Short

Wisdom's Tell-Tale

One fair day the sultan walked about his cityPlain in dress, together with his high vizier. On the spot he noticed lying in the gutterA dime which he, stooping, picked up in great haste. The vizier, who witnessed this parsimonyMade so bold in asking of his majesty:'Please

History Of The Romanians - Before Decebalus

CHAPTER I 1. The Dacian Offensive: His Majesty, Decebalus  Long had Rome been dealing with this headstrong Dacian people; but, having had them for some time encircled closely by other barbarians and guarded by ships on the Danube, whose function was mainly political,

Nicolae Iorga

When at only 19, Nicolae Iorga (1871-1940) defended his university degree examinations one of his examining professors characterized him as a true phenomenon both in point of memory and power of ratiocination. Then Iorga worked hard in Paris and in Germany, obtaining a

The Cultural And Intellectual Life Of Bucharest

As a princely seat Bucharest was once, for the Romanian authorities, a citadel watched over by God just like Byzantium was for the Eastern Christian world. Then, naturally, it was also the place where scholars needed by the Prince's Chancellery made their studies. They

Our Defense Abroad

Let us not be deceived by articles and books issued by courtesy or for which we pay, and this so seldom. We are not loved abroad. Even if people remember the fine welcome we give people – which is so comprehensive according to the customs, and at times even sufficiently

Not Only Caragiale

excerpt A commonsensical observation anyone could make is that in many of Caragiale's prose pieces the personal element comes out in a very direct manner, in the form of autobiographical reminiscences or fresh diary entries. Here is Caragiale as a child, tolling, together

The Romanian Nation

Very few people today will remember a famous newspaper that used to appear at some point in the capital, during the war of independence. I mean here 'The Romanian Nation' that Frédéric Damé and I published together. The life of that paper was as short as it

A Speech

It's all set! On Saturday I am to deliver a speech in the plenary meeting of the SPDRM. There's no way out: I did, in a moment of utter weakness, promise an old friend of mine, Mrs. Parigoridi – so it is now for me a matter of conscience, of honour, of heart

Editor's Note

The threshold between the millenniums is an opportunity for evaluation: tributes, jubilees, festivals. Archives are being browsed, masterpieces are reappraised, and writings are redefined in the current context, then recirculated in today's competition. Everything becomes

The Woman Painter Of Modern Life

Women artists (originally women-painters) became a reality in Romanian culture only by the turn of the 20th century. Barely having an artistic tradition of the western kind (that is, academic), the national cultural milieu in the 19th century was rather deprived of a professionally

Zoe Trahanache

from The Lost Letter ACT II SCENE V ZOE(alone; nervous, she takes out the newspaper and reads)In tomorrow's issue of our gazette we shall reproduce an interesting sentimental letter from a notable of our town to a lady of great influence. Beginning tomorrow, the original

Vitoria Lipan

from The Hatchet I It is the mountain peasant's lot to earn his daily bread either with the axe or with the sheep hook. Those of them that work with the axe fell firs from the forest and take them to the Bistriţa; there they bind them together into rafts and float