Ionel Teodoreanu
Encyclopedia
Ionel Teodoreanu was a Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n novelist and lawyer. He is mostly remembered for his books on the themes of childhood and adolescence.

Biography

Born on January 6 1897 in Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...

 into a family of intellectuals, Teodoreanu followed his father Osvald and older brother Păstorel in becoming a lawyer. From 1904 to 1906 he attended the German primary school of Pitar-Moş in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

, until his parents moved back to Iaşi. Between 1908 and 1912 he attends high school at the Boarding House High School in Iaşi (now The National College Costache Negruzzi). He later transferred to the National High school until he graduated in 1916. Teodoreanu obtained his Law degree in 1919, and began to work as a lawyer, although he was more attracted to literature.

In late 1918, Teodoreanu he was introduced to his future wife, Maria Ştefana Lupaşc, by Delavrancea
Barbu Stefanescu Delavrancea
Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea was a Romanian writer and poet, considered one of Romania's greatest figures in the National awakening of Romania.-External links:*...

's daughters. The two young people became close due to their mutual passion for literature and their disposition towards writing, and they married in 1920. One year later, on February 3, 1921 he became the father of twin boys, Ştefan and Osvald. Ionel Teodoreanu died on February 3, 1954, at 57 in Bucharest.

Literary works

Teodoreanu made his literary debut in 1919, with the Bunicii ("The Grandparents") sketch, published in the review Însemnări literare (Literary notes). His editorial debut was represented by the short story volume Uliţa copilăriei ("Childhood Lane", 1923). Like his brother Păstorel - a renowned epigrammatist - he was linked to the Romanian Life
Viata Româneasca
Viaţa Românească, originally Viaţa Romînească , is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania...

group led by Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibraileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu was a Romanian-Armenian literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Iaşi University professor , and, together with Paul Bujor and Constantin Stere, for long main editor of the Viaţa Românească literary magazine between 1906 and 1930...

, who considered him to one of the most promising writers of the generation following World War I. In this environment, Teodoreanu published his classic novel trilogy. La Medeleni between 1925 and 1927.

La Medeleni

Teodoreanu wrote around twenty books, but his greatest success, especially with children and young people, was La Medeleni. The trilogy includes several autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 episodes, and, on a universal level, constitute a subtle analysis of the human soul. The trilogy is not without its critics; George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...

 argued that Teodoreanu's style was too laden with metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...

s and rather baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

.

The universe of La Medeleni reflects the upper middle class
Upper middle class
The upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term "lower middle class", which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term "middle...

 environment in Romania during the early decades of the 20th century. It depicts the innocence of childhood which the ravages of the World War and its aftermath would soon shatter. Although Teodoreanu did not write it as an autobiography, his experience of having grown up in such a family in Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...

during this time was influential.

Lorelei

Teodoreanu abandoned the childhood theme in most of his later literary works and never again reached the same level of success, but his books are still loved.

In Lorelei, the main character is Luli, an eighteen year old student who falls in love with her teacher, Catul Bogdan, becoming engaged to him just three days after their first meeting. Bogdan is a workaholic writer, and soon Luli starts to feel abandoned and unloved. With the help of her friend, Gabriela, Luli writes some poems, signing them with the psedudonym "Lorelei". Catul is amazed by the quality of the poems, and Luli becomes sadder until she eventually sickens and dies. Catul later marries Gabriela, but suffers from nightmares and loses his ability to write. Finally, he realises that Gabriela is only after his money, learns the true identity of "Lorelei", and commits suicide.

Selected published novels

  • La Medeleni ("In Medeleni")
  • Bal mascat ("Masquerade Ball")
  • Fata din Zlataust ("The Girl of Zlataust")
  • Lorelei
  • Golia
  • Turnul Milenei ("Milena's Tower")
  • Iarbă ("Grass")

Autobiographies

  • În casa bunicilor ("My Grandparents' House")
  • Masa umbrelor ("Table of Shadows")

External links

Ionel Teodoreanu Ionel Teodoreanu
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