
Reviewing his own merits as a writer and manager, he elaborated and later put into practice a program for state-run theaters — according to Vianu, it signified "punctuality and rigor".
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 182] He nonetheless resigned at the end of the season, and resumed his literary activities.
In January 1889, he married Alexandrina, the daughter of architect Gaetano Burelly. She was a member of the Bucharest elite, which served to improve Ion Luca Caragiale's social standing.
They had two children of their own:
Luca
The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent—the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth. This includes all cellular organisms; th ...
(known as Luky; born 1893) and Ecaterina (or Tușchi; born 1894; later married name: Logadi).
[Cioculescu, pg. 367] Several years later, the Caragiales brought Mateiu into their home, and Ion Luca enrolled him at Anghel Demetrescu's Sfântul Gheorghe College.
Clash with the Academy
Early in 1890, at the same time as his volume of collected works, Caragiale published and staged his rural-themed
tragedy
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...
''Năpasta'' — both writings were presented for consideration to the
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its byl ...
, in view of receiving its annual prize, the
Ion Heliade Rădulescu
Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade (also known as ''Eliade'' or ''Eliade Rădulescu''; ; January 6, 1802 – April 27, 1872) was a Wallachian, later Romanian academic, Romanticism, Romantic and Classicism, Classicist poet, essayist, mem ...
Award. Caragiale's conflict with the National Liberals reached its peak, as two of their representatives inside the forum, historian
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu ( 26 February 1838 – ) was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history.
Life
He was born Tadeu Hâjdeu in Cristineștii Hotinului (now Kerstentsi in Chernivtsi ...
and future
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza (, in full Dimitrie Alexandru Sturdza-Miclăușanu; 10 March 183321 October 1914) was a Romanian statesman and author of the late 19th century, and president of the Romanian Academy between 1882 and 1884.
Biography
Born in Iași ...
, reported unfavorably. Additional criticism was voiced by the poet
Gheorghe Sion
Gheorghe Sion (May 22, 1822 – October 1, 1892) was a Moldavian, later Romanian poet, playwright, translator and memoirist.
He was born in Mamornița to ''paharnic'' (royal cup-bearer) Ioniță Sion and his wife Eufrosina (''née'' Schina), the ...
, who also defended the a work by
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 1855, village of Slavyanka near Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), then in Imperial Russia – 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and j ...
(itself up for review). When the ''Junimist''
Iacob Negruzzi
Iacob C. Negruzzi (December 31, 1842 – January 6, 1932) was a Moldavian, later Romanian poet and prose writer.
Born in Iași, he was the son of Constantin Negruzzi and his wife Maria (''née'' Gane). Living in Berlin between 1853 and 1863, he at ...
defended his friend, Sturdza contrasted Caragiale's works with his own version of
didacticism
Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is an emerging conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to ...
, claiming that it altogether lacked a moral and national quality.
Both Hasdeu and Sturdza hinted at the influence exercised over Caragiale by their adversary Maiorescu, and went on to compare the dramatist with foreign writers such as
Mite Kremnitz
Mite Kremnitz (4 January 1852, Greifswald – 18 July 1916 in Berlin), born Marie von Bardeleben (pen names ''George Allan'', ''Ditto and Idem''), was a German writer.
Biography
Kremnitz was the daughter of the famous surgeon Heinrich Adolf ...
and
Joseph Brociner
Joseph B. Brociner (; October 1846 – 1918) was a Romanian Jewish jurist, activist, communal leader. He was active in the struggle for Jewish emancipation as President of the Union of Hebrew Congregations of Romania.
Biography Early life
Joseph ...
; the latter was Jewish.
[Cioculescu, pp. 130-131] For the two liberal leaders, Kremnitz and Brociner, who had authored works critical of the Romanian establishment, were aiding to construct a negative image of the Romanian nation.
Hasdeu insisted that Caragiale was himself creating problems for the country, while Sturza, showing himself more lenient in this respect, insisted that Caragiale's plays had failed to display a love for "the truth, the beautiful and the good".
[Cioculescu, p. 131] He stressed:
"Mr. Caragiale should learn how to respect his nation, and not mock it."
Sturdza's discourse contributed to the academy's negative vote (20 votes against and 3 in favor), and rose Caragiale's anger.
In parallel, Dobrogeanu-Gherea's candidature for the prize was rejected with 16 votes against and 8 for.
In 1897, writing for the Conservative paper ''
Epoca'', the writer lashed out at Sturdza and his partisans, claiming that they viewed all humorous talents as "unholy", "useless to the nation", and "downright perilous".
Vianu noted that Caragiale's article directly aimed at Sturdza's reverence for
Jacobinism
A Jacobin (; ) was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary political movement that was the most famous political club during the French Revolution (1789–1799).
The club got its name from meeting at the Dominican rue Saint-Honoré M ...
,
collectivism
Collectivism may refer to:
* Bureaucratic collectivism, a theory of class society whichto describe the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin
* Collectivist anarchism, a socialist doctrine in which the workers own and manage the production
* Collectivis ...
, and
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
, which, in Caragiale's own words,
"manipulated the baggage of big words with which the phony liberal school has been filling empty heads for fifty years on end".
Split with ''Junimea''
![Bz restaurant Caragiale](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Bz_restaurant_Caragiale.jpg)
During the controversy, Caragiale published two memoirs of Eminescu—the poet had died in June 1889.
One of them was titled ''În Nirvana'' ("Into
Nirvana
( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
"), and notably expanded on the early years of their friendship and on one of Eminescu's earliest amorous disappointments. In an essay of the following year, he showed himself critical of a wave of Eminescu imitators, commenting: "A lot of reasonable people will walk the path and
..of the people that know them only a few will raise their hats; whereas an insane person
..will be followed by all the people. That is why the success of the
890 Eminescu edition 89 may refer to:
* 89 (number)
* Atomic number 89: actinium
Years
* 89 BC
* AD 89
* 1989
* 2089
* etc.
See also
*
* List of highways numbered
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surn ...
has overcome all the editors' expectations". He also reprinted his recollections from the world of theater, alongside pieces originally published in ''
Claponul'' and various new satirical pieces.
Although this attack owed much to ''Junimeas discourse, Caragiale had by then turned against Maiorescu, probably due to his perception that the society had failed to support his cause at the Academy. In May 1892, he used a public conference at the
Romanian Athenaeum
The Romanian Athenaeum ( ro, Ateneul Român) is a concert hall in the center of Bucharest, Romania, and a landmark of the Romanian capital city. Opened in 1888, the ornate, domed, circular building is the city's most prestigious concert hall an ...
as a venue to make known his claims against the former Minister of Education and his associates, which caused a definitive rift between the two public figures. Caragiale also wrote ''Două note'' ("Two Notes"), an article accusing Maiorescu of having modified and censored some of Eminescu's poems, and of having exploited the poet for financial gain. Around that time, he ceased contributing to ''
Convorbiri Literare
''Convorbiri Literare'' ( Romanian: ''Literary Talks'') is a Romanian literary magazine published in Romania. It is among the most important journals of the nineteenth-century Romania.
History and profile
''Convorbiri Literare'' was founded by ...
''.
Late in 1892, Caragiale published two volumes of prose, including his new
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
s ''
Păcat'', ''
O făclie de Paște'' and ''
Om cu noroc''.
[Vianu, Vol. II, p. 183] The following year, he began frequenting
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
circles as an outsider to the cause, and soon became good friends with the
Imperial Russian
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...
-born
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
thinker
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 1855, village of Slavyanka near Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), then in Imperial Russia – 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and j ...
. Financial constraints forced Caragiale to become an entrepreneur, and, in November of that year, opened a
beer garden
A beer garden (German: ''Biergarten'') is an outdoor area in which beer and food are served, typically at shared tables shaded by trees.
Beer gardens originated in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital city, in the 19th century, and remain co ...
near
Gabroveni Inn, in Bucharest's
Lipscani
Lipscani is a street and a district of Bucharest, Romania, which from the Middle Ages to the early 19th century was the most important commercial area of the city and Wallachia. It is located near the ruins of the old Princely Court built by Vla ...
area.
[Mîndra, p. 274; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 184] He probably moved on soon after, and purchased a pub on a neighboring street.
In a letter he wrote at the time, the writer showed that he was planning to move to
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
, and considered starting a career as a teacher.
In November 1893, as a gesture of goodwill towards his adversary,
Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski (; also rendered as Al. A. Macedonski, Macedonschi or Macedonsky; 14 March 1854 – 24 November 1920) was a Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in h ...
authored an article in ''
Literatorul'', in which he asked authorities if it was normal for a former Head of Theaters not to have a stable source of income—the intended recipient did not acknowledge this offer, and the Caragiale-Macedonski conflict escalated after he continued to attack the latter in the press. One year later, Caragiale leased the restaurant catering to the train station in
Buzău
The city of Buzău (formerly spelled ''Buzeu'' or ''Buzĕu''; ) is the county seat of Buzău County, Romania, in the historical region of Muntenia. It lies near the right bank of the Buzău River, between the south-eastern curvature of the Carp ...
(just like Dobrogeanu-Gherea had done in
Ploiești
Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest.
The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commu ...
).
His successive businesses were all struggling, and Caragiale was often on the verge of
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
.
Although he invested time and work in the enterprise, and even affiliated with the International Association of Waiters for a short period, he eventually decided not to renew his contract upon the years' end.
His period in Buzău was noted for its other results: in February 1895, the press reported that Caragiale had given a public lecture on "the causes of human stupidity".
''Moftul Român'' and ''Vatra''
Together with the socialist activist
Tony Bacalbașa and the illustrator Constantin Jiquidi, he established the satirical magazine ''Moftul Român'', which ceased print after a few months, before being revived in 1901 and becoming an important venue for
social criticism
Social criticism is a form of academic or journalistic criticism focusing on social issues in contemporary society, in particular with respect to perceived injustices and power relations in general.
Social criticism of the Enlightenment
The or ...
.
The new publication's spirit was indebted to ''Junimist'' discourse.
Its title, translatable as "the Romanian trifle" or "the Romanian nonsense", alluded to the
cynicism
Cynic or Cynicism may refer to:
Modes of thought
* Cynicism (philosophy), a school of ancient Greek philosophy
* Cynicism (contemporary), modern use of the word for distrust of others' motives
Books
* ''The Cynic'', James Gordon Stuart Grant 1 ...
and self-importance of the emerging modern Romanian society.
According to Vianu, this was a theme first debated by ''Junimeas
Theodor Rosetti
Theodor Rosetti (5 May 1837, Iași or Solești, Moldavia – 17 July 1923, Bucharest, Romania) was a Romanian writer, journalist and politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between 23 March 1888 and 22 March 1889.
1837 bir ...
.
''Moft!'' thus mimicked the common answer to any important or merely exacerbated problem, and Caragiale also used it to illustrate what he saw as a common national feature. In one of his early editorials for the magazine, he claimed that ''moft'' was to Romanians what
spleen
The spleen is an organ found in almost all vertebrates. Similar in structure to a large lymph node, it acts primarily as a blood filter. The word spleen comes . (
melancholy) was to the
English people
The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language in England, English language, a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identi ...
,
nihilism
Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...
to the
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
,
chauvinism
Chauvinism is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. It can be described as a form of extreme patriotis ...
to the
Hungarians
Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
, and ''
vendetta
Vendetta may refer to:
* Feud or vendetta, a long-running argument or fight
Film
* ''Vendetta'' (1919 film), a film featuring Harry Liedtke
* ''Vendetta'' (1950 film), an American drama produced by Howard Hughes
* ''Vendetta'' (1986 film), a ...
'' to the
Italians
, flag =
, flag_caption = The national flag of Italy
, population =
, regions = Italy 55,551,000
, region1 = Brazil
, pop1 = 25–33 million
, ref1 =
, region2 ...
.
In parallel, Cargiale resumed his contacts with Transylvanian
intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
s: with
George Coșbuc
George Coșbuc (; 20 September 1866 – 9 May 1918) was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best remembered for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, its many travails but also its occasions for joy. In 19 ...
and
Ioan Slavici
Ioan Slavici (; 18 January 1848 – 17 August 1925) was a Romanians, Romanian writer and journalist from Hungary, later from Romania.
He made his debut in ''Convorbiri literare'' ("Literary Conversations") (1871), with the comedy ''Fata de biră ...
, he founded the magazine ''
Vatra'' (1 January 1894), before withdrawing from its leadership.
[Vianu, Vol. II, p. 184] During his short stay, he printed an unsigned
sketch story
A sketch story, literary sketch or simply sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The genre was invented after the 16th century in England, as a result of increasing publi ...
, ''Cum se înțeleg țăranii'' ("How Peasants Communicate"), which mockingly recorded a lengthy and redundant dialog between two villagers, as well as a portrait of the deceased politician
Mihail Kogălniceanu
Mihail Kogălniceanu (; also known as Mihail Cogâlniceanu, Michel de Kogalnitchan; September 6, 1817 – July 1, 1891) was a Romanian liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania on October 11, 1863, ...
, and a
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
inspired by the writings of
Anton Pann
Anton Pann (; born Antonie Pantoleon-Petroveanu , and also mentioned as ''Anton Pantoleon'' or ''Petrovici''; 1790s—2 November 1854) was an Ottoman-born Wallachian composer, musicologist, and Romanian-language poet, also noted for his act ...
.
He also translated a
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
authored by his friend,
Queen Elisabeth, under the title ''Răzbunare'' ("Revenge")—he is known to have been annoyed by the longueurs of the piece, and struck out large portions of it to improve the flow.
During the same period, Caragiale had the initiative to publish short fragments he had translated from classical pieces, leaving readers to guess who their authors were—Vianu, citing the speculations made by other critics, presumed that these were writers admired by both Caragiale and his friend, schoolteacher Anghel Demetrescu (
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy.
Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...
,
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (; 29 July 180516 April 1859), colloquially known as Tocqueville (), was a French aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his works ...
,
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, (; 25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a British historian and Whig politician, who served as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and as the Paymaster-General between 1846 and 184 ...
,
François Guizot
François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (; 4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874) was a French historian, orator, and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848.
A conservative liberal who opposed the a ...
and
Augustin Thierry). It was also then that he authored a piece on
Prince Ferdinand, the
heir apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
, who had fallen severely ill — it shows Caragiale to be a passionate defender of the
Romanian monarchy, praying for Ferdinand's health. In 1898, he wrote a lengthy essay on the state of Romanian theater, in which he notably praised the actor
Ion Brezeanu
Ion or Iancu Brezeanu (December 1, 1869–March 17, 1940) was a Romanian stage actor.
His jovial figure made Brezeanu ideal for comedic roles, above all in the works of Ion Luca Caragiale, whose favorite he was. In 1888, while still a studen ...
, who made his name through portrayals of Caragiale's characters, for, among others, his "sober and refined interpretation".
Later that year, he published a new novella, ''
În vreme de război'', a
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
set to the background of the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878.
[Cioculescu, pg. 38]
Radical Party
In 1895, at the age of 43, Caragiale decided to join the Radical Party, led at the time by former ''Junimist''
George Panu; one year later, he began contributing to its mouthpiece, the newspaper ''
Ziua
''Ziua'' (''The Day'' in Romanian) was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. ''Ziua'' was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eve ...
''. He was also briefly associated with the newspaper ''Sara'', published in
Iași
Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...
. Despite this, Caragiale was again an associate of the National Liberals later the same year, when the Conservative cabinet of
Lascăr Catargiu
Lascăr Catargiu ( or Lascăr Catargi; 1 November 1823 – ) was a Romanian conservative statesman born in Moldavia. He belonged to an ancient Wallachian family, one of whose members had been banished in the 17th century by Prince Matei Basarab, ...
was replaced with one led by
Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza (, in full Dimitrie Alexandru Sturdza-Miclăușanu; 10 March 183321 October 1914) was a Romanian statesman and author of the late 19th century, and president of the Romanian Academy between 1882 and 1884.
Biography
Born in Iași ...
. Articles he contributed to ''Gazeta Poporului'', a National Liberal newspaper, were centered on new attacks against ''Junimea'' and were signed with the pseudonyms ''i'' and ''Ion''. In mid-November 1895, ''Gazeta Poporului'' published an unsigned article which discussed the suicide of writer
Alexandru Odobescu
Alexandru Ioan Odobescu (; 23 June 1834 – 10 November 1895) was a Romanian author, archaeologist and politician.
Biography
He was born in Bucharest, the second child of General Ioan Odobescu and his wife Ecaterina. After attending Saint Sava ...
, investigating the mundane reasons behind it—the piece is generally attributed to Caragiale. The writer placed the blame for Odobescu's death on his much younger lover, Hortensia Racoviță, and hailed his wife, Sașa Odobescu, as a model of devoted womanhood.
This episode of his life coincided with a period when relations between Romania and
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
were extremely tense. Three years before,
ethnic Romanian leaders in Austro-Hungarian-ruled Transylvania had signed the ''
Transylvanian Memorandum
The ''Transylvanian Memorandum'' ( ro, Memorandumul Transilvaniei) was a petition sent in 1892 by the leaders of the Romanians of Transylvania to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor-King Franz Joseph, asking for equal ethnic rights with the Hungarians ...
'', which inflamed passions among the Hungarians and led the authors to be indicted.
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
politicians in Romania had succeeded in negotiating an amnesty, but their policies were overturned by the National Liberals, who appealed to nationalist and Irredentism, irredentist sentiment.
Thus, Sturdza offered a measure of support to Eugen Brote, ''Tribuna (Romania), Tribuna'' editor and National Romanian Party activist. Brote, who fled Transylvania and planned to directly implicate the
Romanian Kingdom
The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
into the conflict, attempted to replace the pro-Conservative leadership of the National Party with a selection of politicians favored by the National Liberals.
[Cioculescu, pg. 24] As Sturdza came to lead the cabinet, both he and Brote retracted their previous statements, but again provoked the National Party by alleging that its leaders were the actual radicals.
In harsh terms, Caragiale exposed the understanding Sturdza had with Brote. Soon after, he authored a short story about a con artist who traveled to the imagined Transylvanian town of Opidul-nou, posing as the nationalist Romanian writer Alexandru Vlahuță as a means to live off the local intelligentsia. In October 1897, he was outraged by news that Sturdza had given in to Austro-Hungarian demands, and that he had expelled Transylvanian nationalists from Romania: Caragiale held a speech in which he argued that Romanians living abroad were "indispensable" to the Romanian state.
''Epoca''
![Const Jiquidi - Caragiale leaving Epoca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Const_Jiquidi_-_Caragiale_leaving_Epoca.jpg)
In 1895, the writer followed the Radical group into its unusual merger with the Conservative Party. This came at a time of unified opposition, when the ''Junimists'' themselves returned to their group of origin.
Caragiale came to identify with the policies endorsed by a new group of Conservative leaders, Nicolae Filipescu and Alexandru Lahovari among them. He was upset when Lahovari died not too long after, and authored his obituary.
Caragiale also became a collaborator on Filipescu's journal ''
Epoca'' and editor of its literary supplement. A chronicle he contributed at the time discussed the philosophical writings of Dobrogeanu-Gherea: while sympathetic to his conclusions, Caragiale made a clear statement that he was not interested in the socialist doctrine or any other ideology ("Any idea, opinion or system is absolutely irrelevant to me, in the most absolute sense").
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 186] He also published an article criticizing Dimitrie Sturdza; its title, ''O lichea'' (roughly: "A Scoundrel"), was reluctantly accepted by ''Epoca'', and only after Caragiale claimed that it reflected the original meaning of the word ''lichea'' ("stain"), explaining that it referred to Sturdza's unusual persistence in politics.
When answering to one of ''Epocas inquiries, he showed that he had yet again come to reevaluate ''Junimea'', and found it to be an essential institution in Romanian culture.
Nevertheless, he was distancing himself from the purest ''Junimist'' tenets, and took a favorable view of Romanticism, Romantic writers whom the society had criticized or ridiculed — among these, he indicated his personal rival
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu ( 26 February 1838 – ) was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history.
Life
He was born Tadeu Hâjdeu in Cristineștii Hotinului (now Kerstentsi in Chernivtsi ...
, whom he acknowledged to be among "the most remarkable figures of our literature", and
Alexandru Odobescu
Alexandru Ioan Odobescu (; 23 June 1834 – 10 November 1895) was a Romanian author, archaeologist and politician.
Biography
He was born in Bucharest, the second child of General Ioan Odobescu and his wife Ecaterina. After attending Saint Sava ...
.
As editor of ''Epoca'', he published works by Hasdeu alongside those of his other contemporaries and predecessors — Grigore Alexandrescu, Nicolae Filimon, Dinicu Golescu,
Ion Heliade Rădulescu
Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade (also known as ''Eliade'' or ''Eliade Rădulescu''; ; January 6, 1802 – April 27, 1872) was a Wallachian, later Romanian academic, Romanticism, Romantic and Classicism, Classicist poet, essayist, mem ...
, Cilibi Moise, Costache Negruzzi, and
Anton Pann
Anton Pann (; born Antonie Pantoleon-Petroveanu , and also mentioned as ''Anton Pantoleon'' or ''Petrovici''; 1790s—2 November 1854) was an Ottoman-born Wallachian composer, musicologist, and Romanian-language poet, also noted for his act ...
. He also took a more sympathetic but still distant view of Maiorescu.
At the time, he befriended the young poet Cincinat Pavelescu, and helped to promote his works in the press.
[ Cincinat Pavelescu]
''Amintiri literare (Ion Luca Caragiale)''
(wikisource)
''Universul''
Around that time, Caragiale began collaborating with the formerly ''Junimist'' figure Mihail Dragomirescu, who enlisted his anonymous contributions to the magazine ''Convorbiri Critice''. Again pressed by financial problems, he returned to a bureaucratic post—this time with the administration of Government monopoly, government monopolies, and appointed by the Conservative cabinet of Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino in June 1899.
In 1901, the position was suppressed due to cutbacks in budget spending.
This coincided with Sturdza's third mandate as
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
, and further aggravated the conflict between the two figures.
At the same time, Caragiale was contributing to Luigi Cazzavillan's newly founded daily, ''Universul'', where he was assigned the column "Notițe critice" ("Critical Notes").
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 187] This material formed the bulk of his collected short prose volume, ''Momente și schițe'', and notably comprised satirical pieces ridiculing the Romanian press' reaction to the activities of Boris Sarafov, a Macedonia (region), Macedonian-Bulgarians, Bulgarian revolutionary who had attempted to set up a base in Romania.
He continued to pursue a business career, and, in 1901, inaugurated his own company, ''Berăria cooperativă'', which took over the ''Gambrinus'' pub in front of the National Theater.
It soon became the site of a literary circle, which included, among others, Tony Bacalbașa and Ion Brezeanu, the satirist Dumitru Constantinescu-Teleormăneanu (known as ''Teleor''), and the academic I. Suchianu.
At the time, the Caragiales rented a house in Bucharest, near the present-day Bulevardul Magheru.
In early 1901, as Ion Luca Caragiale entered his 25th year in literature, his friends offered him a banquet at ''Gambrinus'', where speeches were given by
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea ; pen name of Barbu Ștefan; April 11, 1858 in Bucharest – April 29, 1918 in Iași) was a Romanian writer and poet, considered one of the greatest figures in the National awakening of Romania.
Early life and ...
and the Conservative politician Take Ionescu, and where a special single-issue magazine, ''Caragiale'', was circulated among the guests. Hasdeu put aside his differences in opinion and sent in a congratulatory letter. In it, he deemed the dramatist "Romania's
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...
". Nevertheless, on 23 March 1902, the National Liberal majority in the
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its byl ...
, headed by Sturdza, refused to consider ''Momente și schițe'' for the Năsturel Herăscu Award
— despite a favorable report from Dimitrie C. Ollănescu-Ascanio.
[Cioculescu, pg. 124]
Caion scandal
![Ion Luca Caragiale - Foto04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Ion_Luca_Caragiale_-_Foto04.jpg)
Soon after, Caragiale became involved in a major literary scandal. Constantin Al. Ionescu-Caion, a journalist and student whom
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary criticism, literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Literature of Roma ...
described as "a real pathological character", issued a claim that, in his ''Năpasta'', the Romanian dramatist had
plagiarized
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...
the work of a Hungarian language, Hungarian author, István Kemény.
[Cioculescu, pp. 132-133; Vianu, Vol. II, pp. 188, 373] Caion expanded on this in articles published by ''Revista Literară'', where he provided direct comparisons between the two texts.
This was received with enthusiasm by Caragiale's old rival,
Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski (; also rendered as Al. A. Macedonski, Macedonschi or Macedonsky; 14 March 1854 – 24 November 1920) was a Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in h ...
, who publicized the controversy through one of his journals, ''Forța Morală''. Initially amazed by the similarity between the two texts, Caragiale carried out his own investigations, and, in the end, discovered that neither the writing nor Kemény had ever existed. Employing Ștefănescu Delavrancea as his lawyer, he brought Caion to trial: a court sentenced Caion for calumny, but he was Acquittal, acquitted after an appeal in June 1902.
Several commentators believe that this was owed to a strong National Liberal presence among members of the jury.
During the retrial, Caion retracted all his previous claims, and instead argued that ''Năpasta'' plagiarized Leo Tolstoy's ''The Power of Darkness''.
Macedonski supported the lost cause until the very end, and refused to distance himself from Caion even as the latter admitted to the court that he had invented the story. His magazine also accused Caragiale of having copied Victorien Sardou's ''Rabagas'' for his ''
O scrisoare pierdută
''O scrisoare pierdută'' (Romanian for "A Lost Letter") is a play by Ion Luca Caragiale. It premiered in 1884, and arguably represents the high point of his career.Vianu, Vol. II, p.180
It was adapted into a 1953 film ''A Lost Letter''.
Characte ...
'', as well as Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru's ''Le Carnaval d'un Merle Blanc'' in ''D-ale carnavalului''. In one memorable incident of 14 February 1902, while he was hosting a literary festivity at the Romanian Athenaeum, Bucharest Athenaeum, Macedonski was heckled and responded by blowing a whistle.
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 374] ''Forța Morală'' was shut down soon after this episode.
In parallel, the National Theater offered Caragiale a degree of satisfaction, when it decided to showcase ''Rabagas'', leaving the public to see that it was only remotely similar to his play.
In the wake of the scandal, Caragiale attempted to resume contacts with Maiorescu, and visited him several times. His former mentor was reticent, and finally rejected the offer for reconciliation – writing in his diary, he defined Caragiale's attempts as "apple-polishings" and ''paradări'' ("affectations").
Move to Berlin
Having gained access to the Momulo Cardini inheritance, Caragiale became a rather wealthy man.
According to
Șerban Cioculescu
Șerban Cioculescu (; 7 September 1902 – 25 June 1988) was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iași and the University of Bucharest, as well as m ...
, the writer soon lost most of the funds earned, transferring them to
Mateiu Caragiale
Mateiu Ion Caragiale (; – January 17, 1936), also credited as Matei or Matheiu, or in the antiquated version Mateiŭ,Sorin Antohi"Romania and the Balkans. From Geocultural Bovarism to Ethnic Ontology" in ''Tr@nsit online'', Institut für die ...
and his mother, but was again made rich by the death of his sister Lenci in autumn 1905—she left him the administrator of 160,000 Romanian leu, lei. The latter event caused tensions between Mateiu and his father—Caragiale-son believed that he had been cheated out of the inheritance, and was angered by Ion Luca's decision to stop subsidizing him after he failed to complete his studies.
He was by then enchanted with the idea of moving into a Western Europe, Western or Central European country, where he hoped to lead a more comfortable life and be closer to the centers of culture. He was especially interested in gaining easier access to the major stages for classical music, as a means to satisfy his desire for quality in that field
(he had by then come to adore the compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven). According to Tudor Vianu, Caragiale was also showing signs that he was about to enter a vaguely misanthropic phase of his life.
In 1903–1904, the Caragiales traveled through various European countries, while the dramatist again considered establishing his residence in Transylvania.
[Cioculescu, p. 308] They eventually moved to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, the German Empire, Imperial German capital, settling down in spring 1905.
The choice was considered unusual, since the writer knew only some basic German language, German expressions.
[ Iulia Blaga]
"Casele lui I.L. Caragiale de la Berlin"
, in ''România Liberă
''România liberă'' ("") is a Romanian daily newspaper founded in 1943 and currently based in Bucharest. A newspaper of the same name also existed between 1877 and 1888.
History and profile
The name ''România liberă'' was first used by a dai ...
'', 12 March 2007 This has led some commentators to speculate that the move was politically motivated. Mihail Dragomirescu believed that Caragiale was living at the expense of the German state.
Cioculescu rejected this assessment, arguing that it relied on hearsay and pointing out that the chronological order provided by Dragomirescu was inaccurate. In 1992, historian Georgeta Ene proposed that Caragiale was acting as a spy for Romania in Germany.
The family lived in an apartment in Wilmersdorf and later at a villa in Schöneberg.
Paraphrasing a Romanian proverb which speaks of "the black bread of exile", the dramatist jokingly referred to his relocation as "the white loaf" (''franzela albă a surghiunului''). He did not however isolate himself completely, becoming very close to the group of Romanian students attending the Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Berlin and to other young people: among them were poet and essayist Panait Cerna, sociologist Dimitrie Gusti, musician Florica Musicescu, and
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 1855, village of Slavyanka near Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), then in Imperial Russia – 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and j ...
's son-in-law, the literary critic
Paul Zarifopol
Paul Zarifopol (November 30, 1874 – May 1, 1934) was a Romanian literary and social critic, essayist, and
literary historian. The scion of an aristocratic family, formally trained in both philology and the sociology of literature, he emer ...
.
Caragiale was also close to the linguist Gustav Weigand. He frequently traveled to Leipzig, where he would meet with Zarifopol, as well as vacationing in Travemünde.
In 1906, together with Zarifopol, he visited Beethoven's house in Bonn. He was close to the dramatist Ronetti Roman, and, in 1908, confessed that he was devastated by news of his death.
Caragiale was also visited by
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea ; pen name of Barbu Ștefan; April 11, 1858 in Bucharest – April 29, 1918 in Iași) was a Romanian writer and poet, considered one of the greatest figures in the National awakening of Romania.
Early life and ...
, who, as a Francophilia, Francophile, vehemently rejected the aesthetics of Berlin in their conversations.
Delavrancea was accompanied by his daughter, Cella Delvrancea, Cella, a celebrated pianist.
He also traveled back into Romania for intervals—when in
Iași
Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...
, he associated with the maverick Conservative Alexandru Bădărău and his journal ''Opinia''.
He had closely followed Bădărău's career up to that point, and, in July 1906, authored an
epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...
on his ousting from the Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino Conservative cabinet—comparing Bădărău to Jonah and the Conservatives to a great fish that spat him out. A poem he published during the same year ridicules King of Romania, King
Carol I
Carol I or Charles I of Romania (20 April 1839 – ), born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He w ...
on the occasion of his fortieth year in power, while parodying the style of republican poet
N. T. Orășanu
Nicolae T. Orășanu (1833?–August 7, 1890) was a Wallachian-born Romanian poet, prose writer and newspaper editor.
Born in Craiova, he attended high school at Saint Sava College in the national capital Bucharest. As a young man, Orășanu e ...
; without making direct references to the monarch, it features the lyrics ''Ca rol fu mare, mititelul'' ("Taking in view his role, he was grand, the little one"), with "ca" and "rol" spelling out his name (and thus allowing the poem to read "Carol was grand, the little one"). He continued to publish various works in several other newspapers and magazines, including various Tranylvanian papers and the Iași-based ''Viața Românească''.
His subsequent work comprised mostly correspondence with other literary figures, such as Dobrogeanu-Gherea, Mihail Dragomirescu, Alceu Urechia, and Zarifopol. He was also in touch with psychologist and philosopher
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru (; born Constantin Rădulescu, he added the surname ''Motru'' in 1892; February 15, 1868 – March 6, 1957) was a Romanian philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, logician, academic, dramatist, as well as left-nat ...
. At the time, Caragiale planned to start work on ''Titircă, Sotirescu et C-ie'', meaning to combine the characters of his two most successful comedies (''
O noapte furtunoasă
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), pl ...
'' and ''
O scrisoare pierdută
''O scrisoare pierdută'' (Romanian for "A Lost Letter") is a play by Ion Luca Caragiale. It premiered in 1884, and arguably represents the high point of his career.Vianu, Vol. II, p.180
It was adapted into a 1953 film ''A Lost Letter''.
Characte ...
'') into one play—this was never accomplished.
1907
In 1907, Caragiale was shaken by the outbreak and violent repression of the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt, Romanian Peasants' Revolt, and decided to write a lengthy essay, in which he condemned the agrarian policies of both National Liberal and Conservative governments from a Patriotism, patriotic perspective.
According to Vianu, the resulting ''1907, din primăvară până în toamnă'' ("1907, From Spring to Autumn") was, alongside earlier essays by Eminescu and Maiorescu, the most important works of social analysis to be written by that generation.
The essay, written in harsh tones, listed what Caragiale saw as the major social problems tolerated by Romanian administrations: he discussed the landowning class, successor to the boyars, having maintained as much possible from the legacy of serfdom; he noted that, while the commerce was dominated by foreigners, the administration was gripped by a no longer aristocratic oligarchy and its far-reaching
political machine
In the politics of Representative democracy, representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a hig ...
. As several commentators noted, many of the topics brought up by Caragiale built on the critical overview adopted by ''Junimea''. To the social and political problems, the text offered a Monarchism, monarchist solution—Caragiale expected Carol I to carry out a ''
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
'' against the Romanian political establishment, replacing the 1866 Constitution of Romania, Constitution of 1866, which left some room for Privilege (legal ethics), privilege through the census suffrage, with a more Democracy, democratic one.
''1907, din primăvară până în toamnă'', first published in German language, German under the pseudonym ''Ein rumänische Patriot'' ("A Romanian patriot"), was originally hosted by the
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
-based newspaper ''Die Zeit (Austria), Die Zeit''.
The translation had been completed by his friend
Mite Kremnitz
Mite Kremnitz (4 January 1852, Greifswald – 18 July 1916 in Berlin), born Marie von Bardeleben (pen names ''George Allan'', ''Ditto and Idem''), was a German writer.
Biography
Kremnitz was the daughter of the famous surgeon Heinrich Adolf ...
. In its original, the work was later printed under Caragiale's signature by the left-wing Romanian journal ''
Adevărul
''Adevărul'' (; meaning "The Truth", formerly spelled ''Adevĕrul'') is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in Iași, in 1871, and reestablished in 1888, in Bucharest, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published dur ...
''. The author had agreed to make himself known after ''Die Zeit'' reached Romania and had caused the local press to wonder who had condemned the system in such harsh words.
The brochure attracted instantaneous attention in his native country, and its success was notable: it sold around 13,000 copies. There were notable differences between the two versions, which were the result of Caragiale's answer to criticism and suggestions from Christian Rakovsky, a prominent Proletarian internationalism, internationalist socialist who had been expelled from Romania early in the year. Caragiale elaborated on some of the essay's themes in a series of fables he published soon after.
This chain of events prompted
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea ; pen name of Barbu Ștefan; April 11, 1858 in Bucharest – April 29, 1918 in Iași) was a Romanian writer and poet, considered one of the greatest figures in the National awakening of Romania.
Early life and ...
to offer him a position in the Conservative Party, as a means to reform the system from within. Caragiale rejected the offer: by then, he had grown disillusioned with the traditional political groupings, and had decided to sever all his links with them. Instead, in 1908, he joined the
Conservative-Democratic Party
The Conservative-Democratic Party (, PCD) was a political party in Romania. Over the years, it had the following names: the Democratic Party, the Nationalist Conservative Party, or the Unionist Conservative Party.
The Conservative-Democratic Part ...
, a rising force of the entrepreneurial
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
, led by Take Ionescu. He briefly returned to Romania several times after 1908, campaigning in favor of the Ionescu and being himself proposed for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies of Romania, Chamber of Deputies (before the Conservative-Democrats decided another person was more suited for the position). His involvement in politics engendered a collateral conflict with his son Mateiu, after the latter expressed a wish to become part of the administration (a project ridiculed by Caragiale-father).
In December 1907, after ''Opinia'' became a mouthpiece of Ionescu's party, Caragiale received news that its headquarters had been vandalized by A. C. Cuza and his Nationalism, nationalist supporters (who were students at the University of Iași). Just days after, when Cuza's group offered to host a Caragiale festival, he refused to participate, citing his respect for the freedom of the press. It was also during the period that he published his ''
Din carnetul unui vechi sufleur'', grouping short pieces about cultural figures such as Iorgu Caragiale, Pantazi Ghica, and Matei Millo.
Final years
![Ion Luca Caragiale 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Ion_Luca_Caragiale_2.jpg)
Beginning in 1909, Caragiale resumed his contributions to ''Universul''. The same year, his
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
piece ''
Kir Ianulea'', which explored the history of Bucharest during the early 19th century and the late stages of the Phanariotes, Phanariote period, was published by ''Viața Românească''. The novella partly built on ''Belfagor arcidiavolo'', by Renaissance literature, Renaissance author Niccolò Machiavelli, and was occasionally classified as an example of
historical fiction
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...
.
Similar stories use themes from the ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (''
Abu-Hasan'') and popular anecdotes (''
Pastramă trufanda'').
[Călinescu, p. 181] Another work of the time was ''
Calul dracului Calul may refer to the following rivers in Romania:
*Calu, a tributary of the Bicaz
Bicaz ( hu, Békás) is a town in Neamț County, Western Moldavia, Romania situated in the eastern Carpathian Mountains near the confluence of the Bicaz and B ...
'', a rural-themed account of demonic temptation, which Vianu called "one of the most perfect short stories to have been written in Romanian language".
His last collection of writings, titled ''Schițe nouă'' ("New Sketches") saw print in 1910.
[Mîndra, p. 25] During that period, after giving endorsement to a project outlined by his fellow dramatist Alexandru Davila, he aided in the creation of a new privately run Bucharest theater, and recorded its inauguration in his
reportage
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
''Începem'' ("We Begin").
By that time, Ion Luca Caragiale became remarkably close to a new generation of ethnic Romanian intellectuals in
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
. In 1909, he recalled the union of the two
Danubian Principalities
The Danubian Principalities ( ro, Principatele Dunărene, sr, Дунавске кнежевине, translit=Dunavske kneževine) was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th ce ...
under Alexander John Cuza, and predicted the union of Transylvania with Romania. He visited Budapest to meet with Transylvanian students at the Eötvös Loránd University, local university, and was the subject of a PhD thesis authored by Horia Petra-Petrescu (which was also the first monograph on his work). He decided to support the poet and activist
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga (; 1 April 1881 – 7 May 1938) was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.
Life and politics
Goga was born in Rășinari, near Sibiu.
Goga was an active member in the Romanian nationalisti ...
, who, after questioning ethnic policies in Transleithania, had been jailed by Kingdom of Hungary, Hungarian authorities—writing for ''Universul'', Caragiale stressed that such persecutions carried the risk of escalating tensions in the region. Later, he visited Goga in Szeged, where he was serving time in jail.
![Caragiale grave](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Caragiale_grave.jpg)
Caragiale also contributed to the Arad, Romania, Arad-based journal ''Românul'', becoming friends with other Romanian activists—Aurel Popovici, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod and Vasile Goldiș.
His articles expressed support for the National Romanian Party, calling for its adversaries at ''Tribuna (Romania), Tribuna'' to abandon their dissident politics. In August 1911, he was present in Blaj, where the cultural association Asociația Transilvană pentru Literatura Română și Cultura Poporului Român, ASTRA was celebrating its 50th year.
Caragiale also witnessed one of the first aviation flights, that of the Romanian Transylvanian pioneer Aurel Vlaicu.
In January 1912, as he turned 60, Caragiale declined taking part in the formal celebration organized by Emil Gârleanu's Romanian Writers' Society. Caragiale had previously rejected
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru (; born Constantin Rădulescu, he added the surname ''Motru'' in 1892; February 15, 1868 – March 6, 1957) was a Romanian philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, logician, academic, dramatist, as well as left-nat ...
's offer to carry out a public subscription in his favor, arguing that he could not accept such financial gains.
He died suddenly at his home in Berlin, very soon after returning from his trip. The cause of death was indicated as myocardial infarction.
His son
Luca
The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent—the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth. This includes all cellular organisms; th ...
recounted that, on that very night, Caragiale-father was rereading
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''Macbeth'', which he found to be a moving narrative.
Caragiale's body was transported to Bucharest in a freight train, which lost its way on the tracks and arrived with a major delay.
He was eventually buried in Bellu cemetery on 22 November 1912.
His longtime rival
Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski (; also rendered as Al. A. Macedonski, Macedonschi or Macedonsky; 14 March 1854 – 24 November 1920) was a Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in h ...
was saddened by the news of his death, and, in a letter to ''
Adevărul
''Adevărul'' (; meaning "The Truth", formerly spelled ''Adevĕrul'') is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in Iași, in 1871, and reestablished in 1888, in Bucharest, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published dur ...
'', argued that he preferred Caragiale's humor to that of the
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
Mark Twain, stressing that "[w]e attacked each other often because we loved each other a lot."
Style and cultural tenets
According to
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary criticism, literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Literature of Roma ...
, Caragiale's writings signify "the highest expression" of Romanian theatre, mirroring and complimenting the contribution
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active membe ...
had to Romanian-language poetry.
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 175] Vianu nonetheless pointed out the immense difference in style and approach between the Eminescu and Caragiale, noting that, to Eminescu's Metaphysics, metaphysical interests and "Romanticism, Romantic genius", the dramatist opposed his "great classical and realist endowment, a social, voluble and Epicureanism, epicurean nature".
Critics and historians place Caragiale's style midway between the delayed Classicism of 19th century Literature of Romania, Romanian literature and Literary realism, Realism (with its ''fin de siècle'' development,
Naturalism). The writer, who abided by the classical unities,
rejected Romantic tenets, and, as early as the 1870s, opposed the lyricism present in the dramas of Victor Hugo and Friedrich Schiller.
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...
in his works is further enhanced in his drama and comedies by his adherence to
Eugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of ma ...
's principles (''see Well-made play'').
[Vianu, Vol. I, pg. 310] Paul Zarifopol
Paul Zarifopol (November 30, 1874 – May 1, 1934) was a Romanian literary and social critic, essayist, and
literary historian. The scion of an aristocratic family, formally trained in both philology and the sociology of literature, he emer ...
argued that, for most of his life, Caragiale, the opponent of
didacticism
Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is an emerging conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to ...
, advocated Maiorescu's principles of art for art's sake. He often sketched out alternative endings to his stories, and selected the ones he felt came most natural. Nevertheless, Zarifopol also noted that, late in his life, the writer contemplated adding a didactic message to one of his writings, which was to remain unfinished.
His role in the Romanian context was likened to those of Honoré de Balzac in France, Charles Dickens in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom, and Nikolai Gogol in the Russian Empire.
Literary critic Pompiliu Constantinescu credited Caragiale's sense of irony with having corrected the tendencies of his day, and, through this, with helping create an urban literature. Caragiale's interest in Realism was however denied by some of his ''Junimist'' advocates, who attempted to link his entire work with Maiorescu's guidelines: on the basis of Arthur Schopenhauer's aesthetics, Schopenhauerian aesthetics, critic Mihail Dragomirescu postulated that his humor was pure, and did not draw on any special circumstance or context.
Through many of his traits, Caragiale was connected to a Balkans, Balkan environment of virtually permanent human contact, with its humor condensed in anecdotes, mimicry, and witty comebacks. Zarifopol quoted him saying that he admired the traditional forms of entertainment, and that he admired the ''soitarìi'' ("buffoons").
Largely reflecting his primordial study of
dramaturgy
Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the Representation (arts), representation of the main elements of drama on the stage.
The term first appears in the eponymous work ''Hamburg Dramaturgy'' (1767–69) by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing ...
, Caragiale's literature is indebted to dialog, as well as, in rarer cases, to internal monologue and free indirect speech (the favorite technique of Naturalists). Language takes the central role in his work, often compensating for the lack of detail.
To this was added his tendency to reduce texts to their essence—he shortened down not only his own text, but also his occasional translations of stories by
Queen Elisabeth and even Miguel de Cervantes or
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
.
At times, he added a lyrical, meditative or autobiographical, perspective to his works: this trait was especially obvious in his later
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
works (''
Kir Ianulea'' and ''
Calul dracului Calul may refer to the following rivers in Romania:
*Calu, a tributary of the Bicaz
Bicaz ( hu, Békás) is a town in Neamț County, Western Moldavia, Romania situated in the eastern Carpathian Mountains near the confluence of the Bicaz and B ...
'' among them), all marked by Neo-romanticism, Neoromantic inspiration.
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 205] Zarifopol claimed that, although Caragiale often rejected the tendency of other writers to capitalize on picturesque images, he often used them in his own writings.
Caragiale arguably won as much acclaim for his rigorous approach to playwriting as for his accomplished style. With Alexandru Vlahuță,
George Coșbuc
George Coșbuc (; 20 September 1866 – 9 May 1918) was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best remembered for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, its many travails but also its occasions for joy. In 19 ...
and others, he belonged to the first generation of Romanian authors to take a noted interest in imposing professionalism. He was specific about this requirement—on one occasion, he used sarcasm to overturn a common misconception, saying: "Literature is an art that needs not be learned; whoever knows how to turn letters into syllables and the latter into words has had sufficient preparation to engage in literature."
Commenting on this, Vianu stressed: "
..even under the appearance of ease, [Caragiale] lets us catch sight of the severe law of his art" (adding elsewhere that "[Caragiale] was a scrupulous and tormented artist").
Caragiale compared writers who could not dissimulate their intent and generate a good story with "a Strabismus, cross-eyed who tells you which way to go: one doesn't known if he is to go down the road he points to, or down the road he is looking at".
Speaking in the late 1890s, he also likened writing for the stage with architecture:
"In truth, just as much as the architect's plan is not yet the final accomplishment of his intent—that is to say, the monument—but only its conventional recording .. so too is the dramaturg's writing not yet the accomplishment of his intent — that is to say, the comedy — but the conventional recording, to which will be added the personal elements, in order to depict a development of human circumstances and deeds. In short: just as an architect's plan bears little resemblance to a painting, so does drama bear little resemblance to a poem."[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 187]
Political and social vision
Liberalism and republicanism
![CuzaGhimpele1872](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/CuzaGhimpele1872.PNG)
His interest in first-hand investigation of the human nature was accompanied, at least after he reached maturity, by a distaste for generous and Universalism, universalist theories. Caragiale viewed their impact on Romanian society with a critical eye. Like ''
Junimea
''Junimea'' was a Romanian literary society founded in Iași in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi. The foremost personali ...
'', he was amused by the cultural legacy of Wallachian Revolution of 1848, 1848 Wallachian revolutionaries, and by its image in National Liberal discourse. Nevertheless, he claimed that there was a clear difference between the first generation of Liberalism and radicalism in Romania, liberal activists—Ion Câmpineanu,
Ion Heliade Rădulescu
Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade (also known as ''Eliade'' or ''Eliade Rădulescu''; ; January 6, 1802 – April 27, 1872) was a Wallachian, later Romanian academic, Romanticism, Romantic and Classicism, Classicist poet, essayist, mem ...
, and Nicolae Bălcescu—and the new liberal establishment, which, as he believed, had come to cultivate hypocrisy,
demagogy
A demagogue (from Greek , a popular leader, a leader of a mob, from , people, populace, the commons + leading, leader) or rabble-rouser is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, e ...
, and political corruption. He exemplified the latter group by citing some of its prominent members: Pantazi Ghica and Nicolae Misail. At one point, he argued that, had they not died young, the leaders of 1848 could have found themselves best represented by the Conservative Party (Romania, 1880–1918), Conservatives. He recorded the way in which National Liberal politicians claimed to take inspiration from the revolt, and pointed out that the 1848 slogans had become rallying calls for the most banal causes.
His almost lifelong critique of the liberal current, marked by his conflicts with
Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza (, in full Dimitrie Alexandru Sturdza-Miclăușanu; 10 March 183321 October 1914) was a Romanian statesman and author of the late 19th century, and president of the Romanian Academy between 1882 and 1884.
Biography
Born in Iași ...
and
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu ( 26 February 1838 – ) was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history.
Life
He was born Tadeu Hâjdeu in Cristineștii Hotinului (now Kerstentsi in Chernivtsi ...
, was partly inspired by the ''Junimea'' guidelines — in line with the ''Junimists'', Caragiale perceived liberals as agents of Populism, popular Romanticism, and Idealism, as tenets prevalent in the literature of his day.
[Cioculescu, pg. 9] For Caragiale, the resulting liberal-inspired literary works were ''spanac'' ("spinach"). The writer thus identified late 19th-century Romanian liberalism "empty talk", and his attacks on demagogy partly mirrored Maiorescu's views about the National Liberals' "inebriation with words".
Caragiale centered some of his first attacks on the "Reds" and their leader
C. A. Rosetti, in whose republicanism and inflammatory rhetoric he saw the main threat to Romanian society.
The writer believed that, ever since having ousted Alexander John Cuza from his throne, both Rosetti and
Ion Brătianu
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conven ...
were using their republican basis as an asset, inciting to rebellion only when their demands were not met. He frequently ridiculed the cult with which Rosetti surrounded figures of international republicanism, such as Giuseppe Garibaldi and Léon Gambetta, and indicated that the National Liberal public had very vague and impractical notions of what a republican state actually implied.
The republican agitation is no longer emphasized in Caragiale's later works, as republicanism slowly faded out of the mainstream liberal discourse. Noting this, several critics believe that, in his ''
O scrisoare pierdută
''O scrisoare pierdută'' (Romanian for "A Lost Letter") is a play by Ion Luca Caragiale. It premiered in 1884, and arguably represents the high point of his career.Vianu, Vol. II, p.180
It was adapted into a 1953 film ''A Lost Letter''.
Characte ...
'', which depicts the battle between two unnamed political camps, the dramatist alluded to the conflict between Brătianu's moderates and Rosetti's extremists (as indicated by the fact that all the main characters attend the same rallies).
This view was disputed by Zarifopol, who argued that the more pragmatic grouping stands for the Conservatives, and the demagogic one for the National Liberals as a whole.
Nationalism
Ion Luca Caragiale was a vocal critic of antisemitism, which was mostly represented by the National Liberals and A. C. Cuza's emerging movement. At a time when the History of the Jews in Romania, Jewish community was denied Jewish Emancipation, emancipation, he advocated its full integration into Romanian society, calling for civil rights to be extended to all residents of Romania. Around 1907, he tried his hand at writing a legislative proposal, according to which the Romanian state was to extend citizenship all resident stateless persons who did not enjoy foreign protection—in its manuscript form, this document was kept by his friend Dimitrie Gusti. According to
Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu (; May 23, 1871 – March 11, 1936) was a Romanian-Armenians in Romania, Armenian Literary criticism, literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, University of Iași professor ...
, his rejection of antisemitic views was owed either to his failure to relate with the
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
and its anti-Jewish stances, or to his "powerful intelligence", which contrasted with the "instinctual, almost zoological nature" of the antisemitic discourse.
His criticism of both the nationalist discourse and liberal-inspired education generated subjects for several of his shorter satirical writings. Caragiale thus authored a mock-pamphlet advertising the program of a new cultural society, ''Românii Verzi'' (the "Green Romanians"), who took its Racism, racialist proposals to the point of arguing that "
..a nation must always fear other nations". Like ''Junimea'', he was entirely opposed to the group of August Treboniu Laurian and other
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
n intellectuals, who attempted to reform the
Romanian language
Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Moldova, Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communi ...
by introducing new forms of speech and writing that aimed to return it closer to its Latin roots. In his stories, Caragiale created the teacher Marius Chicoș Rostogan, a caricature of both the liberal educators and the Transylvanian "Latinists".
[Ornea, p. 226] While in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, the writer also persiflaged some of
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri (; 21 July 182122 August 1890) was a Romanian patriot, poet, dramatist, politician and diplomat. He was one of the key figures during the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia. He fought for the unification of the Romani ...
's liberal and Patriotism, patriotic writings—he completed Alecsandri's nationalist poem ''Tricolorul'' with sarcastic verses that were meant to enhance its Xenophobia, xenophobic feel (showing the Romanians ready to do battle against all their perceived enemies in Eastern Europe).
Nevertheless, various authors believe that a young Caragiale did indeed support nationalist liberal policies, and presume that he was behind a series of anti-Jewish columns, published by ''Voința Națională'' during the early 1880s.
This was for long disputed: rabbi and literary historian Moses Gaster attributed the pieces to Nicolae Xenopol, while researcher
Șerban Cioculescu
Șerban Cioculescu (; 7 September 1902 – 25 June 1988) was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iași and the University of Bucharest, as well as m ...
, who originally doubted them, eventually agreed that they formed an integral part of Caragiale's work.
Conservatism and traditionalism
In some of his early articles, and again as he distanced himself from ''Junimea'', the writer showed himself to be a vocal critic of the Conservative doctrine and its ''Junimist'' representatives. This is especially evident in his 1907 essay and in some of his stories. Caragiale claimed that both
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu (; 15 February 1840 – 18 June 1917) was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the ''Junimea'' Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of ...
and
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp (; also Petrache Carp, Francized ''Pierre Carp'', Ioana Pârvulescu"O adresă high-life", in ''România Literară'', Nr. 25/2010 occasionally ''Comte Carpe''; 28 Mircea Dumitriu"Petre P. Carp – un suflet, un caracter, o idee", in ...
were "boyars" who prioritized the interest of their social class (which was by then nonetheless defunct, as traditional Privilege (legal ethics), privilege had been formally abolished a generation earlier). Cioculescu attributed this to an "inferiority complex" Caragiale felt in respect to his former patrons.
[Cioculescu, p. 22]
Despite his brief association with the mainstream Conservatives, Caragiale was probably never their partisan, and only hoped that the party could open the way for the reforms advertised by
George Panu and Alexandru Lahovari. When disappointed with their failure to promote change, he moved on to support Take Ionescu and his dissident grouping. Uniquely among students of Caragiale's work,
George Călinescu
George Călinescu (; 19 June 1899, Bucharest – 12 March 1965, Otopeni) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the mos ...
argued that the writer's main interest was not in criticizing the liberals, but actually in an overall rejection of the most embedded ''Junimist'' tenets, which, in Călinescu's view, had engendered "a lack of faith in the country's own powers".
Paul Zarifopol
Paul Zarifopol (November 30, 1874 – May 1, 1934) was a Romanian literary and social critic, essayist, and
literary historian. The scion of an aristocratic family, formally trained in both philology and the sociology of literature, he emer ...
believed that several of his ''
Momente și schițe
''Momente'' (Moments) is a work by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written between 1962 and 1969, scored for solo soprano, four mixed choirs, and thirteen instrumentalists (four trumpets, four trombones, three percussionists, and two ...
'' characters, including the effeminate high life chronicler Edgar Bostandaki, are caricatures of the Conservatives.
Caragiale contrasted the other major writers of his generation, including his friends Mihai Eminescu,
Ioan Slavici
Ioan Slavici (; 18 January 1848 – 17 August 1925) was a Romanians, Romanian writer and journalist from Hungary, later from Romania.
He made his debut in ''Convorbiri literare'' ("Literary Conversations") (1871), with the comedy ''Fata de biră ...
,
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea ; pen name of Barbu Ștefan; April 11, 1858 in Bucharest – April 29, 1918 in Iași) was a Romanian writer and poet, considered one of the greatest figures in the National awakening of Romania.
Early life and ...
, and ''Sămănătorul'' journal founder Alexandru Vlahuță, all of whom were advocating a return to the rural sphere and peasant traditionalism. In ''Moftul Român'', he
parodied the archaisms favored by Ștefănescu Delavrancea; during his final years, he also questioned the aesthetic value of Ștefănescu Delavrancea's medieval-themed play ''Apus de soare''. Prominent nationalists and traditionalists tended to be reserved in their assessment of Caragiale's literary contributions—they include his friend Eminescu
and historian Nicolae Iorga.
Nonetheless, Ion Luca Caragiale was, according to Zarifopol, a passionate advocate of tradition in front of innovation, and "a defender of the well-established truths".
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary criticism, literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Literature of Roma ...
also evidenced that Caragiale treasured his Romanian Orthodox Church, Orthodox identity, frequently appealing to God and the saints in both his private life and his writings.
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 197] According to
Ioan Slavici
Ioan Slavici (; 18 January 1848 – 17 August 1925) was a Romanians, Romanian writer and journalist from Hungary, later from Romania.
He made his debut in ''Convorbiri literare'' ("Literary Conversations") (1871), with the comedy ''Fata de biră ...
, Caragiale defined himself as "a right-believing Christianity, Christian", and disagreed with Eminescu on the nature of religion (at a time when the poet was a passionate student of Buddhism).
Cioculescu called this trait "primitive religiosity".
[Cioculescu, pg. 7] The writer is also known to have convinced that luck and destiny manifested themselves in life, and his ''Cănuță om sucit'', a short story about a proverbially unlucky fellow, is thought to have referred to its author. His superstitions were accompanied by a series of phobias, particularly pyrophobia and nosophobia.
Caragiale and the modernists
Ion Luca Caragiale was mostly critical of literary experiments and the newer stages of Modernism. On this basis, he persistently ridiculed
Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski (; also rendered as Al. A. Macedonski, Macedonschi or Macedonsky; 14 March 1854 – 24 November 1920) was a Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in h ...
's style, especially after the latter adopted Symbolism (arts), Symbolism. Much of his own poetry, especially pieces published in ''Moftul Român'' after 1901, parodied the Symbolist movement in Romania, Romanian Symbolist clubs and the Parnassianism of Macedonski's ''Literatorul'' (among the best-known of these targets was poet Cincinat Pavelescu, who was coeditor at ''Literatorul'').
As editor of ''
Epocas literary supplement, Caragiale refused to publish a descriptive poem by the young Gala Galaction, claiming that it was not poetry (when Nicolae Filipescu asked him to reconsider, he threatened to quit). Late in his life, he reserved explicit criticism for the new generation of Symbolists, whose work, he argued, belonged to "the church" of Belgium, Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck. Zarifopol also noted that, for as long as he lived, the writer derided the innovative works of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, but pointed out that Caragiale had never actually read or seen their plays.
Nevertheless, Caragiale was not entirely opposed to newer trends in poetry and art. Literary critic Matei Călinescu believes that he genuinely admired ''În orașul cu trei sute de biserici'' ("In the City with Three Hundred Churches"), a free verse poem by the Symbolist
Ion Minulescu
Ion Minulescu (; 6 January 1881 – 11 April 1944) was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, and playwright. Often publishing his works under the pseudonyms I. M. Nirvan and Koh-i-Noor (the latte ...
.
[Matei Călinescu, "Prefață", in ]Ion Minulescu
Ion Minulescu (; 6 January 1881 – 11 April 1944) was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, and playwright. Often publishing his works under the pseudonyms I. M. Nirvan and Koh-i-Noor (the latte ...
, ''Romanțe pentru mai târziu și alte poezii'', Editura pentru literatură, Bucharest, 1967, pg. XIV; This work is believed to have inspired a 1908 parody by Caragiale, in which the writer proclaimed his support for Take Ionescu.
According to poet and essayist
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi (; 21 May 1880 – 14 July 1967) was a Romanian writer, best known for his unique contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest, he explained that his pen name was related to ''Argesis'', th ...
, Caragiale also admired the works of Ștefan Luchian, a Postimpressionism, Postimpressionist whose paintings were often exhibited in Bucharest galleries.
Caragiale and the Left
Moving toward the Left-wing politics, Left during the final decades of his life, the writer maintained connection with the Socialism, socialists, but was nonetheless ambivalent to their goals. As Cioculescu noted, he welcomed the Bucharest celebration of May Day in one of his ''Moftul Român'' pieces,
and probably agreed to lecture for the Workers' Club in the capital.
Some of his writings were hosted by the socialist journal ''România Muncitoare''. According to
Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu (; May 23, 1871 – March 11, 1936) was a Romanian-Armenians in Romania, Armenian Literary criticism, literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, University of Iași professor ...
, himself a socialist at the time, "sometime after 1890, Caragiale briefly flirted with socialism."
However, over the same period, Caragiale ridiculed several socialist militants, referring to one of their leaders with the derisive nickname ''Edgard Spanachidi'' (itself a derivative of "spinach"). Instead, his loose association with
George Panu signified a return to Radicalism (historical), radicalism, and saw him campaigning in favor of universal suffrage and a complete land reform—this clashed with the views he had expressed earlier in life, and Caragiale was careful not to let it seem that he had returned to the "Red" liberalism of his youth.
In one of his articles, Ion Luca Caragiale commented with irony on the
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
views of his friend
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 1855, village of Slavyanka near Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), then in Imperial Russia – 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and j ...
: he compared the latter's way of dining on a leg of veal, laboriously carving it into sections, to his philosophical approach. Caragiale thus noted that philosophical skepticism was equivalent to stripping the bone of its flesh piece by piece, and then throwing it to the dogs—without having been able to fully document the leg of veal or its substance. Nevertheless, as Tudor Vianu indicated, although Caragiale preferred observation and spontaneity to speculation, he was not averse to pure philosophical analysis, and frequently quoted the classics in defense of his aesthetic guidelines. Late in his life, Caragiale also sparked debates after deriding the emerging Poporanism, a school of thought which took its inspiration from socialism, agrarianism and traditionalism. He is also known to have been amused by the 1907 German federal election, German election of 1907 and the resulting defeat registered by the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party.
Caragiale maintained a friendship with Dobrogeanu-Gherea for much of his life. He was especially interested in news of Dobrogeanu-Gherea having become involved in the 1905 Russian battleship Potemkin scandal, after the aging socialist decided to offer his help to the refugee sailors as they arrived in Constanța. During his time in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, he repeatedly tried to convince the Dobrogeanu-Ghereas to leave their home in Romania and join him abroad. Nonetheless, he criticized the philosopher when the latter refused to be decorated by King of Romania, King
Carol I
Carol I or Charles I of Romania (20 April 1839 – ), born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He w ...
(1909). Around 1907, the dramatist was also interested in the activities of Christian Rakovsky, who was trying to make his way back into Romania, and closely followed news of street clashes between his supporters and the authorities.
Settings
![Sinaia Prahova old pic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Sinaia_Prahova_old_pic.jpg)
The writer had an unprecedented familiarity with the social environments, traits, opinions, manners of speech, means of expression and lifestyle choices of his day — from the rural atmosphere of his early childhood, going through his vast experience as a journalist, to the high spheres of politics (National Liberal Party (Romania, 1875), National Liberal as well as Conservative Party (Romania, 1880–1918), Conservative, ''Junimist'' as well as socialist). An incessant traveler, Caragiale carefully investigated everyday life in most areas of the Romanian Old Kingdom and Transylvania. He was an unusually sociable man:
in one of his letters from
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, he asked Alceu Urechia to send his regards to over 40 of his acquaintances in Sinaia (from Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian diplomats to street vendors or beggars).
Several of his major works have a rural setting—they include ''
Năpasta'', ''
În vreme de război'', ''
La hanul lui Mânjoală
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...
'', ''
Calul dracului Calul may refer to the following rivers in Romania:
*Calu, a tributary of the Bicaz
Bicaz ( hu, Békás) is a town in Neamț County, Western Moldavia, Romania situated in the eastern Carpathian Mountains near the confluence of the Bicaz and B ...
'', ''
Păcat'', and ''
O făclie de Paște'', as well as fragments of the pseudo-
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
s he authored late in life. Nevertheless, Caragiale is foremost known and acclaimed for his urban themes, which form the background to the vast majority of his most accomplished writings.
The author depicted the city in all stages of its development and in all its atmospheres — from nightlife to ''Căldură mares midday torpor, from noisy slums and the ''Târgul Moșilor'' fête in Obor to the England, English-inspired tea party (social gathering), tea parties of the urban elite.
This large fresco drew comparisons with his generation colleague
Ion Creangă, who was argued to have done the same for the countryside. Caragiale was especially proud of the opening paragraph in his ''Ultima emisiune...'' story, part of ''
Momente și schițe
''Momente'' (Moments) is a work by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written between 1962 and 1969, scored for solo soprano, four mixed choirs, and thirteen instrumentalists (four trumpets, four trombones, three percussionists, and two ...
'', which, he believed, the "corner of a slum" was suggested to perfection.
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary criticism, literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Literature of Roma ...
also noted that, among cities and towns, Caragiale preferred Bucharest and those provincial centers most exposed to Central European influences (specifically, the summer retreats in the Prahova Valley and other Wallachian stations on the way to Transylvania).
[Vianu, Vol. II, pg. 199] The enclosed world of the Căile Ferate Române, Romanian Railways also appealed to the writer, and an impressive number of his sketches relate to it in various ways.
Collective characters
![Sava Hentia - Targul Mosilor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Sava_Hentia_-_Targul_Mosilor.jpg)
Confessing at some point that "the world was my school", Caragiale dissimulated his background and critical eye as a means to blend into each environment he encountered, and even adopted the manners and speech patterns he later recorded in his literary work. He thus encouraged familiarity, allowing people to reveal their histories, motivations, and culture.
Vianu recounted: "The man was a consummate actor and a ''Deadpan, pince-sans-rire'', an ironist
..to the point where his partners of dialog were never sure if they were spoken to 'seriously'
.."
[Vianu, Vol. II, p. 196] In one of his pieces from 1899, he welcomed the famous actors Eleonora Duse and Jean Mounet-Sully to Bucharest, imitating the exaggerated style of other theater chroniclers—the article ended with Caragiale confessing that he had not actually seen the two perform.
In one other instance, as a means to comment on
plagiarism
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...
, the author also parodied his own ''O făclie de Paște''—which he turned into the sketch, ''Noaptea Învierii''.
In ''1907, din primăvară până în toamnă'', his late and disillusioned work, Caragiale lashed out at the traditional class of political clients, with an indictment which, Tudor Vianu believed, also served to identify the main focus of his other writings:
"plebs incapable of work and lacking employment, impoverished suburban small traders and street vendors, petty dangerous agitators of the villages and of the areas adjacent to towns, bullying election agents; and then the hybrid product of all levels of schooling, semi-cultured intellectuals, lawyers and lawyerlings, professors, teachers and teacherlings, semi-illiterate and unfrocked priests, illiterate schoolteachers—all of them beer garden theorists; next come the great functionaries and the little clerks, most of them removable from office."
Direct criticism was nonetheless rare in Caragiale's fiction: Vianu believed to have found traces of it in ''
O scrisoare pierdută
''O scrisoare pierdută'' (Romanian for "A Lost Letter") is a play by Ion Luca Caragiale. It premiered in 1884, and arguably represents the high point of his career.Vianu, Vol. II, p.180
It was adapted into a 1953 film ''A Lost Letter''.
Characte ...
'' ("the most cruel [of his satires]") and in ''Grand Hotel "Victoria română"'' ("the most bitter").
[Vianu, Vol. II, p. 201] On several occasions, Caragiale showed or even defined himself as a sentimental, and his modesty was acknowledged by several of his friends. Vianu noted that, alongside his Christian ethos, this contributed to his distant, calm and often sympathetic overall take on society. In his words:
"A wave of charm, of reconciliation with life passes above all [his characters], one which, if it only assumes light and superficial shapes, experienced by naive people with harmless manias, is a sign that the collective existence is taking place in shelter from the great trials."
In contrast with this, Poporanism, Poporanist critic
Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu (; May 23, 1871 – March 11, 1936) was a Romanian-Armenians in Romania, Armenian Literary criticism, literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, University of Iași professor ...
argued that Caragiale actually hated the people who inspired his works, and claimed that the writer had made this clear during one of their conversations.
[Cazimir (1967), p. 44] His account was considered doubtful by researcher Ștefan Cazimir, who believed that Ibrăileanu was using it to back a polemic and singular overview of Caragiale's work.
According to Vianu, there is a manifest difference between Ion Luca Caragiale's comedies and his ''
Momente și schițe
''Momente'' (Moments) is a work by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written between 1962 and 1969, scored for solo soprano, four mixed choirs, and thirteen instrumentalists (four trumpets, four trombones, three percussionists, and two ...
'': the former are, in his view, driven by situations and circumstances, whereas the latter sees Caragiale developing his original perspective to its fullest. This, he argues, was determined by important social changes—a move from a traditional world—awkwardly attempting to digest Westernization,
modernization
Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
, and Francization, Francized culture—, to a more stable and prosperous environment. A similar division was applied by Ibrăileanu.
Types
Theoretical aspects
The form of Literary realism, Realism favored by Caragiale placed types of characters at the center of literary creativity, owing to the influence of Classicism.
Several critics have credited ''Momente și schițe'', as well as all his dramas, with providing some of the first truly believable portrayals in local literature.
Vianu stressed that Classicist borrowings in Caragiale's writings were limited, indicating that Caragiale parted with the notion of "generic types" to look for the "social" ones.
In parallel, literary critic
George Călinescu
George Călinescu (; 19 June 1899, Bucharest – 12 March 1965, Otopeni) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the mos ...
argued that "[t]he typological structure is present in Caragiale's work as a supporting structure, without being essential."
In Vianu's assessment, the universal human nature was important to Caragiale, but not made instantly obvious (as opposed to the immediate importance his characters were meant to have in the eyes of his public). Vianu illustrated this concept after investigating the manner in which Caragiale completed his ''O scrisoare pierdută'': the author was for long undecided about which character was to win the electoral battle on which the play centers, but opted for Agamiță Dandanache, the senile
radical
Radical may refer to:
Politics and ideology Politics
*Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change
*Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
, because his victory was to give the play more depth.
[Vianu, Vol. II, p. 202] Caragiale was thus quoted saying that Dandanache was "more stupid" than the clueless politician Tache Farfuridi, and "more of a scoundrel" than the unprincipled and cunning journalist Nae Cațavencu.
In Vianu's view, ''Momente și schițe'' was more vague in this respect, giving little insight into morals and states of mind, whereas the other, longer, novellas did depict feelings and occasionally provided additional details such as physiology or cenesthesia.
Also according to Vianu, Ion Luca Caragiale, unlike the Naturalists, was generally not interested in offering the reader access to his characters' Psychology, psychological background—aside from his ''
Năpasta'' and ''
Păcat'', and ''
O făclie de Paște'', he only adopted the psychological technique in satirical contexts, as a means to parody its use. A similar view was expressed by Vianu's predecessor, Silvian Iosifescu, who also stressed that Caragiale always avoided applying the Naturalist technique to its fullest,
[Mîndra, p. 271] while George Călinescu himself believed that the characters' motivations in ''O făclie de Paște'' are actually physiological and Ethnology, ethnological.
[Călinescu, p. 179]
Maiorescu was especially fond of the way in which Caragiale balanced his personal perspective and the generic traits he emphasized: speaking of Leiba Zibal, the History of the Jews in Romania, Jewish character in ''O făclie de Paște'' who defends himself out of fear, he drew a comparison with Shakespeare's Shylock. He thus noted that, for all the differences in style between the two authors, both their characters stood for the Jewish people as a whole.
This assessment was backed by Maiorescu's adversary,
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 1855, village of Slavyanka near Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), then in Imperial Russia – 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and j ...
.
George Călinescu also believed that, aside from his individual nature, Zibal provided readers with an accurate insight into Jewish reactions to systemic persecution and death threats.
Such assessments were rejected by
Paul Zarifopol
Paul Zarifopol (November 30, 1874 – May 1, 1934) was a Romanian literary and social critic, essayist, and
literary historian. The scion of an aristocratic family, formally trained in both philology and the sociology of literature, he emer ...
, who opposed generalizations and commented that the work only referred to "[t]he ingenious cruelty of a man maddened by fear".
Allegories
One of Caragiale's main and earliest types is that of the young man gripped by love, expressing himself through emphatic and Romantic clichés—its main representative is ''
O noapte furtunoasă
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), pl ...
s Rică Venturiano. As Vianu commented, Caragiale exploited the theme to so much success that it took another generation for youthful love to be presented in a non-comedic context (with the common signature writings of Ștefan Octavian Iosif and Dimitrie Anghel). At the other end are Patriarchy, patriarchal figures, heads of families who seem unable or unwilling to investigate their wives' Adultery, adulterous relations with younger men.
This behavior is notably present in ''O noapte furtunoasă'', where the aged Dumitrache fails to note even the most obvious signs that his wife Veta is in love with his good friend Chiriac. A more complex situation is present in ''O scrisoare pierdută'', where political boss Trahanache cannot tell that his wife Joițica is having an affair with Tipătescu, and, when confronted with the evidence, is more interested in proving that she is not.
With Venturiano, Caragiale also introduces criticism of the liberal journalist and lawyers. A law school student, Venturiano contributes long and exaggerated articles to the republican press, which recall those authored by
C. A. Rosetti and his collaborators.
A more elaborate such character is Nae Cațavencu, who plays a major part in ''O scrisoare pierdută'', and who, using a "Red" discourse, attacks politicians on all sides with turbulent remarks and recourse to blackmail.
He profits from the more moderate attitudes of his adversaries to proclaim himself a Progressivism, progressive politician, and he is successful in doing so—Cațavencu rallies around him a group of teachers and other state employees. The only person who is able to stop his rise is Agamiță Dandanache, an old Wallachian Revolution of 1848, 1848 revolutionary. Danadanche, shown to have been sidelined from politics, makes a comeback at a time when the factions needs his inoffensive presence as a third-party, and, although senile, has a vast experience in blackmailing. Ștefan Cazimir linked Dandanache to a new aristocracy, created around the first generation of Romanian liberals, and likened him to a Hidalgo (Spanish nobility), hidalgo. Tache Farfuridi, a competitor to both, has been described by Cazimir as a conformist self-seeker, in the manner of M. and Mme. Joseph Prudhomme, M. Joseph Prudhomme, a character made famous by Henri Monnier's prose.
Written between the two other comedies, ''
Conu Leonida față cu reacțiunea
Coni ( tly, Çoni) is a village and municipality in the Lerik Rayon of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental co ...
'' depicts the long-term effects of republican discourse on its fascinated audience, through the sayings and actions of Leonida. The latter, whose source of income is a state pension, notably supports the notion that the "Red" republic will provide each clerk with a salary, a pension, as well as a debt moratorium—
Șerban Cioculescu
Șerban Cioculescu (; 7 September 1902 – 25 June 1988) was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iași and the University of Bucharest, as well as m ...
noted that this request had already been voiced in real life, and issued as a political program by an obscure Utopian socialism, Utopian socialist named Pițurcă. Eventually, Leonida is convinced that revolution cannot be on the rise, since the authorities have banned the firing of weapons within city limits. Similar fallacies are uttered by one of the secondary characters in ''D-ale carnavalului'', known to the other protagonists as ''Catindatul'', who has a vague familiarity with both Subjective idealism, subjective idealist and Materialism, materialist tenets, the sources for his absurd theories about suggestibility and "magnetism"—two processes in which he sees the universal source for all discomfort or disease. In parallel, Zarifopol argued, the writer had even allowed ironic reflections on the impact of various theories to seep into a more serious work, ''O făclie de Paște'', where two students terrify the innkeeper Zibal by casually discussing anthropological criminology.
Several other of Caragiale's characters have traditionally been considered Allegory, allegories of social classes and even regional identities. One of the most famous ones is Mitică, a recurring character who stands for ordinary
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
ers, Wallachians or Muntenians in general.
A Hypocrisy, hypocritical and seemingly superficial man, Mitică expresses himself through either platitudes or clichés he believes are clever,
and, illustrating a tendency Caragiale first recorded in his ''Moftul Român'', quickly dismisses all important things he is confronted with.
Similarly, the teacher Marius Chicoș Rostogan, who is present or named in several sketches, stands for those
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
n expatriates in Romania whose sympathies went to the liberal current.
His discourse, through which Caragiale sarcastically illustrates liberal tenets in respect to Education in Romania, Romanian education, is centered on a disregard for content and a rigor for memorizing irrelevant details.
It has been proposed that Rostogan is at least partly based on Vasile Grigore Borgovan, a Transylvanian-born educator and resident of Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Turnu Severin.
''Cetățeanul turmentat'', an unnamed inebriated man who makes brief but relevant appearances in ''O scrisoare pierdută'', is thought to symbolize simple townsfolk, utterly confused by the political battle going on around them, and ignored by all the notabilities. Like his counterpart, the police agent Ghiță Pristanda, the inebriated elector has no relevant personal ambition, and stands for the so-called "government dowry"—people afraid of losing their offices, and ready to back whoever is in power. According to Călinescu, the inebriated citizen worships authority as a "supreme god", despite all its absurdities. He repeatedly claims to have served Trahanache during Alexander John Cuza's ousting, but his supposed patron only acknowledges him once, when asking party members to "escort this honorable person outside".
In a number of his short stories and sketches, Caragiale makes use of another particularly ''Junimist'' theme, and investigates the glamorous but superficial impact of
modernization
Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
on upper class, high society.
In one sketch, a couple of ladies dine in an opulent salon, while cursing their maid, gossiping, and showing interest in vulgar subjects.
The characters in these writings tend to resemble each other, evidencing the generic traits of the well-to-do.
Other traits and characters
Anxiety, Anxieties take the central stage in several of Caragiale's writings. From early on, Caragiale's minute analysis of mounting terror in ''O făclie de Paște'' won the praise of
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 1855, village of Slavyanka near Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), then in Imperial Russia – 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and j ...
. In several of his sketches and stories, characters are driven to despair by their inability to cope with real or presumed changes in their environment.
[Cioculescu, p. 89] This is shown to have happened to characters such as Leiba Zibal, Stavrache—the pub owner in ''
În vreme de război''—, as well as Anghelache (the suicide victim in ''Inspecțiune...'', part of ''
Momente și schițe
''Momente'' (Moments) is a work by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written between 1962 and 1969, scored for solo soprano, four mixed choirs, and thirteen instrumentalists (four trumpets, four trombones, three percussionists, and two ...
''). Șerban Cioculescu referred to the latter three as "great Neurosis, neurotics",
while Iosifescu defined Zibal and Stavrache as "Dementia, demented".
Among the group of insane characters in Caragiale's work, Călinescu counted those of sketches and stories like ''1 Aprilie'' ("1st of April"), where an April Fools' Day, April Fool ends with a murder, and ''Două loturi'', where the clerk Lefter Popescu goes through the tribulations of having lost his winning ticket.
Anxiety over imminent events grips the main characters in ''Conu Leonida față cu reacțiunea'', and plays a part in female behavior as depicted in all his other comedies. A special kind of fear animates the main protagonists of ''D-ale carnavalului'', whose jealousy leads them to act irrationally. Thus, Iancu Pampon, an assistant-barber and former police officer, and his female counterpart, the republican suburbanite Mița Baston, are determined to uncover their partners' amorous escapades, and their hectic inquiry combines real clues with figments of imagination, fits of passionate rage with moments of sad meditation, and violent threats with periods of resignation. Glimpses into this type of behavior have been noted in other plays by Caragiale: Cazimir placed emphasis on the fact that Farfuridi is shown to be extremely cautious towards all unplanned changes, and consumes much of his energy in preserving a largely pointless daily routine.
Many of Caragiale's writings reproduce discussions between clerks on their time off, which usually take the shape of generic and awkward forays into culture or politics. Several of the characters in his sketches spuriously claim to be personal friends of major political figures of the day, or to have access to the back-rooms of politics and journalism. Although often alarmed by political or social developments, they tend to accommodate them quickly, and often encourage each other during very long stays at the
beer garden
A beer garden (German: ''Biergarten'') is an outdoor area in which beer and food are served, typically at shared tables shaded by trees.
Beer gardens originated in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital city, in the 19th century, and remain co ...
. Gravitating in this environment are the petty journalists, who boast access to unlikely Scoop (term), scoops, such as Bulgaria having decided to invade Romania.
[Cioculescu, p. 114] In one instance, Caragiale invents Caracudi, a newspaperman who writes his Sensationalism, sensationalist articles while relaxing in the park.
Caragiale's persona is placed in numerous of his works. Aside from deduced self-portraits in ''Cănuță om sucit'' and elsewhere, he created the famous background character Nenea Iancu ("Uncle Iancu"), building on his colloquial name and his status as a regular client of the beer gardens. He introduces several of his ''Momente și schițe'' characters as personal friends, and garnishes the stories with intimate details. Late in his life, he even confessed that the affair involving Venturiano, Dumitrache, and Dumitrache's wife Veta was partly based on an amorous misadventure he experienced as a young man.
Literary influences
![Daumier - Honest people](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Daumier_-_Honest_people.jpg)
Aside from the many authors whose works he quoted, translated or
parodied, Ion Luca Caragiale built on a vast literary legacy. According to literary historian Ștefan Cazimir: "No writer ever had as large a number of precursors [as Caragiale], just as no other artistic synthesis was ever more organic and more spontaneous."
A man of the theater first and foremost, Caragiale was well-acquainted with the work of his predecessors, from
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
to the Romanticism, Romantics, and heavily impressed by the French ''comédie en vaudeville''.
He applied the notion of well-made plays, as theorized by
Eugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of ma ...
, and was also influenced by the
dramaturgy
Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the Representation (arts), representation of the main elements of drama on the stage.
The term first appears in the eponymous work ''Hamburg Dramaturgy'' (1767–69) by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing ...
of Eugène Marin Labiche and Victorien Sardou.
Reportedly, Labiche was his favorite author.
The writer himself cited Cilibi Moise, a History of the Jews in Romania, Wallachian Jewish peddler and Aphorism, aphorist, as an early influence, recalling how, as a child, he used to read his one-liner jokes, and treasured them as exceptional samples of concise humor.
[Cazimir (1967), pg. 62] He was similarly impressed by the works of Moise's contemporary, the prolific author
Anton Pann
Anton Pann (; born Antonie Pantoleon-Petroveanu , and also mentioned as ''Anton Pantoleon'' or ''Petrovici''; 1790s—2 November 1854) was an Ottoman-born Wallachian composer, musicologist, and Romanian-language poet, also noted for his act ...
, whose accomplishments he praised during talks with his fellow ''Convorbiri Critice'' contributors,
and whose work served as a source for at least one of his own stories.
Nicolae Filimon, whom Caragiale praised on several occasions, was the author of short stories which several authors have identified as less accomplished versions of Rică Venturiano. A similar connection has been traced between the various sketches authored by
Ion Heliade Rădulescu
Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade (also known as ''Eliade'' or ''Eliade Rădulescu''; ; January 6, 1802 – April 27, 1872) was a Wallachian, later Romanian academic, Romanticism, Romantic and Classicism, Classicist poet, essayist, mem ...
, in which Transylvanian writers are the object of ridicule, and Caragiale's character, Marius Chicoș Rostogan. Caragiale's late admiration for
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu ( 26 February 1838 – ) was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history.
Life
He was born Tadeu Hâjdeu in Cristineștii Hotinului (now Kerstentsi in Chernivtsi ...
was also linked to affinities in comedic styles, as was his companionship with
Iacob Negruzzi
Iacob C. Negruzzi (December 31, 1842 – January 6, 1932) was a Moldavian, later Romanian poet and prose writer.
Born in Iași, he was the son of Constantin Negruzzi and his wife Maria (''née'' Gane). Living in Berlin between 1853 and 1863, he at ...
(himself the author of sarcastic pieces ridiculing the liberal politicians and lawyers).
Caragiale is believed to have used and developed several themes already present in Romanian theatre. One such precursor is the author of comedies Teodor Myller, especially through his play ''Fata lui Chir Troancă'' ("Kir Troancă's Daughter"). The writer was most likely very familiar with the comedies authored by his two uncles,
Costache and Iorgu Caragiale, which have been shown to develop themes he later explored in depth. Among the minor 19th century dramatists whose comedic works were familiar to Caragiale, and in many ways similar to his, own was Costache Halepliu. Another often-cited influence is his predecessor and adversary
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri (; 21 July 182122 August 1890) was a Romanian patriot, poet, dramatist, politician and diplomat. He was one of the key figures during the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia. He fought for the unification of the Romani ...
, whose ''Coana Chirița'' plays are an early critique of Westernization.
The two authors nonetheless differ in many ways, with Caragiale assuming a more complex role, and observing a more complex society.
Ion Luca Caragiale is known to have been amused by the stock character Robert Macaire, at a time when the latter had been turned into a comedic character by Frédérick Lemaître. While in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, he purchased the cartoons of French artists Honoré Daumier and Paul Gavarni (although it is not known if their separate portrayals of Macaire were familiar to him)
[Cazimir (1967), pp. 103-105] — among these drawings was one showing notabilities embracing one another while picking each other's pockets, which shows similarities with Caragiale's own take on society. According to Cazimir, it is possible that he knew Daumier's work from early on, as several other subjects caricatured by the French artist bear a remarkable resemblance to his texts.
Ion Luca Caragiale was also keenly aware and receptive of his contemporaries' works and of ''fin de siècle'' innovations. The literary creations of Émile Zola were a noted source of inspiration, and the parallel led
George Călinescu
George Călinescu (; 19 June 1899, Bucharest – 12 March 1965, Otopeni) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the mos ...
to propose him and
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea ; pen name of Barbu Ștefan; April 11, 1858 in Bucharest – April 29, 1918 in Iași) was a Romanian writer and poet, considered one of the greatest figures in the National awakening of Romania.
Early life and ...
as the main representatives of Zola's style in local literature.
At the same time,
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 1855, village of Slavyanka near Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), then in Imperial Russia – 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and j ...
believed that both ''
Năpasta'' and ''
O făclie de Paște'' showed the "obvious enough influence" of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Late in his life, Caragiale discovered the literature of Anatole France — according to
Paul Zarifopol
Paul Zarifopol (November 30, 1874 – May 1, 1934) was a Romanian literary and social critic, essayist, and
literary historian. The scion of an aristocratic family, formally trained in both philology and the sociology of literature, he emer ...
, France's Humanism, Humanist themes served as a model for some of Caragiale's
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
writings.
Discussing the latter works, Vianu noted that they reminded one of Shakespeare's late romances,
while
Șerban Cioculescu
Șerban Cioculescu (; 7 September 1902 – 25 June 1988) was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iași and the University of Bucharest, as well as m ...
believed them to have been indirectly inspired by the works of
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
.
In his report for the academy, Dimitrie C. Ollănescu-Ascanio also drew a parallel between Poe's works and ''
La hanul lui Mânjoală
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...
'', but this hypothesis was rejected by Zarifopol.
In addition, ''
Kir Ianulea'', partly using Niccolò Machiavelli's novel as a source, was held as evidence of Caragiale's interest in Renaissance literature.
Cultural legacy
The writer's investigations into Culture of Romania, Romanian culture also resulted in an accurate record of the
Romanian language
Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Moldova, Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communi ...
as it was spoken during his day, sampling Romanian dialects, dialects, jargon, slang, verbal tics, as well as illustrating the experiments undertaken by conflicting schools of linguistics during the 19th and early 20th century, as well as the traces they left on the Romanian lexis. In
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary criticism, literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Literature of Roma ...
's opinion, this was partly owed to his keen musical ear.
Caragiale was an enduring influence on both Romanian humor and the views Romanians take of themselves.
[Lucian Boia, ''Romania: Borderland of Europe'', Reaktion Books, London, 2001, p. 247. ] His comedies and various stories have produced a series of catchphrases, many of which are still present in both cultural reference. Nevertheless, his uncomfortable criticism has occasionally seen him assigned a secondary place in the Education in Romania, Romanian curriculum and the academic discourse, a tendency notably endorsed by the Iron Guard and the Communist Romania, Communist regime.
In parallel, Caragiale's techniques have influenced 20th century dramatists such as Mihail Sorbul, Victor Ion Popa, Mihail Sebastian, and George Mihail Zamfirescu, and various directors, beginning with
Constantin I. Nottara and Paul Gusti.
Several of his theatrical writings have been the subject of essays authored by director Sică Alexandrescu, whose interpretation of the texts made use of the Stanislavsky System. Caragiale's short stories and novellas have inspired authors such as Ioan A. Bassarabescu, Gheorghe Brăescu, Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești, Dumitru D. Pătrășcanu, I. Peltz, and, in later decades, Radu Cosașu, Ioan Lăcustă, Horia Gârbea and Dumitru Radu Popa. According to various authors, Caragiale was also a predecessor of Theater of the Absurd, Absurdism,
and he is known to have been cited as an influence by the Absurdist dramatist Eugène Ionesco.
Outside Romania, the impact of Ion Luca Caragiale's literature was much reduced—the 1996 ''Cambridge Paperback Guide to Theatre'' attributed this to the technical problems posed by translations, as well as to the tendency of staging his works as period pieces.
Several authors have left memoirs of Ion Luca Caragiale. They include
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga (; 1 April 1881 – 7 May 1938) was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.
Life and politics
Goga was born in Rășinari, near Sibiu.
Goga was an active member in the Romanian nationalisti ...
and
Ioan Slavici
Ioan Slavici (; 18 January 1848 – 17 August 1925) was a Romanians, Romanian writer and journalist from Hungary, later from Romania.
He made his debut in ''Convorbiri literare'' ("Literary Conversations") (1871), with the comedy ''Fata de biră ...
, I. Suchianu, Luca Caragiale, Ecaterina Logadi-Caragiale, and Cincinat Pavelescu.
Among his later biographers was Octav Minar, who stood accused of having forged certain details for commercial gain. Direct or covert depictions of Caragiale are also present in several fiction works, starting with a revue first shown during his lifetime, and including novels by Goga, Slavici, N. Petrașcu, Emanoil Bucuța, Eugen Lovinescu, Constantin Stere, as well as a play by Camil Petrescu. In 1939, B. Jordan and Lucian Predescu, published a common signature novel on the writer, which was criticized for its style, tone, and inaccuracies. The short story writer Brătescu-Voinești proposed that Ion Luca Caragiale's love affair with
Veronica Micle
Veronica Micle (born Ana Câmpeanu; 22 April 1850 – 3 August 1889) was an Imperial Austrian-born Romanian poet, whose work was influenced by Romanticism. She is best known for her love affair with the poet Mihai Eminescu, one of the most im ...
and Eminescu's anger provide the key to Eminescu's poem ''Luceafărul (poem), Luceafărul'', but his theory remains controversial. Caragiale is also probably present in his son
Mateiu's work ''Craii de Curtea-Veche'', where his lifestyle and contribution to literature appear to be the subjects of derision.
![RO DB Caragiale memorial house](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/RO_DB_Caragiale_memorial_house.jpg)
The writer was elected to the
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its byl ...
posthumously, in 1948, upon the proposal of novelist Mihail Sadoveanu.
["Anul Caragiale"]
at the Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its byl ...
site. Retrieved 26 September 2007. 2002, the 150th anniversary of Ion Luca Caragiale's birth, was celebrated in Romania as the ''Anul Caragiale'' (the "Caragiale Year").
Annual theater festivals in his honor are held in Bucharest and the Moldovan capital of Chișinău. Caragiale's work has been the subject of many productions in Cinema of Romania, Romanian cinema and television—films based on his writings include the 1958 ''Două lozuri'' and Lucian Pintilie's 1981 ''De ce trag clopotele, Mitică?''. In 1982, a West Germany, West German film, directed by Radu Gabrea and based on ''
O făclie de Paște'', was released as '.
The National Theatre Bucharest, Bucharest National Theater is currently known in full as ''"Ion Luca Caragiale" National Theater''. Several educational institutions were named in his, including the Academia de Artă Teatrală și Cinematografică Caragiale din București, Theater and Film Academy and the Ion Luca Caragiale National College (Bucharest), Ion Luca Caragiale National College in Bucharest, the national college in Ploiești, and a high school in Moreni. Among the statues raised in his honor are Constantin Baraschi's Statue of Ion Luca Caragiale (Bucharest), Bucharest monument, and busts in the capital's Cișmigiu Gardens and in Ploiești. He was the subject of portraits and caricatures by various artists, and, in 2007, upon the completion of a five-year project involving cartoonists inside and outside Romania, he was designated "the most portrayed writer" by the Guinness World Records, Guinness Book of Records (with over 1,500 individual drawings in a single exhibit).
In 1962, a house in
Ploiești
Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest.
The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commu ...
has been turned into a museum honoring Caragiale (the ''Dobrescu House, Ploiești, Dobrescu House'').
His native home in
Haimanale was opened for the public in 1979.
The Memorial House "Ion Luca Caragiale"
, a
''Museums of Dâmbovița''
. Retrieved 25 September 2007. Memorial plaques have also been set up in Buzău
The city of Buzău (formerly spelled ''Buzeu'' or ''Buzĕu''; ) is the county seat of Buzău County, Romania, in the historical region of Muntenia. It lies near the right bank of the Buzău River, between the south-eastern curvature of the Carp ...
and on Schöneberg's Hohenzollerndamm. His name was given to streets, avenues, parks or quarters in many Romanian cities—such landmarks include the Bucharest street he lived on around 1900, a street in Ploiești, a quarter in Brașov
Brașov (, , ; german: Kronstadt; hu, Brassó; la, Corona; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the administrative centre of Brașov County.
According to the latest Romanian census (2011), Brașov has a popu ...
, and a park in Cluj-Napoca. A street in Chișinău also bears the name Caragiale.
The novel ''The Republic'' by the Romanian-American novelist Bogdan Suceavă (Polirom Press, 2018) has as main character a 17-year old Ion Luca Caragiale, and depicts his involvement with the coup d'état attempt from August 8, 1870, in Ploiești
Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest.
The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commu ...
.
Notes
References
*George Călinescu
George Călinescu (; 19 June 1899, Bucharest – 12 March 1965, Otopeni) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the mos ...
, ''Istoria literaturii române. Compendiu'', Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1983
*Ștefan Cazimir,
**''Caragiale: universul comic'', Editura pentru Literatură, Bucharest, 1967.
**''I.L. Caragiale faţă cu kitschul'', Cartea Românească, Bucharest, 1988.
*Șerban Cioculescu
Șerban Cioculescu (; 7 September 1902 – 25 June 1988) was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iași and the University of Bucharest, as well as m ...
, ''Caragialiana'', Editura Eminescu, Bucharest, 1974.
*Alin Ciupală, ''Femeia în societatea românească a secolului al XIX-lea'', Editura Meridiane, Bucharest, 2003.
*Daniel Cristea-Enache
''Concert de deschidere''
LiterNet
e-book, 2004.
*Vicu Mîndra, in I.L. Caragiale, ''Nuvele şi povestiri'', Editura Tineretului, Bucharest, 1966. :
**"Prefaţă", p. 5–33
**"Aprecieri critice", p. 267–271
**"Tablou biobibliografic", p. 272–275
*Z. Ornea, ''Junimea şi junimismul'', Vol. II, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1998.
*Perpessicius
Perpessicius (; pen name of Dumitru S. Panaitescu, also known as Panait Șt. Dumitru, D. P. Perpessicius and Panaitescu-Perpessicius; October 22, 1891 – March 29, 1971) was a Romanian literary historian and critic, poet, essayist and fiction wri ...
''Studii eminesciene''
Museum of Romanian Literature, Bucharest, 2001.
*Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary criticism, literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Literature of Roma ...
, ''Scriitori români'', Vol. I-III, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1970–1971.
*Dan Ionescu, ''Absurdul în opera lui I. L. Caragiale'', Editura Junimea, Iași, 2018.
External links
*
*
*
Ion Luca Caragiale
(official Facebook page)
(official site)
(official site)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caragiale, Ion Luca
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