Caragiale, Ion Luca

▪ Romanian author

born Jan. 30, 1852, Haimanale, Walachia, Ottoman Empire [now in Romania]

died June 10, 1912, Berlin, Ger.

      Romanian playwright and prose writer of great satirical power.

      Caragiale's comedies expose the effects on Romanian urban society of the hasty introduction of a modern way of life and the comical results of social and political change. Conul Leonida (1879; “Mr. Leonida”), O noapte furtunoasă (1880; “A Stormy Night”), and O scrisoare pierdută (1884; “A Lost Letter”) are among his most popular plays. With Năpasta (1890; “The False Accusation”), he created the peasant drama. His short stories, O făclie de Paște (1889; “An Easter Torch”), Păcat (1892; “The Sin”), and Kir Ianulea (1909), are among the best prose works in Romanian literature; Momente and Schițe are vivid sketches of the change from rural to urban society.

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