SOURCE: "Between Minitext and Maxitext," in Romanian Review, Vol. 41, No. 6, 1987, pp. 67-77.

In the following essay, Manolache examines Caragiale's narrative style.

"… take me for a sea-trip, timely and wisely. "

I. L. Caragiale, "A Few Opinions" (1896)

The note which Caragiale made on the manuscript of a story ("N.B.: Great attention should be paid to whatever may be suppressed—that is as much as possible") was for a long time considered a key to his writing. Actually to our surprise we discover "two Caragiales" at this level too, for one of the many instances of the Caragiale vs. Caragiale situation lies in the author's placing himself half way between a minimum and maximum of literary expression. In this respect, Caragiale is the first Romanian writer to have left us a considerable number of theoretical pages and remarks on the main theme of the "text contour" of a play or...