Constantin Gane
Constantin Gane (March 27, 1885–April 12, 1962) was a Romanian prose writer and memoirist.
Life
Born into an old boyar family in Botoșani, he graduated from the local A. T. Laurian High School in 1903. He went on to study law in Germany, obtaining a doctorate from the University of Rostock in 1910. After returning home, he worked as a lawyer for some fifteen years, both in his native town and in the national capital Bucharest. In 1913, he took part as a volunteer in the Second Balkan War, and also fought in World War I. His combat experience was recorded in Amintirile unui fost holeric (1914; Romanian Academy prize) and Prin viroage și coclauri (1922).[1]
Gane was passionate about history, traveling domestically and abroad, rifling through archives and libraries, visiting museums and artistic monuments and researching oral tradition. In 1940 and 1941, under the National Legionary State, he served as ambassador to Greece; while there, he advocated on behalf of the Aromanians. A member of the Iron Guard, he was sentenced by the new communist regime in 1949. He died in Aiud prison thirteen years later,[1] and was buried in an unmarked grave.[2]
Work
He published prose (especially of a historical character), articles, notes and reviews, correspondence, travel accounts, plays and novel fragments in Epoca, Politica, Universul literar, Curentul, Cele trei Crișuri, Convorbiri Literare, Revista Fundațiilor Regale, Luceafărul and Flacăra. In 1937, he founded and led the Bucharest-based Sânzana magazine. He held conferences and, between 1929 and 1937, a series of radio lectures on historical, cultural and literary themes, including the first trial of Mihail Kogălniceanu, Dimitrie Cantemir, and the novels of Stefan Zweig. He joined the Romanian Writers' Society in 1934.[1]
Gane's war memoirs were noted for their sincerity and patriotic emphasis. His first book featured a detailed description of his bout with cholera, which he contracted while fighting in Bulgaria. Întâmplarea cea mare (1927) is a more subtle travel account where the author digresses into meditations on Romanian and foreign history. The artifacts of ancient Egypt and especially Greece lead him to literary and mythological reflections. He also describes these countries' present-day realities, sometimes in a humorous tone.[1]
When writing about Romanian history, his historic and literary talents combined to produce evocative social and political portraits. The 1923 Pe aria vremei traces his family's genealogical tree up to the foundation of Moldavia, while Acum o sută de ani (vol. I-II, 1935) recounts the main events that occurred in the Danubian Principalities a century earlier (1834-1835). His interest in the human character was explored in Farmece (1933), an account of Despot Vodă; and in Dincolo de zbuciumul veacului (1939), which selects grandiose and tragic figures from the turbulent Middle Ages. He devoted attention to female characters, whom he explored at length, particularly in Trecute vieți de doamne și domnițe (vol. I-III, 1932-1939), Domnița Alexandrina Chica și contele D'Antraigues (1937) and Amărâte și vesele vieți de jupânese și cucoane (1943).[1]
While his historical accounts suffer from minute genealogies, an excess of documentary detail, polemical interventions and confusing or incoherent passages, his masterpiece remains Trecute vieți de doamne și domnițe, volume I of which was granted a prize by the Romanian Academy. The subjects are unusual and captivating, revealed in stories full of color, recounted in a language of archaic vigor. The book features a vast array of noble ladies from the time of the first voievods until the union of the Principalities, against the backdrop of chaotic historical events. Among the more memorable figures are Doamna Chiajna and Elisabeta Movilă, and the tragic end of Ruxandra Lupu is finely drawn. Love stories, abductions and releases, spectacular executions (such as those of Constantin Brâncoveanu and his sons), rises and falls succeed one another in a steady rhythm that recreates the atmosphere of the periods it depicts.[1] The book appeared in censored form from Editura Junimea in 1971-1973; Humanitas published an unabridged edition in 2014.[2]
His historical novel Rădăcini (1947) did not have much impact, although it was favorably reviewed by Perpessicius. His play Phrynea remains in manuscript form. In 1936, he published an ample two-volume historiographic work, P.P. Carp și locul său în istoria politică a țării; some of the chapters, such as the one devoted to Junimea, are of documentary interest.[1]