Mateiu Ion Caragiale (; – 17 January 1936), also credited as Matei or Matheiu, or in the antiquated version Mateiŭ,Ș. Cioculescu (p. 360) criticizes the pronunciation : "Deceived by the old orthography, with its final short u, Mateiu, several young people pronounce the final vowel, as if part of a diphthong: Ma-te-iu."Sorin Antohi, "Romania and the Balkans. From Geocultural Bovarism to Ethnic Ontology", in Tr@nsit online, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Nr. 21/2002 was a Romanian poet and prose writer, best known for his novel Craii de Curtea-Veche, which portrays the milieu of boyar descendants before and after World War I. Caragiale's style, associated with Symbolism, the Decadent movement of the fin de siècle, and early modernism, was an original element in the Romanian literature of the interwar period. In other late contributions, Caragiale pioneered detective fiction locally, but there is disagreement over whether his work in the field produced a complete narrative or just fragments. The scarcity of writings he left is contrasted by their critical acclaim and a large, mostly posthumous, following, commonly known as mateists.
Also known as an amateur heraldist and graphic artist, the young Caragiale published his works sporadically, seeking instead to impose himself in politics and pursuing a career in the civil service. He was associated with the Conservative-Democratic Party, and then the People's League, and ultimately raised controversy by supporting the Central Powers during their occupation of Romania. He afterwards focused on literature, and, during the late 1920s and early 1930s, published most of his prose texts in the magazine Gândirea.
The illegitimate and rebellious child of influential playwright Ion Luca Caragiale, he was the half-brother of Luca Caragiale, an avant-garde poet who died in 1921, and the posthumous son-in-law of author Gheorghe Sion. Mateiu Caragiale was loosely affiliated with Romanian Symbolism, a figure noted for his dandyism, eccentricity and Bohemianism, and, for much of his life, a regular presence in the intellectual circle formed around Casa Capșa restaurant. His associates included the controversial political figure Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești, cultural animator Mărgărita Miller Verghy, and poet Ion Barbu, who was also one of his most dedicated promoters.
Biography
Early life A native of Bucharest, he was born out of wedlock to Ion Luca Caragiale and Maria Constantinescu, an unmarried former Town Hall employeeCălinescu, pp. 489, 490, 897; Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 359, 366, 375. It is also probable that Maria Constantinescu was at the time a tobacco industry worker (I. Vianu, pp. 11, 63). who was 21 at the time.Nastasă, p. 19; Perpessicius, p. XVII Living his first years at his mother's house on Frumoasă Street, near Calea Victoriei (until the building was sold),Ș. Cioculescu, p. 375; I. Vianu, p. 11 Mateiu had a half-sister, his mother's daughter from another extra-conjugal affair.Ș. Cioculescu, p. 362 In 1889, almost a year after separating from his concubine, his father married Alexandrina Burelly, bringing Mateiu into his new family.Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 366–367; Nastasă, pp. 18–19; Perpessicius, p. V; I. Vianu, pp. 11, 15–16, 105 In following years, he was progressively estranged from his father, and, according to Ecaterina, the youngest of Ion Luca Caragiale and Burelly's children, "Mateiu alone confronted [his father] and contradicted him systematically."Ș. Cioculescu, p. 367
The young Caragiale was sent to school at Anghel Demetriescu's Sfântul Gheorghe College in Bucharest, where he discovered a passion for history and heraldry.Ș. Cioculescu, p. 367; Perpessicius, pp. V, IX, XVII; I. Vianu, pp. 22, 52–54, 94, 105 Elisabeta Lăsconi, "Un straniu cvartet", in România Literară, Nr. 40/2008 At around that time, he was probably introduced to Demetriescu's circle, which included the doctor Constantin Istrati, the writer Barbu Ștefănescu-Delavrancea, the physicist Ștefan Hepites, the literary critic N. Petrașcu, and the architect Ion Mincu.Perpessicius, p. XVII During a 1901 summer trip to Sinaia, where he sojourned with the Bibescu family, Mateiu was acquainted with George Valentin and Alexandru Bibescu (in a letter he wrote at the time, he described the latter as "only too crazy and a frantic maniac").Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 344, 368 His favorite book at age 17 was L'Arriviste, by the French novelist Félicien Champsaur, which, as he himself acknowledged, contributed to his vision of social climbing.I. Vianu, pp. 17, 22–23, 52–54, 94, 105 In 1903, with Ion Luca, Burelly and their children, he traveled through large portions of Western Europe, visiting Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, Italy and France; during the trip, he recorded the impressions left on him by the various European art trends.Călinescu, pp. 494, 898
In 1904, his father moved to Berlin, bringing Mateiu with him—in hopes that he could be persuaded to study law at the Frederick William University—, but Mateiu spent his time reading and exploring the Imperial German capital.Călinescu, p. 898; Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 344, 358; Perpessicius, pp. V–VI, XVII; I. Vianu, pp. 16–17 He would later refer to this period using a French term, l'école buissonière ("the vagrant school"),Ș. Cioculescu, p. 344; Perpessicius, p. VI; I. Vianu, p. 17 and stressed that "[it] was of great use to me".Perpessicius, p. VI; I. Vianu, p. 17 Ecaterina Caragiale indicated that one of her brother's favorite pastimes was "admiring the secular trees in the Tiergarten",Ș. Cioculescu, p. 368 and he is also known to have spent entire days at the National Gallery, especially fond of paintings by Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael.Călinescu, p. 898 Dissatisfied with Mateiu's attitude, Ion Luca sent him back to Romania in 1905, where he enrolled at the University of Bucharest Law School, but quit one year later.Călinescu, p. 898; Perpessicius, pp. XVII–XVIII; I. Vianu, pp. 16, 25 For a short while, Caragiale-father even entrusted Ștefănescu-Delavrancea with supervising his estranged son.
Father-son conflict and literary debut
The conflict with his father was to prolong itself for as long as the latter was alive.Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 356–382; I. Vianu, pp. 9–20 Paul Cernat, "Spre Ion Iovan, prin Mateiu Caragiale", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 153, February 2003 Psychiatrist and essayist Ion Vianu, who explored the relationship with the tools of psychoanalysis, describes Mateiu's sentiment toward Ion Luca as "antipathy, bordering on hatred", and proposes that this reflected maternal influences from the brief period when Maria Constantinescu had been left a single parent.I. Vianu, pp. 10–11
The situation most likely degenerated in 1904, after the death of his aunt Lenci, when Ion Luca took over his son's inheritance, and aggravated by his father's decision to cease subsidizing him, which left the latter without a stable source of income.Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 352, 357–358, 360–362, 363–364; I. Vianu, pp. 17, 22, 23, 105 He was thus supposed to provide for his mother and sister, until Ion Luca transferred the inheritance resulting from the death of his other aunt Catinca Momuloaia, to his former lover. He also indicated that his father had made him attend the Frederick William University without advancing money for tuition.Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 364–365 Some time after returning to Romania, he began attending the Symbolist literary circle formed around the poet and leftist political agitator Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești, who provided the young Caragiale with money and often invited him to supper.Ș. Cioculescu, p. 369; I. Vianu, p. 39 Andrei Oișteanu, "Scriitorii români și narcoticele (5). Prima jumătate a secolului XX" , in Revista 22, Nr. 951, May 2008
In spring 1907, despite the ongoing father-son tensions, Mateiu, who was recovering from a severe form of measles, returned to Berlin, where Ion Luca's family was still residing.Călinescu, p. 898; Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 358, 362–363, 368; Perpessicius, p. XVIII He soon became the lover of a local woman, an affair which reportedly caused his father to declare himself scandalized.Ș. Cioculescu, p. 363 During the same year, Mateiu Caragiale was fascinated with rumors of the Romanian Peasants' Revolt violence, recording various exaggerated news about its character and extent, and describing it as "a fine thing".Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 372–373 In 1909, he was again enrolled at university, having decided to prepare for a graduation diploma, but again failed to complete his studies.I. Vianu, p. 25
Mateiu Caragiale had his first thoughts on Craii de Curtea-Veche in 1910.Perpessicius, p. XVIII; I. Vianu, pp. 35, 105 Two years later, during a trip to Iași,Ș. Cioculescu, p. 365 he published his first 13 poems in the literary magazine Viața Românească, winning the praise of poet Panait CernaCălinescu, p. 898; Perpessicius, p. XIX and the ridicule of writer Tudor Arghezi. Barbu Cioculescu, "Din viața lui Mateiu I. Caragiale: Șeful de cabinet", in România Literară, Nr. 14/2001 Literary critic Șerban Cioculescu stressed that these had been printed following his father's interventions with the magazine's staff,Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 365, 368 and, according to the contemporary account of Luca's brother-in-law, philosopher Ionel Gherea, Ion Luca admired his son's contributions, his criticism being minimal, constructive, and welcomed by Mateiu.I. Vianu, pp. 18–19, 105 This led Gherea to conclude that, copying in real life a Symbolist cliché, Caragiale-son fabricated an unfair image of his father.I. Vianu, p. 19 In later years, Mateiu continued to write poetry, published by literary promoter Constantin Banu in his magazine, Flacăra.Lovinescu, p. 105
His father died in June 1912, which, according to Șerban Cioculescu (who cited Mateiu's correspondence), left him indifferent.Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 356–357, 368 By then, Caragiale-son resented Ion Luca's alleged exploitation of his popularity for material gains, and, later in the same year, commented that, "for a small fee", Caragiale-father could be persuaded to read his works at the fair in Obor.Ș. Cioculescu, p. 357 Paul Cernat, "De la Barbu Cioculescu citire", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 319, May 2006 In a since-lost piece of his diary that was commented upon by Cioculescu, he also claimed that binge drinking and tobacco abuse had made his father decay physically and mentally. Despite his love for Berlin, he was also dissatisfied with his father's move to the city, and spread the rumor that, in the eyes of his family and friends, Ion Luca's departure was interpreted as "insane" (while alleging that Caragiale-father was planning to author plays in German, with assistance from Mite Kremnitz, the one-time lover of poet Mihai Eminescu).Ș. Cioculescu, pp. 363–364 At the funeral ceremony, he reputedly shocked pianist Cella Delavrancea by coldly stating in French: Je suis venu voir feu mon père ("I came to see my late father").Ș. Cioculescu, p. 369; I. Vianu, p. 20
Entry into the civil service