Stea

Grigoraş Dinicu: Memoirs

excerpt  These lines will introduce us into the international career of the great violin virtuoso. At the height of his career, Grigoraş Dinicu carried across the world the fame of Romanian fiddlers and of the rich Romanian folk song. After the creation of the Bucharest

At The Royal Cinema

The Lumière Brothers' toy, perfected year after year, challenges Thalia and Melpomene and the people of Bucharest take cinemas by storm. Businessmen are quick in smelling money, and thus many individuals whose energy used to be spent at the haberdasher's or on

Ion

excerpt The pub was no better than other houses in the village, it just had a tiled roof and, in two little wire-netted windows overlooking the street, bottles of coloured drinks, jars of motley bonbons, and various other merchandise sought after by peasants. The front

Victory Street In Autumn

The Bucharest people have the right, in the beautiful autumn days – especially on Sundays – to populate Victory Street, so that between 11 and 12 the carriage traffic becomes impossible. From Capsa and up to Palace Square, especially on the pavement, there is a true

A Boyar's Sin

excerpt I couldn't make out too much from the hunter's stubborn taciturnity. Sandu, the publican, kept talking again and he was either unable to tell me or feigned to be ignorant of the things that I wanted to find out. And he tried to dazzle me by talking too

The Money Pot

It seems the wedding gift is no longer a must in Săpînţa. When they go to the wedding in the evening, people are stirred by the fiddles and guitars. They've no more patience to sit still, they want to break their shoes dancing. Though the peasant ones have been replaced

Sunday Rest

The parties prepared in advance rarely happen to turn out well; while, the ones started up just like this, unexpectedly, without thinking, almost always turn out nicely… Why is this, I wonder? – Why it is so, why it is not so – we mustn't waste our time philosophizing,

The Psychology Of The Romanian People

CHAPTER 8 –THE ORIENT AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE ROMANIANS' SOULexcerpt With such borrowed habits, it is obvious that the people to whom the destinies of the Romanian countries were entrusted could only run these countries into ruin and destruction. Laziness and slothfulness

On Mountain Paths

excerpt THE WAY TO PIPIRIG Half an hour later we had taken up lodgings in father Ionica's house in PipirigValley. I ignore why, but as I lay on a bed of freshly cut, fragrant grass and watched the stars that were beginning to come out in the clear evening sky, my

Mill O' Luck

click here to see fragment from the 1955 movie excerpt As he arrived at Mill O'Luck on Easter Sunday, around breakfast time, together with Raut and Paun, another fellow of theirs, all three of them on horseback, Lica was rather cross at finding Ghita not alone, as

The Hound In The Bag And The Snipe To The Four Winds

Yet, why should we prize futilities to such an expanse? To what avail should we step purblindly into the haughty palaces, where we, perchance, would encounter but troubles and mortification? Are we not indeed the grandchildren of the poet who, above all, labored the point

Old And New Squires

excerpts Chapter XV. Scenes of Social Life The beautiful autumn days of the year 1817 had already flitted along with the joys they bring to pass for the inhabitants of Romania. Winter had made quite an early appearance and the western wind had by now started to blow in