SOURCE: "Classicism and Realism," in Romanian Review, Vol. 41, No. 6, 1987, pp. 95-104.

In the following essay, Cazimir discusses Caragiale's reliance on classical literary principles and the realistic presentation of character in such works as A Stormy Night and A Lost Letter.

The attempt to define by a terse formula the essence of Caragiale's view of man invariably resorts, in the most penetrating exegesis, to invoking classicism as the proximate genus and realism as the specific difference. Yet another survey of his œuvre confirms this opinion, supporting it with several considerations on Caragiale's way of conceiving of the situation of types in space and time, on their degree of stability and pregnantz as resulting from such determinations, on the more general aspects of their affective and moral moulding, and lastly, along a somewhat secondary line of thought, on the author's attitude to his own creations, on the distinct tonality of...