Rebreanu is one of the foremost Romanian novelists of the 20th Century, usually credited with the founding of both the ‘realist’ school of literature set in the rural environment (a bit like Thomas Hardy), as well as the psychological novel. The novella Ciuleandra, published in 1927, falls into the second category and is the story of a young aristocrat who strangles his beautiful and blameless wife (of peasant origin) on the night of the royal ball. His father arranges to have him committed to an asylum to avoid a public trial and thereby besmirching the family name – a more extreme and tragic example of helicopter parenting perhaps.

Cadmus Press, 2021