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O scrisoare pierdută

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"ACTUL I
(O anticameră bine mobilată. Uşă în fund cu două ferestre mari de laturi. La dreapta, în planul din fund o uşă, la stânga altă uşă, în planul din faţă. În stânga, planul întâi, canapea şi un fotoliu.)

SCENA I
Tipătescu, puţin agitat, se plimbă cu "Răcnetul Carpaţilor" în mână; e în haine de odaie; Pristanda: în picioare, mai spre uşă, stă rezemat în sabie

Tipătescu: (terminând de citit o frază din jurnal) "... Ruşine pentru oraşul nostru să tremure în faţa unui om!... Ruşine pentru guvernul vitreg, care dă unul din cele mai frumoase judeţe ale României pradă în ghearele unui vampir!..." (indignat.) Eu vampir, 'ai?... Caraghioz!

Pristanda: (asemenea) Curat caraghioz!... Pardon, să iertaţi, coane Fănică, că întreb: bampir... ce-i aia, bampir?

Tipătescu: Unul... unul care suge sângele poporului... Eu sug sângele poporului!...

Pristanda: Dumneata sugi sângele poporului!... Aoleu!

Tipătescu: Mişel!
[...]"

100 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2018

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About the author

Ion Luca Caragiale

150 books183 followers
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist. Leaving behind an important cultural legacy, he is considered one of the greatest playwrights in Romanian language and literature, as well as one of its most important writers and a leading representative of local humor. Alongside Mihai Eminescu, Ioan Slavici and Ion Creangă, he is seen as one of the main representatives of Junimea, an influential literary society with which he nonetheless parted during the second half of his life.

His work, spanning four decades, covers the ground between Neoclassicism, Realism, and Naturalism, building on an original synthesis of foreign and local influences.

Although few in number, Caragiale's plays constitute the most accomplished expression of Romanian theater, as well as being important venues for criticism of late 19th century Romanian society.

They include the comedies A Stormy Night, Conu Leonida faţă cu reacţiunea, O Scrisoare Pierduta Comedie in patru acte, and the tragedy Năpasta. In addition to these, Caragiale authored the melodrama O soacră, a large number of essays, articles, short stories, novellas and sketch stories, as well as occasional works of poetry and autobiographical texts such as Din carnetul unui vechi sufleur. In many cases, his creations were first published in one of several magazines he edited — Claponul, Moftul Român, Vatra and Epoca. Most of his prose works have been published under the title Momente, schite, povestiri: they include Căldură mare, Cănuţă om sucit, Două loturi, Grand Hotel "Victoria română", as well as several pieces referring to stock characters such as Lache and Mache, Marius Chicoş Rostogan and Mitică. In some of his later fiction writings, including La hanul lui Mânjoală, Kir Ianulea, Abu-Hasan, Pastramă trufanda and Calul dracului, Caragiale adopted the fantasy genre or turned to historical fiction.

Ion Luca Caragiale was interested in the politics of the Romanian Kingdom, and oscillated between the liberal current and conservatism. Most of his satirical works target the liberal republicans and the National Liberals, evidencing both his respect for their rivals at Junimea and his connections with the literary critic Titu Maiorescu. He came to clash with National Liberal leaders such as Dimitrie Sturdza and Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, and was a lifelong adversary of the Symbolist poet Alexandru Macedonski. As a result of these conflicts, the most prominent of Caragiale's critics barred his access to the cultural establishment for several decades. During the 1890s, Caragiale rallied with the radical movement of George Panu, before associating with the Conservative Party. After having decided to settle in Berlin, he came to voice strong criticism for Romanian politicians of all colors in the wake of the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt, and ultimately joined the Conservative-Democratic Party.

Ion Luca was the nephew of Costache and Iorgu Caragiale, who were major figures of mid-19th-century Romanian theater. His sons Mateiu I. Caragiale and Luca I. Caragiale were both modernist writers.

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Profile Image for Realini Ionescu.
4,049 reviews20 followers
October 19, 2025
A Lost Letter aka O Scrisoare Pierduta by Ion Luca Caragiale – some celebrate him as the greatest Romanian writer, author of A Stormy Night aka O Noapte Furtunoasa http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/05/o... and other satirical, magic plays

10 out of 10





I have made a note on this local classic – it would be interesting to quantify the impact this might have had outside our realm…I was overwhelmed the other day to find one of the important lists, compiled in Sweden, including a local novel Barefoot aka Descult by Zaharia Stancu – about nine years ago http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/o... ou sont les neiges d’antan…



Works of art, books are revised now…I have just received a message from friend Marius about the case of the teacher fired in Florida, for showing young adults a photo of the chef d’oeuvre Davis by Michelangelo, this was labeled as showing pornography and then the state of Florida has a governor at war with Woke, though he does not define it, he fights it as a means to become popular and eventually beat Trump

On the A Closer Look show of the hilarious Seth Meyer he has just had fun at the interview given by the orange drama queen, in which he tells this story of Desantis coming to the then president with ‘tears in his eyes’ to beg for a favor, to be endorsed in the race for the governorship of that bizarre place, with a ‘terrible message’, which the Orange Alien, in his munificence has changed, and because of the magnanimity of the weirdo, Waco Narcissistic sick man, Desanctimonious won the election…



They are expected to clash over the nomination for the Republican party and hence the exchange of fire, especially coming from Trump, over the disloyalty of the former protégé, also called apparently Meatball Ron in private (allegedly, the Big Liar is pondering over various nicknames yet) and the drama and comedy will only intensify as they advance towards the primaries and the polls will change…it looked for a while as if Desantis might prevail, with his mini Trump strategy, but he is a pitiful candidate…

The former president is a calamitous figure, it shows how little the world has progressed on many levels, if humanity has come to be led from 2017, Alhamdulillah for only four years and he will lose next time as well, Insha’Allah, then we could doubt on the advancement of civilization, if so many tens of millions, in the once most advanced democracy, have decided to identify with such a disgusting man



There is an august, adjectival, hideous kinky, medicine book – these are words that have come from some magnum opera, The True Story of The Kelly Gang by Peter Carey, Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud, granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and daughter of Lucien Freud, and Little Big Man by Thomas Berger http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/12/l... - Sapiens A Brief History of Human Kind



http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/02/s... in this marvel (a real treat, unlike the Marvel Universe, which is anathema for me) we find reasons to be optimistic – as well as what the future generations will think of us, cruel beings that torture and kill animals for their flesh, or even worse, for pelts, fur or no reason at all, just for ‘fun’, like say the progeniture that has inherited the same unfortunate DNA that the orange goon has- as Yuval Harari explains, humanity has never had it so good, a long period of peace, interrupted after the publication of the book by Putin the Monster.

I just remembered that I am supposed to write about something else, I mean I have started all this for the ‘benefit’ of A Lost Letter, the connection between the play and what is going on in the world, the malfeasances I touched upon, would be that we have liars, corruption, the quest and thirst for political power, machinations that will accept anything, just to get ‘elected’, and if this was thought a satire that exposes shortcomings in our political system, the way a candidate is promoted due to blackmail, it is good for the world as well.



We have a ménage a trois, in which Stefan Tipatescu, prefect of the county, somebody much more honorable in my view than Meatball Ron, has an affair with Zoe Trahanache, wife of his friend and political ally, Zaharia Trahanache, and the rival from the opposition finds a letter that testifies to the cheating, and if published, it would call a scandal…how innocent and pure were these scoundrels, when compared with the eejit who has ruined the reputation of America for so many, with his entanglements with porn stars, the disgusting talk on the Hollywood bus and elsewhere, the calamity of January 6th and so much more…

Nae Catavencu, political adversary and ruthless crook, threatens and blackmails with the letter, but he is just as inept as he is unscrupulous, and then they send from the center, some desperate, absurd, ridiculous, preposterous, demented fellow, Agamita Dandanache, and we laugh and cry at the panoply of scoundrels, parvenus, incompetents, sycophants, that have a replica in today’s world, even in America



If these fellows from the Lost Letter have some attenuating circumstances, the plot is situated in the year of grace 1883, when democracy, if extant, was in its cradle here, otherwise a less fortunate corner of the planet, on matters of progress and over imposing, oppressing, conquering neighbors – think of The Ottoman Empire, Austro- Hungary and last, but not least Czarist Russia, then the vile Soviet Union, and finally, the one who thinks the fall of the soviet empire was the biggest catastrophe of the last century, War Criminal Putin, who now has an arrest warrant on his name from the International Court of Justice

It is with wonder that we find how relevant this is, in describing politics in the US, Florida, on the red side of the spectrum, even if there will be those that will find fault and say that it is passé, not an appropriate read for our age, I bed to differ and have mentioned the parallels between the characters in the Lost Letter and ‘very stable geniuses’ around the world… http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u...

Signed by Realini, proud participant in the 1989 Revolution, as evidenced in this Newsweek article http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...

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