Faith
Neamţu Monastery: My coat hanging loosely on my shoulders. I was slowly climbing the road to the hermitage. I was drinking in the bracing mountain air like some life – giving elixir. Now and then I stopped to embrace with eager eyes the flint rocks whitening the distant
Oleanders
Mr. Guţă Gheorghiu had just one weakness, which as a matter of fact dominated him to a greater extent than anything else in the world: oleanders. And he did feel it was a weakness, because whenever you asked him how come so much love for a flower, he just shrugged his
Scipio The African
This time I am forced to avoid disclosing both his name and that of the school where he taught the same subject-matter as Anghel Demetriescu: history. But how remote the two teachers were! The fine stature of the former - who was a scholar relying on thoroughgoing studies
Captain Scabbard
excerpts EPIZOOTIC A few years ago, Captain Scabbard's company was transferred to the border to protect the country from cattle diseases. He found this very convenient, as by the frontier there is far less discipline among officers, and life is more regular. Besides,
Savings
Oh, what inclement weather! Now it rains and then it snows; it snows in the morning and rains in the afternoon; the devil alone knows what else he can invent, but anyhow the streets are full of mud. How can I reach Porunceanu's house?! If I hire a cab, I have to keep
Honeymoon
At nightfall, after a rather sultry day, in a small station on the Braşov-Cluj line in Transylvania, I was waiting for the express train to Budapest… I did not have to wait too long… the train arrived… I picked up my travelling bag and climbed into the nearest second
A Very Lucky Man
My friend Mr. Manolache Cuvidi is a well-known character in our society; he is a man of substance, his rather comfortable wealth has been earned through honest work; he's an intelligent and earnest fellow, an ideal husband and an ideal father of a family. Given so many
A Petition
It's during the summer months, when public services open at 7 in the morning and close at 2 p. m. The night was sultry and now the sun has risen in the clear sky, threatening to scorch everything and everybody. Just think of what it it's going to be at noon? It
Dog Day's Afternoon
The thermometer stands at 33 centigrade in the shade. In the scorching heat, a coach stops in Patience Street at 11 A, at around three in the afternoon. A gentleman gets off the carriage and, at a sluggish pace, approaches the door with a marquee, then rings the doorbell.
Ion Luca Caragiale And The Kitsch
excerpts 1. Now, as for the figments of the German imagination - why turn to them at all? They're nothing but fads. (the respectable Jupîn Dumitrache)You love me too, leave off pretending and put all fads aside. (Rică)Come off it and put all fads aside, Ghiţă.
A Favour
Act One A wretched land, Sir! The country of ill-granted favours! was telling me at the height of our discussion, Mr Ibrişim an elector to the first collegium, bitterly criticizing our various administrations. Only now and then interrupting himself in order to drain a
The Mother With Three Daughters-In-Law
There was once an old woman who had three sons, tall like steeples and of virtue mighty but dumb as fishes. The old woman had a plentiful household, with a fine piece of land, a stout manor and annexes, a vineyard and nice orchard, cattle and lots of poultry. Besides all