Nicolae Breban

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Nicolae Breban

Born	(1934-02-01) February 1, 1934 Baia Mare
Occupation	novelist, essayist
Nationality	Romanian
Period	1957–

Nicolae Breban (born on February 1, 1934, Baia Mare, Romania) is a Romanian novelist and essayist.

Biography

He is the son of Vasile Breban, a Greek Catholic priest in the village of Recea, Maramureş County. His mother, Olga Constanţa Esthera Breban, born Böhmler, descended from a family of German merchants who emigrated from Alsace Lorraine. In 1951, he was expelled from school on account of his social origin when in the penultimate year at the „Coriolan Brediceanu” High School in Lugoj. He worked as an office clerk in Oradea, and finally passed the graduation exams at the „Oltea Doamna” High School. As he intended to study at the Polytechnical Institute, he had to work first as an apprentice at the "23 August” Works in Bucharest. He enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy by „forging personal documents” as he candidly admitted in Confesiuni violente ("Violent Confessions"). His reading of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer made him, in fact, suspicious in the eyes of Dean Athanase Joja. He made his literary debut in „Viaţa studenţească” (no. 5, May 1957), with the sketch Doamna din vis ("The Lady in the Dream").

At the 10th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party, held between 6 and 12 August 1969, he was elected a substitute member of the Central Committee. Beginning with issue no. 20 of 14 May 1970, he was editor-in-chief of the literary review "România literară”, around which he attracted some of Romania's most important writers. In 1971, the première of the movie Printre colinele verzi/Among the Green Hills (written and directed by Nicolae Breban), the film version of Sick Animals, took place. The communist authorities were quite annoyed by this movie, but it was nevertheless included in the official selection for the International Festival of Cannes. While in Paris, Nicolae Breban remained shocked by the so-called "July Theses”, by means of which Nicolae Ceauşescu, following the Maoist model, was trying to start some kind of the Cultural Revolution. The writer publicly repudiated the cultural policy of the Romanian regime in a number of interviews published in the Western media, and, in protest, resigned his position as editor-in-chief of "România literară”. Back home, in 1972, the communist authorities regarded him as an outcast. He was therefore marginalized, watched by the police, and not allowed to travel abroad again until 1975, despite having also acquired German citizenship that year. Without actually becoming an exile, he lived mostly in Paris with his wife, Cristina, between 1986 and 1989. He returned to Romania, and in 1990 launched a new series of the literary review "Contemporanul. Ideea europeană”. On the 24th of October 1997, he became a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, and on the 14th of January 2009, a full member.

Published works

Novels

Francisca, 1965
În absenţa stăpânilor (When the Masters are Away), 1966
Animale bolnave (Sick Animals), 1968
Îngerul de gips (The Plaster Angel), 1973
Bunavestire (The Annunciation), 1977
Don Juan, 1981
Drumul la zid (The Back to the Wall), 1984
Pândă şi seducţie (Still hunt and Seduction), 1991
Amfitrion (Amphitryon), vol. I, Demonii mărunţi/The Lesser Demons, vol. II, Procuratorii/The Procurators, vol. III, Alberta, 1994
Ziua şi noaptea (The Day and the Night), 1998
Voinţa de putere (The Will to Power), 2001
Puterea nevăzută (The Unseen Power), 2004
Jiquidi, 2007
Singura cale (The Only Path), 2011

Novels translated in other languages

Franciska, translated by Huszár Sándor, Bucharest, Irodalom Könyvkiádó, 1968
Franciska, translated by Ivan Krstev Vlah, Sofia, Profizdet, 1968
Franciska, translated by Jurij Koževnikov, Moscow, Progress, 1969
Franciska, translated by Juozas Vaisnoras, Vilnius, Vaga, 1970
Franciska, translated by Janis Bunduls, Riga, Liesma, 1971
Kranke Tiere (Sick Animals), translated by Georg Scherg, Bucharest, Kriterion, 1973
When the Masters are Away (Ebbi en Kvinna med karaktär), translated by Barbro Andersson into Swedish, René Coeckelberghs' Publishing House, 1975
When the Masters are Away (En l'absence des maîtres), translated by Virgil Tănase into French, Paris, Publishing House Flammarion, 1983
Annunciation (L'Annonciation), translated by Dorina Radu and Marcel Péju, Paris, Publishing House Flammarion, 1985
Don Juan, translated by Marcel Péju and Daniel Pujol, Paris, Publishing House Flammarion, 1993
When the Masters are Away (In assenza dei padroni), translated by Maria Floarea Pop, Siena, Edizioni Cantagalli, 2013

Short stories

Orfeu în infern (Orpheus in the Underwold), 2008

Essays, diaries

Confesiuni violente (Violent Confessions), 1994
Riscul în cultură (Taking Chances in Culture), 1997
Spiritul românesc în faţa unei dictaturi (The Romanian Spirit Facing Dictatorship), 1997
Stricte amintiri literare (Rigorous Literary Memoirs), 2001
Sensul vieţii (Memorii I-IV) (The Meaning of Life), 2003–2007
Friedrich Nietzsche, Maxime comentate (Commented Morals), 2004
Vinovaţi fără vină (Innocent Culprits), 2006

Plays

Bătrâna doamnă şi fluturele (The Old Lady and the Butterfly), 1984
Culoarul cu şoareci (A Corridor Ridden with Mice), 1990 (the première of the play is performed at „Vasile Alecsandri” National Theater in Iaşi in 1993)
Ursul şi ştiuca (The Bear and the Pike), 2000

Poems

Elegii parisiene (Parisian Elegies), 1992

Translation

Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies, 2006; 2008

Filmography

(as screenplay writer)

Răutăciosul adolescent (A Woman for a Season) (directed by: Gheorghe Vitanidis), 1969

(as screenplay writer and director)

Printre colinele verzi (Among the Green Hills, the film version of Sick Animals), 1971

Persondata
Name	Breban, Nicolae
Alternative names
Short description	Romanian writer
Date of birth	1934-02-01
Place of birth	Baia Mare
Date of death
Place of death