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excerpts  So closeSuddenly, the interwar people make the body visible: men are allowed to shave off not only their beards, but also their moustaches – a facial change that overthrows an aesthetic canon with centuries-old resistance – and women, punished and ridiculed

excerpt Adrian was too honest and too weak in front of the woman he felt attracted to. While he accompanied Lucia along the alleys close to the main boulevard, he would keep his mouth shut and barely listen to her constant and tedious tittle-tattle about everything. He already

excerpts FOREWORD TO A LOVE NOVEL You have been written to meNot to my depression, my sadnessBut to the true I, powerful – and ruthless.  I look at your fresh girlish bodyAnd a tempest of infernal thoughts rages through me My blood and my bones dictate everything I have

excerpt When they were going back to the hotel, the clock at the Carol Foundation showed it was a quarter to five. They parted at the door, arranging to meet the following day. Mr. Petrica Miclaush lingered a little, to pick up his mail. He cast an indifferent look over

excerpts Titu Herdelea found out about the divorce from Nadina during their trip by train. He wouldn't believe it. It was only ten days later that Grigore's words confirmed it for him. And then he exclaimed in a sad tone of voice:She was, nonetheless, such a nice

excerpts The contact with the air, the world, dazzled him as if he had been a novice passenger on a ship. He knew naught – whether he was sick or well; whether his frame would master the novelty, or if he was at peril with that new diet of his. Therefore, Ada had quickly

excerpt Dies iraeThey had loved each other since the second day, and in the days to come, as no one had loved before. Their love had been angelic and earthly both in one. Their souls had been suffused by heaven and brought almost to extinction by kisses with no end. They

As the story goes, there once lived a farmer in a village. And the farmer went forth to sow some maize. Now it came to pass, as he was sowing, that the Lord Himself chanced to walk by, Saint Peter at His side. Now, it would have been right and meet for our Lord to hold His

In a village, the story goes, there once lived a lad who had neither father, nor mother, nor any other kin; so obscure was his lineage, in fact, that for all we know, he may well have dropped there from the sky. As the boy was meek, long suffering and slow to speak, the

excerpts In connection with the press condemnation, instituted against Lumina by the prosecutor of the criminal court on account of the Emilia episode in the novel Damsel Mamuca, passed on June 3, 1863.  Maxim: De nihilo nascitur historia. . . (Propertius: II, 1) Gentlemen,

excerpt Doctor Tucia, a young man of about twenty-three or twenty-four, tall, slender, swarthy, with a crooked nose, big eyes and bushy brows, and a pretty well outlined forehead, had one of those faces that are likeable and seem beautiful at first sight, especially to someone

Around 1820, Barbu Paris Mumulean thus concluded one of his poems: Hankering I will not fade / Cupid cometh but in aid / thus in luxury I may / crave until I wilt away. In actuality, these verses word the ideal of a generation that sets out to inventory, and answer for,