Alis

Local Civilization

'Make your stores - they're cutting it off,' calls the bobby, pushing the entrance door ajar. And every member of the household hurries to grab a pail, a mug or any of the tinier pots and pans, dashing forward to the tap (the house is endowed with a tap -

Long Autumn

In our parts, at Jassy, autumn starts late in May and lasts until Christmas. There is no summer in Jassy. If from time to time, winter did not come we could say we have only autumn over here. Nice weather begins with foul smells, green flies and heat. Then it turns nasty.

The Uninvited Guest

It was past midnight. I had gone to bed a long time ago but sleep refused to come. I was permanently lulled between sleep and wakefulness by the same strange dream. I woke up with a start: somebody must have knocked at the front door. I heard the knocking again. Rather dizzy

Napoleon's Victor

That summer, teacher Caranfil had gone to spend his holidays at Neamţul Monastery and on the day when the events he related to me had occurred to him, he had taken a trip with a company of friends in the surroundings of the monastery, beyond Procov hermitage. When he had

A Career

Captain Drăgoi used to enjoy much consideration among officers. He had gone through the whole set of hard tests. From a non-commissioned officer he had been promoted second-lieutenant in the regiment of a colonel with many daughters who had been withering, a prey to hidden

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 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

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.

Editor's Note

There is an old Romanian saying – Romanians are born poets. Judging by the amount of poetry produced in Romania in the past two centuries, there may be more to it than mere preconception. But although one may discover a fair number of gems upon reading it, and critics

Quotes On And From Brâncuşi

Simplicity is not an end in art, but one arrives at simplicity in spite of oneself, in approaching the real sense of things. Simplicity is at bottom complexity and one must be nourished on its essence to understand its significance. Catalog of Brâncuşi exhibition, Brummer

Eugen Ionesco - Interviews

UNDER THE QUESTION MARK: MAN If you were asked to portray yourself as you did in your books, diaries, or in Present Past, Past Present, how would you introduce yourself? Eugène IONESCO: It is very complicated. I don't know. I don't know who I am. I don't

Eugene Ionesco De L'Académie Française

The founder of the Theater of the Absurd (with The Bald Soprano, staged in 1950 by Nicolas Bataille at the Theatre des Noctambules in Paris, a play he had begun in the 40s while still in Romania under the title English without a Teacher), a member of the French Academy from