Ion Luca Caragiale

Ion Luca Caragiale (born Jan. 30, 1852, Haimanale, Walachia, Ottoman Empire [now in Romania]—died June 10, 1912, Berlin, Ger.) was a Romanian playwright and prose writer of great satirical power.

Caragiale’s comedies expose the effects on Romanian urban society of the hasty introduction of a modern way of life and the comical results of social and political change. Conul Leonida (1879; “Mr. Leonida”), O noapte furtunoasă (1880; “A Stormy Night”), and O scrisoare pierdută (1884; “A Lost Letter”) are among his most popular plays. With Năpasta (1890; “The False Accusation”), he created the peasant drama. His short stories, O făclie de Paște (1889; “An Easter Torch”), Păcat (1892; “The Sin”), and Kir Ianulea (1909), are among the best prose works in Romanian literature; Momente and Schițe are vivid sketches of the change from rural to urban society.