Ion Luca Caragiale

Ion Luca Caragiale was born in 1852, in the village Haimanale (now Caragiale), situated in the Muntenia province in the South of Romania. Caragiale began his career as a writer by publishing a series of poems in the magazine Ghimpele. He became one of the leading members of the most important literary movement of his time, Junimea, movement which launched great names of Romanian literature, such as Ion Creanga and Mihai Eminescu. His plays are characterised by a classsical construction and a very acute observation of the social realities of the time, always mixed with a fine sense of irony. His most influential works are O noapte furtunoasa, O scrisoare pierduta, Conu Leonida fata cu reactiunea, Napasta and D-ale carnavalului. In 1906, Caragiale moved with his family to Berlin. He frequently visited Romania and contributed to Romanian periodicals. For his 60th birthday in 1912 friends in Romania wished to organise a jubilee, but he refused. In the spring of the same year he had the pleasure of seeing a series of remarkable poems by Mateiu Caragiale (his illegitimate son, with whom his relationship was often tense) published in Viata Romaneasca. Ion Luca Caragiale died on 9 June 1912, struck down by arteriosclerosis. Mateiu I. Caragiale also became a well known writer, being the author of one of the most acclaimed Romanian novels of all time, Craii de Curtea-Veche.

References

• Eric D. Tappe. Ion Luca Caragiale. Twayne Publishers Inc., NY, 1974. (ISBN 0805721991)