Novel
Ion
Liviu Rebreanu · 1920
Opening lines
Din șoseaua ce vine de la Cârlibaba, întovărășind Someșul ba în dreapta, ba în stânga, până la Cluj și chiar mai departe, se desprinde un drum alb mai sus de Armadia, trece râul peste podul bătrân de lemn, acoperit cu șindrilă mucegăită, spintecă satul Jidovița și aleargă spre Bistrița, unde se pierde în cealaltă șosea națională care coboară din Bucovina prin trecătoarea Bârgăului.
From the highway that comes from Cârlibaba, keeping company with the Someș now on the right, now on the left, as far as Cluj and even beyond, a white road branches off a little above Armadia, crosses the river over the old wooden bridge roofed with mouldy shingles, cuts through the village of Jidovița and runs towards Bistrița, where it loses itself in the other national highway that comes down from Bukovina through the Bârgău pass.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from ro.wikisource.org
Synopsis
In a village in Transylvania, Ion Pop al Glanetașului, a poor, hardworking and ambitious young peasant, has no land and wants it more than anything. He loves Florica, but to escape poverty he turns to Ana, daughter of the wealthy Vasile Baciu, whom he does not love; her father humiliates him in public, at the village dance, and Ion seduces Ana to force the marriage. Around him, the family of the schoolmaster Herdelea quarrels with the priest Belciug and marries off its daughter Laura without love.
Context
The novel appeared in 1920 and is divided into two parts, the Voice of the Earth and the Voice of Love. According to a Romanian school resource, the author started from things he had seen: a dishonoured girl driven out by her father, a poor young man forced to leave school, and a peasant embracing the earth, a scene from his childhood. The book won its author a prize from the Romanian Academy; according to the Research Starters database, it replaced the sentimental picture of the village with a realistic vision of the peasants.
Who it is for
A long, realist novel in two parts; translated into French as early as 1945, then again in 2018.
Prizes and reception
It is presented as the first modern Romanian novel; it appeared in English in London in 1965.