Al. T. Stamatiad

Al. T. (Alexandru Teodor Maria) Stamatiad
Stamatiad in an etching byConstantin Artachino,first published in 1920
Born	May 9, 1885 Bucharest,Kingdom of Romania
Died	December 1955 (aged 70) Bucharest,Communist Romania
Pen name	Adrian Alexandru
Occupation	poet, journalist, translator, playwright, schoolteacher, censor
Nationality	Romanian
Period	ca. 1903–1945
Genre	lyric poetry,prose poetry,haiku,fantasy,fable,short story
Literary movement	Symbolism Literatorul Sburătorul

Al. T. Stamatiad(common rendition ofAlexandru Teodor Maria Stamatiad,orStamatiade;May 9, 1885 – December 1955) was aRomanianSymbolistpoet, short story writer, and dramatist. A late arrival on thelocal Symbolist scene,he was primarily active as a literary promoter and, in 1918, editor ofLiteratorulreview. Discovered and praised byAlexandru MacedonskiandIon Minulescu,he combined his presence in radical Symbolist circles with stints on moreculturally conservativeones, crossing between the extremes ofRomanian literature.By 1911, he had established himself in cultural and social circles as an exotic and vocal, sometimes violent, cultural debater.

Stamatiad's parallel career as a schoolteacher took him to the city ofArad,where he lived at two distinct intervals, animating cultural life in the Romanian circles. Beyond his own poetry and prose, which received mixed reviews, Stamatiad worked on popularizing foreign literature, translating Symbolists such asMaurice MaeterlinckandCharles Baudelaire,but also more traditional works ofOmar KhayyámandLi Bai,and experimenting with genres such ashaiku.He was generally considered an authority on, and imitator of,Oscar Wilde.

At the center of controversies with Macedonski, and later with the youth atSburătorulcircle, Stamatiad sided with the anti-modernistside of Romanian Symbolism, folding back on conservatism. He faded into relative obscurity duringWorld War II,and lived in isolation and poverty after the establishment of aRomanian communist regime.

Biography

Early life

Born inBucharest,Stamatiad(e) was the illegitimate son of Maria Stamatiade and of Lieutenant-Colonel Theodor Pallady. PainterTheodor Iancu Palladyand actressLucia Sturdza-Bulandrawere cousins of his, whileAlexandrina Cantacuzino,the feminist campaigner, was a half-sister.Through his paternal grandmother, Alexandru Teodor descended from the prestigiousGhica family,and, according to literary historianGeorge Călinescu,was always overly preoccupied with his origins and his illegitimacy.

The poet used as his full nameAlexandru Teodor Maria Stamatiad,including hispatronymic,adapted asTeodor(although sometimes shortened toTh.,as inAl. Th. Stamatiad). His eccentric styling with thematronymicMariawas a subject of ridicule among his literary peers.To his friends, he interchangeably wasStamatiadorStamatiade,even as late as 1920.Dropping the finaleof his foreign-sounding surname, which most likely indicates aHellenicheritage, signifies a voluntaryRomanianization.

In 1903, at theKübler Coffeehouse,Stamatiad metAlexandru Macedonski,senior leader of the Romanian Symbolist school. Using the pen nameAdrian Alexandru,he made his first contributions to literature in the reviewPleiada(1904), then inIonescu-Caion's literary newspaper,Românul Literar.He was enlisted at aboarding schoolin the distant city ofIași,while his family remained in Bucharest.Around 1905, he returned to Bucharest, to attendMatei Basaraband Sfântul Gheorghe high schools.He began frequenting the literary club formed at Macedonski's Rafael Street townhouse, where he also introduced two young poets and boarding school mates,Mihail CruceanuandEugeniu Sperantia.As noted by Cruceanu, Stamatiad was cultivating valuable connections in the literary press, looking upon his colleagues "with a protective air."Other regulars includedMircea Demetriade,Al. Gherghel,Șerban Bascovici,Donar Munteanu,and critic V. V. Haneș, who was impressed by Stamatiad's self-confidence, which "even seemed a bit too much for his age."Cruceanu also recalls that Stamatiad "never did doubt his significance".

Making his full debut under Macedonski's auspices, Stamatiad was also active in rival Symbolist milieus. Another Symbolist mentor,Ovid Densusianu,hosted his poem,Singurătate( "Solitude" ), in the Symbolist tribuneVieața Nouă.In 1906, it also published Stamatiad's versions ofHorace'sOdes.According to researcher Nicolae Laslo, they read "more like adaptations" than sheer translations, being both simplified and personalized.

Stamatiad and Macedonski continued to correspond even during those periods when Macedonski was out of the country, on a self-imposed exile, while Stamatiad had not yet passed hisbaccalaureate examination.Together with Cruceanu and Sperantia, he took up the cause of popularizing Macedonski's Symbolism inHenric Streitman's newspaper,Prezentul.Soon, Stamatiad became a favorite among the disciples: Macedonski referred to him as "a very great poet", "brilliant and powerful",seeing him as the RomanianRollinat.As noted by Călinescu, these were patent exaggerations. Stamatiad, he argues, was in fact "mediocre".

AtConvorbiri Critice

Macedonski continued to tout Stamatiad when the younger poet also joined theNeoclassicistsatConvorbiri Critice.At a club session in 1910, Stamatiad,Anastasie Mândru,andI. Dragoslavdemanded that Macedonski's work be read and reassessed, thus putting an end to Macedonski's critical marginalization.The circle's leader,Mihail Dragomirescu,allowed Stamatiad to publish in the eponymous magazine, as well as in his other sheet,Falanga Literară și Artistică.Stamatiad was enthusiastically welcomed to the "far left" of Dragomirescu's club by a fellow Symbolist,Ion Minulescu.In 1910, however,Falangapublished a heated exchange of messages between Stamatiad and Minulescu, over the issue of Minulescu's rivalry with another Symbolist,N. Davidescu.

Like Minulescu,Stamatiad also courted the traditionalist, nominally anti-Symbolist, camp, publishing works inSămănătorulreview. According to nationalist culture critic andSămănătorulcontributorNicolae Iorga,Stamatiad's presence there indicated that the magazine was yet "unclear" in its direction: Stamatiad could contribute, even if "the magazine's ideology was indifferent to him, if not indeed hostile to him."Another reading is provided by literary historianPaul Cernat,who sees Stamatiad's participation in traditionalism as indicative of "an split identity within the 'conservative' side of local Symbolism."At the other end of the political spectrum, Stamatiad also cultivated a friendship with the socialist poet-publicistVasile Demetrius,who featured his poetry in the reviewViața Socială.In 1909, Stamatiad was a registered witness at Demetrius' civil wedding ceremony (another was criticIlarie Chendi).

With such universal backing, he put out his first volume of verse,Din trâmbițe de aur( "With Trumpets of Gold" ). Although it went through four editions between 1910 and 1931,and was reviewed with sympathy by Haneș,the work was not popular with most critics. It rather made Stamatiad the object of derision in the literary circles.Stamatiad persevered and worked with dramatistConstantin Râulețon the playFemei ciudate( "Strange Women" ), published inConvorbiri Criticein November 1910, and as a volume in 1911.It was first staged in Bucharest by the "Modern Theater" company ofAlexandru Davila.The text intrigued the public with its frank display of asexual masochism disorder;according to Dragomirescu, it is "well written, but strange."In 1912 and 1913, Stamatiad completed and published translations fromMaurice Maeterlinck's plays:Intruder,Interior,The Blind.They were all grouped together, as the "Cycle-of-Death" plays, in a 1914 edition atCultura Naționalăpublishers.

As early as August 1909,Stamatiad also rallied withEmil Gârleanu'sRomanian Writers' Society(SSR), with which he toured theRomanian-speakingcommunities ofAustria-Hungary.OnThomas Sunday1911,Romanian activists in the then-Hungariancity ofAradwelcomed him to a "literary workshop". An official banquet was held at the White Cross Hotel.Stamatiad's visit took place in the midst of political crisis: the territorialNational Romanian PartyofTransylvaniahad split into two wings, of which the conservative one, well-represented in Arad, made efforts to appease the Hungarian administration. Stamatiad and the other arrivals stood accused of pushing theirredentistcause, but they denied this was the case, publishing an explanatoryopen letter.

He diversified his contributions to the Symbolist literary press, rallying with Densusianu'sVersuri și Prozăcircleand having some of his poetry published inSimbolul.He also founded a single-issue magazine,Grădina Hesperidelor( "Garden of theHesperides"). Remembered for its promotion ofArt Nouveauaesthetics,it featured reviews ofDin trâmbițe de aurby Densusianu, Dragomirescu, and Chendi, as well as articles or poems by Bascovici,Dimitrie Anghel,Alfred Hefter-Hidalgo,I. M. Rașcu,andBarbu Solacolu.

BetweenLiteratorulandSburătorul

In 1914, having graduated in literature from theUniversity of Bucharest,Stamatiad was named professor of French in Arad, followed by a post in Bucharest.In January of the next year, he and Minulescu were among the newly elected members of the SSR Committee.As Macedonski's right hand, and as a regular of coffeehouses and bars such as Kübler andCasa Capșa,Stamatiad became a legendary figure inbohemiancircles, involved in cultural disputes as well as brawls.Cartoonist Neagu Rădulescu describes Stamatiad at this moment in time: "Al. T. Stamatiad, with his mustache curled up to the brim of his hat, with his cane in 'shoulder position', could not be resisted by any young lady."According to Macedonski's novelist friend,I. Peltz,he was a spectacular presence on their circle: contentious, even "furious" and "terrorizing", lacking literary value, but forcing his pupils to read his work in class.Peltz writes that the only other person who could stand up to him was a Stan Palanca, the perennially unemployed poet-bohemian.

World War Iinterfered with both Stamatiad's career and his affiliations: unlike the increasingly conservative andGermanophileMacedonski, Stamatiad supported theEntente Powers.He was a refugee inMoldaviaduringsouthern Romania's occupationby theCentral Powers.Returning to Iași, which he called "the holy citadel of my Motherland", he began work on a series of religious and wartime patriotic pieces, calledPe drumul Damascului( "On theRoad to Damascus").Still active in the literary circles, and writing for the nationalist reviewRomânia,he became involved in the cultural scene of neighboringBessarabia,supporting herunion with Romaniaafter January 1918.In March, as theMoldavian Democratic Republiceffected this union, Stamatiad was also a SSR delegate to theChișinăucelebrations, where he met composerGeorge Enescu.

After the1918 peace agreement,Stamatiad restored his links with the Symbolists in Bucharest, which was still administrated by the Central Powers. When Macedonski'sLiteratorulreappeared there in summer 1918, several months before the sudden end of occupation, Stamatiad agreed to act as editor-in-chief. He worked intensely on publishing a dossier of favorable replies to Macedonski's poems, with the goal of restoring his mentor's reputation (the project was discreetly managed by Macedonski himself).Stamatiad enlisted literary contributions from Peltz (who also helped edit the magazine), Demetrius, andTudor Vianu.

Nonetheless, Stamatiad soon renounced hisLiteratorulposition, following a political dispute with Macedonski. Specifically, he asked Macedonski not to publish a praise of the military governor,August von Mackensen,but found himself ignored.A parting letter from Macedonski shows that they could not agree over "what [Stamatiad] calls patriotism", and rejects all of Stamatiad's suggestions about maintaining a low profile. The dispute was amiable, with Macedonski implying that Stamatiad could always return toLiteratorulif he so wished.Peltz, who left at the same time as Stamatiad, also disavowed Macedonski's initiative, calling it "inane".The magazine soon went out of print—according to Iorga, the "shame" of Mackensen's homage piece "could not be washed off".The friendship was not mended before Macedonski's death in December 1920, but Stamatiad remained in correspondence with the writer's eldest son, Nikita Macedonski; one such letter includes a full and early account of the circumstances in which Macedonski died.

After parting withLiteratorul,Stamatiad became one of the old-school Symbolists affiliated with the generic-modernistreviewSburătorul,whose editor was criticEugen Lovinescu.His presence there was often a disturbance for other members, including Lovinescu andFelix Aderca.His colleagues found him too preoccupied with his posterity, and too edgy at club sessions, but welcomed him as a picturesque figure.After planning, together withIon Pillat,a never-completed anthology of international Symbolism,Stamatiad returned to the literary scene ofGreater Romaniain 1918, with the plaquetteMărgăritare negre( "Black Pearls" ), illustrated byIosif Iser.He also resumed his teaching career, and, after the repressed strike of December 1918, personally expelled revolutionary socialist students such asBelu Zilberfrom his school.

1920s

FollowingTransylvania's unification with Romania,Stamatiad made his return to Arad, where, in 1920, he worked as a government censor for the dailyRomânul.That year, the printing press ofArad Bishopricput out a new edition ofMărgăritare negre,featuringConstantin Artachino's portrait of Stamatiad.In 1921, the textbook publishing company, Casa Școalelor, issued a volume of his short stories, or "parables", asCetatea cu porțile închise( "The Inaccessible Citadel" ).It was followed in 1923 by a definitive edition ofPe drumul Damascului,with the subtitle "Religious Poetry".That year, he joined the SSR'sLiviu Rebreanu,Eugeniu Botez,I. A. Bassarabescu,as well as Pillat and Vianu, on a literary tour of the newly attached provinces.Stamatiad continued testing his abilities as a translator. His early contributions were selections ofprose poetryandaphorismsby the Symbolist forerunnerCharles Baudelaire,published as a volume byAdevărulnewspaper.He followed up with aCartea Româneascăselection fromOscar Wilde(which featured Stamatiad's version ofThe Ballad of Reading Gaol), and then with a 1923 reissue of Maeterlinck's "Cycle-of-Death".

Together with his old friend Davidescu, Stamatiad took over artistic leadership over the Bucharest magazineFlacăra,in its new edition of May 1922, and gave it a Symbolist agenda.He was intensely involved in the literary life of the old and new Romanian provinces, from Transylvania toNorthern Dobruja,allowing his poems to be hosted by numerous (if short-lived) regional magazines.Translations of his poetry saw print in the AradHungarophonemodernist tribune,Fekete Macska.Later, as a regular of Tiberiu Vuia'sÎnnoireacircle, Stamatiad became known not just as one of Arad's leading Romanian poets, but also as one who strengthened the Romanian side in the "culture war" withRegency Hungary.He was at the time married to the visual artist Letiția Dumitrescu (born 1879 or 1880),with whom he attended the major cultural and social events of western Transylvania.

While teaching at theMoise Nicoară High Schoolin Arad in 1925, he put out his own review,Salonul Literar( "The Literary Salon" ). It was only in print until May 1926,but made a mark on the local literary scene. Overall,Salonul Literarlooked back to the age of Denusianu and Macedonski, with additional contributions from Demetrius, Minulescu, Gherghel, andMihail Celarianu.It also hosted pieces by, among other, the Arad modernistsAron Cotruș(young Transylvania's "most talented poet", according to Stamatiad)andPerpessicius,and the traditionalistGheorghe Bogdan-Duică.Salonul Literarhad Stamatiad himself for a literary reviewer, columnist, and ideologue; as literary historians note, he aimed to copy Macedonski's leadership style.He translated and published lyrical pieces by his usual references, Baudelaire and Wilde, but also fromGuillaume ApollinaireandVilliers de l'Isle Adam.Stamatiad's contribution to criticism, however, was a relative failure, according to philologist Ion Mierluțiu: Stamatiad gave poor reviews toLucian Blaga,but was enthusiastic aboutMarcel Romanescu.

Also in Arad, Stamatiad published a series of essays and memoirs popularizing the work of several poets, fromIuliu Cezar SăvescuandOctavian Gogato Maeterlinck.Another selection of his own poetry was issued by Casa Școalelor in 1926, asPoezii( "Poems" ).By the late 1920s, Stamatiad's work as a translator concentrated on the classics ofPersian literatureandChinese poetry.In 1927,Ritmul Vremiinewspaper featured his selections fromOmar Khayyám'sQuatrains(other such translations had been put out, in other newspapers, byEmanoil BucuțaandZaharia Stancu).

1930s and World War II

Stamatiad's full Khayyám translations were published as a volume in 1932, at Cartea Românească, followed, the next year, by an anthology ofLi Bai's poems,36 of which had been hosted byConvorbiri Literarein its October 1932 issue.He was under contract withRomanian Radio,where, despite having a "cracking" voice,he recorded readings of his own poems. The literary magazineViața Româneascăgave them a sarcastic reception, calling his reading an "Orphic"feast of" flutes and trumpets ", and implied that Stamatiad should not have ever been allowed airtime.

Stamatiad's career peaked in the laterinterwar period,when he was honored with several prizes by the SSR and theRomanian Academy.In 1936,Adevărulpublished, as a standalone brochure, hisPeisagii sentimentale( "Sentimental Landscapes" ).A year later, Dem. Bassarabeanu issued a critical review of his entire work, thought to have been the only one such monograph in existence before 2002.Stamatiad was awarded the National Poetry Prize in 1938,and had "definitive editions" ofCetatea cu porțile închiseandPe drumul Damasculuirepublished by Casa Școalelor.The latter came out with a set of illustrations byMina Byck Wepper.In 1939, Stamatiad produced his own version of the Chinese poets' anthology,The Jade Flute;it brought together disparate pieces that had seen print inMihail Sadoveanu'sÎnsemnări Ieșenereview during 1935 and 1936.

By then, the old Symbolists were losing favor with the modernist youth. His sympathetic reviewer, V. Jeleru, complained in 1943 that "Mr. Al. T. Stamatiad no longer seems to be as appreciated as is deserved by the younger writers and readers of poetry. They look upon him with an infantile superiority, even though they only address him publicly as 'maestro'."Stamatiad was in particular adverse to the radical modernist "new poetry", cultivated by Lovinescu atSburătorul,and, modernist writerBarbu Brezianucontends, stood on the "far right" of literature, in a "grand conservative party" that variously included Sadoveanu,Paul Zarifopol,andD. Nanu.Another young writer,Pericle Martinescu,believed the old but "child-like" Stamatiad a "survivor from another era", although he respected his expertise on Wilde's work.This same was noted by C. D. Fortunescu. He called Stamatiad a "valuable" Wilde translator, but also "the unique specimen left around from a vanished type of bohemian Bucharest knighthood", with "a dated mustache andfour-in-hand necktie".Martinescu visited the Stamatiads at their apartment in theFoișorul de Focarea, near theGreek Church of the Annunciation.Their place, he recalled, was untidy and disappointing, showing that, far from being a free-spirited poet, Stamatiad was "riddled with the boredom of family life".

The start ofWorld War IIbrought theSovietoccupation of BessarabiaandNorthern Transylvania's transfer to Hungary, as well as Romania'sfascistalliance with theAxis Powers.Stamatiad was grieved and confused by the situation: he organized theAnglophileintellectual circle at Nestor Coffeehouse, but also preached support forNazi Germany;the Germans, Stamatiad claimed, were to give Romania back "all the territories she lost". As noted by sociologistNicolae Petrescu,who was in the audience, Stamatiad was "as always, incapable of putting things in perspective"; "nobody even took his statements seriously."In 1941,Ion Antonescu's regime clamped down on the Nestor circle; Stamatiad's colleagueȘerban Cioculescu,who was also a member of theNational Peasants' Party,narrowly escaped deportation for his involvement in such activities.

A collection of Stamatiad's best poems came out in 1943, atEditura Fundațiilor Regale,under the titleCortegiul amintirilor( "The Cortege of Memories" ).Additionally, he worked on translations which reflected the new political trends. Also in 1943, he publishedEșarfe de mătase( "Silk Scarves" ) one of Romania's earliest selections ofJapanese poetry.Japanese mannerisms had preoccupied Stamatiad for some years, andPeisagii sentimentalecomprised some of his ownhaiku(and, to a lesser degree,senryū).He had unsuccessfully approachedEditura Vremeawith a collection oftankaattributed to "Japanese courtesans",possibly loose adaptations of thehonkadoriformat.Eșarfe de mătasecomprised 200 pieces in indirect translation from French.It sampled not justhaikuandtanka,but alsonagautatexts, with highlights from the legendarySusanooand the historicalKi no Tsurayuki.Some of its modern-era inclusions wereMatsuo Bashō,Yokoi Yayū,Kobayashi Issa,and contemporaries such asAkiko YosanoandHoriguchi Daigaku.

Final years

Shortly after theKing Michael Couptook Romania out of the Axis, the Romanian Academy awarded him one of theIon Heliade RădulescuAwards for 1944, in recognition ofEșarfe de mătase.His rapporteur wasConstantin Rădulescu-Motru,standing in for the recently deceased Pillat.Stamatiad's final anthology was a 1945Din poezia americană( "Selections ofAmerican Poetry").His rendition ofEdgar Allan Poe'sThe Raven,originally published byRevista Fundațiilor Regale,was the only one of 18 such translations to be written infree verse.It therefore bypassed the difficulties of rendering Poe'smeterinto readable Romanian.

By the war's end, and the gradual imposition of acommunist regime,Stamatiad was occasionally involved in dialogue with the variousethnic minorities.As noted by writerIon Călugăru,Stamatiad was one of the few participants in this effort who were not representing the communist movement.In old age, he began a process of minutely recording and cataloging his contacts with other figures on the literary scene, in private notebooks and dossiers.His wife Letiția died in 1952.According to writerGheorghe Grigurcu,who sought his company in November 1954, Stamatiad was living, in noticeable poverty, at his old Foișorul de Foc apartment. Grigurcu also recalls that the aged poet, his personal hero, had trouble breathing and speaking, and could not honor his request for information: "Stamatiad was by then a ghostly character, a lyricalhidalgoof yore, returning among us in his unappealing, suffering, stage, his shoulder still held stiff with pride, with a Poesque Raven quothing a barely audibleNevermore."

Stamatiad reportedly died in December 1955,although his death date is often recorded as 1956.Rumor spread in the literary community that he had spent his last months bedridden, helpless against visitors who stole his more valuable possessions.His notebooks were posthumously recovered by researcher Mihai Apostol, who published them, together with Stamatiad's letters, in a 2002 set of volumes.

Work

Călinescu describes two sources for Stamatiad's own brand of Symbolism: on one hand, the "grandiloquent" form of Oscar Wilde,Dimitrie Anghel,Ștefan Petică,and a youngIon Pillat;on the other, the "euphoric" aesthetics cultivated by Macedonski's circle.Contrary to Stamatiad's nods to Baudelaire, Călinescu assesses, actual Baudelaireian influences were largely absent from Stamatiad's true work.Likewise,Perpessiciusties Stamatiad more to the "orator" tradition of Macedonski than to any other recognized influence.Observing such traits, Eugen Lovinescu noted that, despite his use ofneologisms,free verse,and other modern devices, Stamatiad was in fact an old-generationRomantic.

Stamatiad's early work is largely focused on amorous themes, often depicting affairs as a struggle of character, or an agony.According to Lovinescu: "Mr. Al. T. Stamatiad's sensitivity has a short path to follow: a violent outburst, followed by a moral breakdown."Unlike his mentor Macedonski, who was "saddened by the indifference of his contemporaries", Stamatiad "expressed the joy of being a Poet", of having "conquered" his place in life. This belief in his own artistic mission, Călinescu suggests, was "illusory", leading Stamatiad to invent himself a literary persona and a "boisterous" love-life; but it also produced "a likable psychology", with "fragments of genuine literary interest".He cites as evidence one of Stamatiad's Christian-themed reveries:

Am ridicat un templu — minune de minune —
Întreg este din aur și pietre nestimate,
Cu turnurile mândre, vederea ți-o răpune;
Când îl privesc păgânii, spun vorbe blestemate!

Cu porțile de-aramă, cu treptele de-agată,
Icoane pretutindeni și-aceeași în tot locul,
În miile de candeli sfios clipește focul,
Vibrarea de miresme te leagănă, te-mbată.

I worked on a temple — o wonder of wonders —
Entirely of gold and of most precious stones,
Its towers standing tall, the sight of which astounds;
Pagans that gaze upon it will surely end up cursing!

Beyond its copper gates, and its agate stairs,
There's icons everyone, and one throughout the place,
A gentle fire shimmers, in the thousand candles,
A swelling vibe of odors will cradle and besot you.

Stamatiad was more appreciated for his contemplative poems, including the pastelNoapte( "Night" ), seen by Dragomirescu as a small masterpiece.Călinescu writes that Stamatiad's work comprises mentionable "psalms":although lacking" deep mysticism ", such poems may unintentionally remind one ofPaul ClaudelandCharles Péguy.They earned full praise from Perpessicius, who noted their "great simplicity" and "innocence",and even from Iorga, who noted their "beautiful dedication" to war-torn Romania, with echoes from "the great BelgianVerhaeren".Lovinescu voices a distinct opinion, viewing the psalms as "merely a stylistic exercise", "programmatic", "infacsimile"to the classics of religious poetry.

Thefantasyprose poetryofCetatea cu porțile închiseis heavily indebted to Oscar Wilde's "gracious infatuation", but, Călinescu argues, is generally humorless.Essentiallyfablesdiscussing each anarchetype(The Gardner, The Three Princesses, The White Deer, The Bird-catcher, Happiness, The White Ghost, The Stonemason), they are described by Fortunescu as a major accomplishment: "the poems comprised in this volume display a rare stylistic mastery and verbal richness."

References

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• Lucreția Angheluță, Salomeea Rotaru, Liana Miclescu, Marilena Apostolescu, Marina Vazaca,Bibliografia românească modernă (1831–1918). Vol. IV: R-Z,Editura științifică și enciclopedică,Bucharest, 1996.ISBN973-27-0501-9
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