Nicolae Filimon (; 6 September 1819 – 19 March 1865) was a

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

n Romanian novelist and short-story writer, remembered as the author of the first Realist novel in

Romanian literature Romanian literature () is the entirety of literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language or by any authors native to Romania. Early Romanian literature inc ...

, ''Ciocoii vechi şi noi'' ("The Old and the New Parvenus"), which was centered on the self-seeking figure Dinu Păturică (who drew comparisons with

Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, , ), was a French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' ('' The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de Parme'' ('' T ...

Julien Sorel Julien Sorel is the protagonist of ''The Red and the Black'' by Stendhal, published in 1830. Originally, the novel was meant to be eponymous. Biography An intelligent, handsome, and ambitious young man, he was born in Verrières, a small imagin ...

). He was also a noted travel writer,

folklorist Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...

, musician, and the first musical critic in his country.

Biography

Born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

as the son of an

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of the Enei Church, Filimon was a

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. Cantor as a profession generally refers to those leading a Jewish congregation, although it also applies to the lead singer or choir director in Christian contexts. ...

and an

autodidact Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions). Overview Autodi ...

. According to

Ion Ghica Ion Ghica (; 12 August 1816 – 7 May 1897) was a Romanian statesman, mathematician, diplomat and politician, who was Prime Minister of Romania five times. He was a full list of members of the Romanian Academy, member of the Romanian Academy an ...

's ''Letters'', he was briefly employed by theater companies after his father's death in 1830, singing in a theater choir and playing the

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

. In 1852, he was chosen administrator of the Enei Church, remaining in office until his death. The same year, he became a minor public official at the Faith Department in

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei's Chancellery. In late 1857, Filimon made his literary debut with pieces written for the ''Naţionalul'' newspaper. During the following year, he travelled to the

German Confederation The German Confederation ( ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved ...

, and published his account as ''Excursiuni în Germania meridională'' ("Voyages to Southern Germany"), which also included the Romanticist

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

s ''Mănăstirea domenicanilor după colina Fiesole'' (later known as ''Mateo Cipriani'') and ''O baroneasă de poronceală''. His experience and relative success as a journalist and critic would serve as the basis of chapters in his novels, which actually form in-depth analyses of cultural trends; he would collaborate on journals edited by Cezar Bolliac and Ion Ionescu de la Brad. During the period, he also published ''Nenorocirile unui slujnicar sau gentilomii de mahala'' ("The Misfortunes of a Servant or The Gentlemen on the Outskirts"; 1861), a rather typical depiction of servants and their lives, as well as his first collected

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

s - ''Omul de flori cu barba de mătasă sau povestea lui Făt-Frumos'' ("The Flower Man with Silky Beard or The Tale of Făt-Frumos") and ''Omul de piatră'' ("The Man of Stone"). ''Ciocoii vechi şi noi'', a novel about John Caradja, was written in 1862, and published as a volume in 1863. It became an instant success, but Filimon could not enjoy it for long after: although he continued to write for various journals, he was stricken down with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

, and died soon after.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Filimon, Nicolae 1819 births 1865 deaths 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Writers from the Principality of Wallachia Writers from Bucharest Romanian collectors of fairy tales Journalists from Bucharest Romanian music critics Romanian male musicians Romanian novelists Romanian male novelists Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church Romanian male short story writers Romanian theatre critics Romanian travel writers 19th-century Romanian journalists Romanian male journalists 19th-century Romanian novelists 19th-century Romanian short story writers 19th-century Romanian male writers Tuberculosis deaths in Romania 19th-century people from the Principality of Wallachia