When Caragiale died, he smoked 80 cigarettes that night. He had left Romania frustrated

Ion Luca Caragiale, one of the greatest Romanian playwrights, left an impressive work. And today his plays are as current as when they were written. But behind the genius Caragiale was man and his death was full of mystery.

Ion Luca Caragiale, the genius of Romanian comedy

On January 30, 168 years have passed since the birth of the one who would become the greatest Romanian playwright, Ion Luca Caragiale. Caragiale, through his plays, has offered us many new causes and themes for our native fiction.

All these elements were not developed much in Romanian literature until him. We can see in his stories the concern for human problems, their difficult substance. These stories have brought great psychological and mysterious problems in front of the reader and the viewer.

Caragiale earns his living as a journalist, translator and prose writer. But he became most famous for his works. Caragiale has had some small successes in his life, but his work has often been influenced by government censorship and legal problems.

This was one of the reasons he chose the escape route. However, in the mid-twentieth century, critics recognized him as a promising writer. Caragiale, was also known in with him contemporary societyand for her relationship with Veronica Micle and her rivalry with Mihai Eminescu. There were, according to meteorological sources, altercations, threats and even blackmail in this impossible trio.

The playwright moves to Berlin

The years in which Caragiale recognized glory were years full of political tensions and light morals. There are other reasons that led him to decide to undertake the path of exile, with his family. In the first phase, in 1903, he left for Cluj, where at one point he was thinking of moving with his family. Other locations, far from it Little Paris, the city of light morality, there were also Brașov and Sibiu, but he did not move to either city.

“This is where I would finally arrive at the protective port. There I could calmly heal myself from so many offenses, pains and bitternesses, there, with a serene spirit, I could continue my imperfect literary career, so often interrupted by profound discouragement”. , Caragiale said of Cluj.

Despite all the declarations of admiration for the Transylvanian city, Caragiale decides to go to Berlin, after having visited Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France and the Netherlands. Like many others, Caragiale has lost the country, but is sinking into work. Being in Berlin, he manages to finish another comedy, “Titirca, Sotirescu & C-ia”, with the same famous characters of the already classic “A Lost Letter”.

Caragiale and his passion for cigarettes

Relatives of the playwright knew his passion for refined drinks, which he did not exaggerate, and his passion for cigarettes. When it came to one or more cigarettes, Caragiale was the first to do so. Cella Delavrancea tells how she was found in her room. Caragiale died after a night of smoking no less than 80 cigarettes.

One morning Caragiale did not come into the living room to listen to a Bach fugue. I worked alone, I started studying Schumann’s great sonata in the minor phase, a dramatic and heavy piece. Suddenly, a scream tore the melodic thrill. I got up in fear and ran to Caragiale’s bedroom. The door was open. He slid to the floor beside the bed, his left hand clenched on the sheet. He had his head on his back, his face white, his eyes fixed. Terrified, his wife looked at him. He had seen that he had not introduced himself as usual, he had had the courage to knock on the door at eleven. The silence had worried her. He opened it, saw it, screamed. How to make room for pain, then, unexpectedly? “(Cell Delavrancea).

The great playwright died on 9 June 1912, at the age of 60, leaving behind a widow, Alexandrina Burelly, and two boys, Mateiu and Luca Caragiale. His work remains today one of the most important in Romanian theater and literature.