Nicolae Filimon

Filimon, Nicolae 

Born Sept. 6, 1819, in Bucharest; died there Mar. 19, 1865. Rumanian writer and music critic.

The son of a priest, Filimon was a minor church functionary and an archives official. His first romantic short stories “Mateo Cipriani” (1860) and “Friederich Staaps” (1860), largely schematic, communicate a love of freedom and opposition to the clergy. The short story “The Misadventure of an Official, or Provincial Philistines” (1861) marks Filimon’s transition to realism. His novel Upstarts, Old and New (1863; Russian translation, 1954), a sharply satirical depiction of the disintegration of feudal relations and the emergence of capitalist relations, was a milestone in the development of Rumanian realistic literature. Filimon spoke out in support of folk music in columns and articles on music, such as “The Lăutari and Their Works” (1864). [The lăutari were lute players.]

WORKS

Opere [vols. 1–2]. [Bucharest, 1957.]

REFERENCES

Călinescu, G. Nicolae Filimon. Bucharest, 1959.
Cosma, V. Nicolae Filimon, critic muzical şi folclorist. Bucharest, 1966. (Contains bibliography.)

KH. G. KORBU