Ever since he had crossed the psychological threshold of the twenty-first century, Dan had ceased to be interested in Christmas trees, New Year and parties. Few things aroused his curiosity any longer. He lived, constantly weary, in a murky present. In any event, it was the worst period of the year for him, in which time had become the single gift of joy that you could give to anyone. Dan was forty-three and life had quite simply passed him by. He had a great need of time.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Publisher Socec Fils put the manuscript down, he took off his pince-nez, and in large violet letters wrote: NO. It was the first manuscript he had rejected since his father’s death.
Epilogue
Today Strada Fântânei (Fountain Street) is called Berthelot and leads to Romanian Radio Broadcasting headquarters.
Strada Sfântul Ionică, which once ran behind the National Theatre, has vanished, likewise Romanian Passage and the Theatre itself. On the site now stands a hotel, which features a replica of the entrance portico of what was once Bucharest’s most famous building.
Strada Teilor (Lindens Street) is now called Vasile Lascăr.
Right next to the old Universul newspaper building – a two-storey rococo house – a five-storey building with a peaked roof was constructed, into which the newspaper offices moved in the inter-bellum. On the ground floor of the old building there is now a Romanian restaurant, not one of whose customers seems to know about the people who once published a famous gazette here. But on the threshold there still remains the stone inscription in large letters: UNIVERSUL.
In Bucharest, Luigi Cazzavillan has a street and a belle époque park named after him. In the park he has a statue.
On the site of the Sărindar Monastery was built the magnificent Military Club, before the First World War. There is a fountain on the spot where the altar once stood. The icon of the Mother of God with diamonds on her shoulders was never found and it is supposed to have been taken abroad. Somewhere in the world, unbeknown, the diamonds glitter even today.
Sub-lieutenant N. I. Popescu-Lumină died in Bucharest in 1939. He reached the rank of colonel. In the inter-bellum, he wrote a column for Universul titled ‘From Days Gone By’.
Strada Sărindar is now called Constantin Mille, after the director of Adevĕrul. After 1898, when Alexandru Beldiman, the Gazette’s founder, died, Mille became synonymous with the newspaper whose owner he had long since become. Between the wars, every cinema on the Elisabeta Boulevard had an ‘Exit via Sărindar.’
For the slaying in a duel of George Em. Lahovary, the director of the French-language L’Indépendance Roumaine, Nicu Filipescu, former mayor of Bucharest and director of the Epoca newspaper, was sentenced to six months imprisonment in Văcărești. This did not dent his renown, nor did it affect his seemingly spotless subsequent political career.
General Algiu served as the Prefect of Police one more year, in 1901, the first year of the twentieth century.
Mr Costache took care to erase his name from the documents. He always suspected Dan Crețu of being an undiscovered criminal, but at the same time he was sure he was not a dangerous man.
At the Athenaeum in 1898 Dr Dimitrie Gerota gave his promised lecture on the need to do away with corsets and the Margulis family were among the audience. At the School of Fine Arts one of his students was Constantin Brancusi, who under his guidance made the cast entitled ‘Flayed Man.’ Gerota is considered to have been the first Romanian radiologist. He founded a hospital and a museum of anatomical casts. Even today, in departments of surgery and urology and in anatomy classes in France, Germany and Tokyo ‘Gerota’s fascia’ and ‘Gerota’s capsule’ are terms still current.
In 1906, Jacques, having reached the age of twenty-one, read to Nicu the following sentence, translating from the Spanish, which was his latest passion: ‘In fact they wanted both lives at once, and man wants all worlds and all centuries and to live in the whole of space and the whole of time, infinitely and eternally.’ It was the essence of the century in which both had been born and explains the feeling that gripped the folk of Bucharest on the arrival of a stranger, who seemed to know more about time than they did. ‘Who’s it by?’ asked Nicu, and Jacques replied: ‘Nobody has heard of him, a Spaniard, Miguel de Unamuno.’
Niculae Stanciu was one of the first young men in Bucharest to obtain a pilot’s licence and in the First World War he flew fighter aeroplanes. He was killed in action and was posthumously awarded the Courage and Faith Medal with swords.
The Handel minuet was later transposed for piano by Wilhelm Kempff, and Idil Biret was the pianist who lent it its strangest velvetiness.
Having made a two-year hiatus in the Great War, Universul continued to be published until 1953, when the Communists abolished it, along with every other symbol of the old world.
Pavel Mirto’s novel The Future Begins on Monday was not published. Publisher Socec Fils was irritated by its description of unimaginable ladies’ clothing, not to mention the notion of soft plates and cups, to be discarded after use. And all the rest.
Appendices.
1897 (from contemporary periodicals)
The Orthodox calendar for 1897
St Basil the Great — 1 January
Epiphany — 6 January
St John — 7 January
The Triodyon begins — 2 February
Meatfare Sunday — 16 February
Cheesefare Sunday — 23 February
Palm Sunday — 6 April
Easter — 13 AprilQ
St George — 23 April
Forty Martyrs — 7 May
Sts Constantine and Elena — 21 May
Ascension — 22 May
Whitsuntide — 1 June
Beginning of the fast Sts Peter and Paul — 8 June
Sts Peter and Paul the Apostles — 28 June
Dormition of the Theotokos — 15 August
Holy Cross — 14 September
St Demetrios — 26 October
Archangels Michael and Gabriel — 8 November
St Nicholas — 6 December
Christmas — 25 December
St Stephen — 27 December
The Catholic Calendar
Septuagesima — 2 February (14 February)
Mardi Gras — 18 February (2 March)
Ash Wednesday — 19 February (3 March)
Easter — 6 April (18 April)
Ascension — 15 May (27 May)
Whitsun — 25 May (6 June)
Holy Trinity — 1 June (13 June)
Green Thursday — 5 June (17 June)
Advent Sunday — 16 November (28 November)
Christmas — 25 December (6 January)
Hebrew Calendar
5657 — 1897
Adar
1 — 22 January
14 Little Purim — 4 February
Be Adar
1 — 21 February
13 Fast of Esther — 5 March
14 *Purim — 6 March
15 Susan Purim — 7 March
Nisan
1 — 22 March
15 *Passover 1 — 4 April
16 *Passover 2 — 5 April
21 *Passover 7 — 11 April
22 *Passover 8 — 12 April
Iyar
1 — 21 April
18 Lag Ba’omer — 3 May
Sivan
1 — 20 May
6 Shavuot — 25 May
7 Second holiday — 26 May
Thamuz
1 — 19 June
18 *Destruction of theTemple fast — 6 June
Av
1 — 17 July
10 Burning of the Temple fast — 27 July
Elul
1 — 17 August
5658
Tishrei
1 *New Year — 15 September
2 *Rosh Hashanah — 16 September
4 *Tzom Gedaliah — 18 September
10 *Yom Kippur — 22 September
>
15 *Sukkot — 26 September
16 *Second day of Sukkot — 27 September
21 *Hoshanah Rabbah — 5 October
22 *Shemini Atzeret — 6 October
28 *Reception of the Law — 7 October
Marchesvan
1 — 15 October
Kislev
1 — 24 November
25 *Hanukkah — 8 December
Tevet
1 — 14 December
10 *Asara be Tevet — 23 December
Shevat
1 — 12 December
The holidays marked * are to be kept strictly.
The Muslim Calendar
1314
1 Ramadan — 22 January 1897
1 Shawwâl — 21 February
1 Dhû al-Qa’dah — 22 March
1 Dhû al-Ḥijjah — 21 April
1315
1 Muḥarram — 21 May
1 Ṣafar — 20 June
1 Rabī‘ al-awwal — 19 July
1 Rabī‘ al-thānī — 18 August
1 Jumādá al-ūlá — 16 September
1 Jumādá al-ākhira — 16 October
1 Rajab — 14 November
1 Sha‘bāan — 12 December
National and Royal Holidays
11 February, the anniversary of the revolution 1866, which founded Romania’s royal dynasty.
14 March, the proclamation of the King of Romania in 1881.
8 April, the birthday of H.M. the King and the proclamation of the plebiscite for the election of His Highness.
24 April, the name day of H.M. Queen Elisabeta.
1, 8 and 10 May, the election, arrival in Romania and enthronement of H.M. the King in 1866.
10 May, the proclamation of Romania’s Independence in 1877 and the coronation of the first King of Romania in 1881.
11 June, the anniversary of the 1848 Revolution, when the foundations of Romania’s autonomy were laid.
22 July, St Mary Magdalene, name day of H.R.H. Princess Maria.
12 August, the birthday of H.R.H. the Crown Prince Ferdinand.
3 October, the anniversary of H.R.H. Prince Carol of Romania.
17 December, the anniversary of H.M. the Queen.
Chronology
The creation of the world, Julian Calendar — 7384 years ago
The creation of the world, Gregorian Calendar — 5990
The foundation of Rome — 2852
The foundation of Jassy — 620
The foundation of Bucharest — 613
The fall of Constantinople — 444
The death of Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia — 393
The first printed books in the Romanian language — 328
The first confiscation of Bessarabia — 85
The Great Fire of Bucharest — 50
The 11 June 1848 European and Romanian Revolution — 49
The Union of the Principalities — 38
The Emancipation of the Serfs — 33
The enthronement of H.M. Carol — 31
The inauguration of the first Romanian railway line — 28
The International Postal Union — 22
The Proclamation of Romania’s Independence — 20
The second confiscation of Bessarabia — 19
Romania’s annexation of Dobrudja — 19
The proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania — 16
The introduction of electric lighting to Romania — 14
Eclipses
Two full solar eclipses, which will not be visible in Europe. No lunar eclipses.
The first full solar eclipse occurs on 19 February (1 February): darkness begins at 23 minutes past seven in the evening. The eclipse ends at 9 minutes past one in the morning. It is visible in Central America, South America apart from the eastern and southern tip of Cape Horn, the east coast of Argentina and the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, and also in south-east Australia. The second full solar eclipse will occur on 17 (29) July. Darkness begins at two minutes past three in the afternoon. The eclipse ends at 52 minutes past 8 in the evening. It will be visible on the west coast of Africa, in the tropics of the Atlantic Ocean, in the south of North America, in Central America, and in the north of South America.
The year’s regent – Mars, god of war, of upheavals, and of human pairings. During the course of this year there will be many phenomenal accidents. Children born in the course of the year will be hot-headed and fractious; the boys will be bold, quarrelsome, bellicose, insubordinate, and independent; the girls will be beautiful, clever, industrious, dutiful and devoted, but also bad, cantankerous, irascible.
The members of the Holy Synod who sat in judgement over the former Metropolitan of Hungro-Wallachia Ghenadie Petrescu in May 1896.
Bishops: 1. Ghenadie Bishop of Râmnic, 2. Partenie Bishop of the Lower Danube, 3. Iosif Metropolitan of Moldavia, 4. Gherasim Timuș of Bishop Argeș, 5. Silvestru Bishop of Huși, 6. Archbishop Ioanichie Flor of Bacău, 7. Dionisie Climescu Bihsop of Buzău, 8. Ieronim Bishop of Roman, 9 Archbishop Calistrat Orleanu of Bârlad, 10 Archbishop Valerian of Râmnic, 11. Archbishop Dosoftei of Botoșani, 12. Archbishop Pimen Georgescu of Pitești, 13. Archbishop Athanasie Miron of Craiova, 14. Archbishop Meletie of Galați, 15. Archbishop Nifon of Ploiești.
The Government
Between 1895 and 1899 Romania had a Liberal Government. In December 1897 the structure of the Government was as follows:
The President of the Council of Ministers: Dimitrie A. Sturdza
The Minister of the Interior: Mihail Pherekyde
The Minister of Foreign Affairs: Dimitrie A. Sturdza
The Minister of Finance: George D. Pallade
The Minister of Justice: Alexandru G. Djuvara
The Minister of Religions and Education: Spiru Haret
The Minister of War: General Anton Berindei
The Minister of Agriculture, Industry, Commerce and Estates: Anastase Stolojan
The Minister of Public Works: Ion I. C. Brătianu
Afterword: A Thing of Beauty by Mircea Cărtărescu
If the novel Life Begins on Friday seems an unusual text to the foreign reader, it will not be because of any cultural differences: Ioana Pârvulescu’s book is unusual even in the context of today’s Romanian literature. It is a singular book, which with intelligence and talent defies the current directions of Romanian prose. It has nothing to do with the problematics of the communist regime, the Ceaușescu period and the Securitate, or with the violent, pornographic sound and fury of punk anarchism, or with postmodern re-visitation of historicized artistic styles, or with the minimalistic depiction of everyday life. It is not an ideological text, does not fight on any front, and does not claim to hold any indubitable truth.
It is merely what we like to call a thing of beauty, far from the cacophonous din of all battles. It is a book of delicate nostalgia for times less brutal than those of today, and also a book consummately skilled in reconstructing, with infinite detail and infinite patience, an epoch from which we are separated by more than a century. Like a children’s pop-up book from whose pages spring three-dimensional palaces and people, Life Begins on Friday is a multi-dimensional scale model of the city of Bucharest in the closing years of the nineteenth century, with its topoi and typical inhabitants. But it is a scale model that will soon seem to us disturbingly real.
Published in 2009, the novel was a surprise for the majority of Ioana Pârvulescu’s readers. Her previous books, which had grown increasingly visible and admired in Romanian culture, were mostly non-fiction. In the last decade, the author, an admired literary critic and historian, professor in the University of Bucharest, published, among numerous studies about the hotspots of Romanian cultural history, two veritable bestsellers. Both are affective reconstructions of past epochs, which employ the tools of both the historian and the writer. The first is Return to Inter-bellum Bucharest, the second The Private Life of the Nineteenth Century. Although the author’s undoubted literary talent was immediately remarked
upon in the cultural press, the books won multiple awards and were admired above all as histories of cultural ideas. Few could have predicted that their author would next take the step towards total fictionalization.
However, this step was implicit in her previous books. In fact, both books were backdrops for a novel that was merely awaiting fictional characters. For, they were already brimming with characters imbued with a real historical existence: writers, journalists, physicians, lawyers, as well as their wives and children, comprising a vast social fabric, the inhabitants of a different century, one unfamiliar to us. They would continue to live in Life Begins on Friday, but the same as in Doctorow’s Ragtime or in certain novels by Pynchon, their lives were here to be intertwined with those of imaginary beings, although no less vivid and interesting for all that.
Having honed her skill at minutely describing period settings, the author moved on to a novel, a true novel, with a serious and complex plot structure. The book tells the story of the last thirteen days of the year 1897 in Bucharest, in thirteen polyphonic chapters, each chapter having multiple narrative voices. In each chapter, the different characters alternate in having their say, each viewing the same events from different perspectives, as we also find in Agatha Christie’s Five Little Pigs, for example, although this does not necessarily lead to an elucidation of the events in question.
The name of the famous author of detective novels is by no means out of place in the present discussion. The most obvious connexion with Ioana Pârvulescu’s novel is that it employs the structure of a detective novel. From the very first pages a double mystery takes shape, which will subsequently lead to two different but always interwoven levels of the book: a coachman finds two bodies lying in the road at the edge of town. One is still alive and will become the central enigma of the book; the other will turn out to have been shot and dies in hospital soon thereafter, but not before uttering a mysterious string of words. According to the typical pattern, we also have a detective, in the person of Costache, the Chief of Public Security. The book’s two strands, one fantastical, the other to do with the detective novel, form a counterpoint and pick up speed before racing towards a shared finale.
Life Begins On Friday Page 29
