Caragiale, Ion Luca (1852-1912)

Romanian dramatist and short-story writer. His collections of sketches, together with his stage comedies O noapte furtunoasa/A Stormy Night (1880), O scrisoare pierdutǎ/A Lost Letter (1884), and D-ale carnavalului/Carnival Scenes (1885), now regarded as classics, show him as a master of comic dialogue.

Some of Caragiale's stories, such as ‘La Hanul lui Mînjoalǎ/Mînjoalǎ's Inn’ contain supernatural elements. Nǎpasta/The False Accusation (1890) is a psychological drama, and the play Kir Ianulea (1909) is the masterpiece of his last period.

Caragiale's earliest sketches appeared in 1873 in the satirical review Ghimpele. He was editor of the magazine Timpul and, briefly, director general of the National Theatre in Bucharest in 1888. In 1894, with George Coşbuc and Ioan Slavici, he produced the family magazine Vatra.