SOURCE: "The Centenary of I. L. Caragiale," in The American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. XI, 1952, pp. 66-76.

In the following essay, Tappe presents an overview of Caragiale's career, highlighting his most prominent works and the chief characteristics of his writing.

When Rumanians are asked, "Are there any great comic writers in Rumanian literature?" there can be no question that most of them think first of Caragiale. If I were asked, "Who is the most original of Rumanian writers?" I should be tempted to answer likewise: "Caragiale!" Perhaps what I should really mean is that his writing is exceptionally vivid and vital, so that through him Rumania, and especially Bucharest, of the late nineteenth century lives in the imagination with an intensity and individuality such as that, for example, with which another great comic writer, Mark Twain, has endowed the Mississippi Valley of a slightly earlier period...