POE’S RECEPTION IN ROMANIA. A FEW CONSIDERATIONS
POE’S RECEPTION IN ROMANIA. A FEW CONSIDERATIONS

Summary/Abstract: Edgar Allan Poe’s first known text in Romanian is The Pit and the Pendulum, translated anonymously in 1861, under the title Puţul şi pendula. Following a slow start, versions of the American author’s works began to appear extensively in the Romanian press of the Regat (the Romanian Old Kingdom), as well as in publications in Transylvania and in Banat. Great Romanian writers would practice their talent in translating Poe, including Eminescu and Macedonski, but particularly I. L. Caragiale. At the time, the most widespread language in the artistic and political elite in Romania was French (in the Regat, because in Transylvania and in Banat it was the German language). This explains why E. A. Poe became known in Romanian by translating editions belonging to the great French authors. The critic Titu Maiorescu would also use these French sources when he would discuss, in 1867, Poe’s concepts on poetry and on art in general. Poe also met with remarkable success in Romania during the communist era, when quality editions of his work were published.

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