Caragiale, Ion Luca

Born Jan. 30, 1852, in Haimanale, now Caragiale; died June 9, 1912, in Berlin. Rumanian writer and playwright. Academician of the Academy of the Rumanian Socialist Republic (elected posthumously). Son of a minor official.

Caragiale studied at the Ploe§ti Gymnasium but left in the fourth year and enrolled in courses of mime and recitation at the Bucharest conservatory (1868–70). During the 1880’s he had close ties with representatives of the incipient socialist movement, C. Dobrogeanu-Gherea and A. Bacalba§a. A democratic raznochinets (member of a class other than the nobility), Caragiale denounced contemporary society. In the comedy Stormy Night (1878), he satirized the successful bourgeoisie, with its proprietary attitudes and sham liberalism and patriotism. The one-act comedy Mr. Leonida Face to Face With Reaction (1879) was directed against political philistinism. The comedy The Lost Letter (1884) was a biting satire on the political system of bourgeois-landowner Rumania. The comedy Carnival (1885) ridiculed the triviality of the petite bourgeoisie. In Caragiale’s essays, short stories, and satirical articles which appeared in the collections Notes and Stories (1892), Light Stories (1896), ShortStories (1897), and Moments (1901), he condemned the reality of Rumanian politics with caustic irony. A campaign of persecution and slander was organized against Caragiale by reactionary circles, and in 1904 he moved to Berlin. In 1907 he responded to the peasant uprising enveloping Rumania with the article “1907: From the Spring to the Fall,” in which he supported the just demands of the insurgents, stigmatized the ruling parties who were responsible for the tragic situation of the people, and insisted on the implementation of fundamental democratic reforms. Caragiale’s work served the progressive forces of Rumania in their struggle for freedom and exerted considerable influence on the development of Rumanian literature. The Bucharest National Theater was named after Caragiale.