The Modern Novel

Biography

Liviu Rebreanu was born in Târlișua, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1885. He was one of fourteen children. His father was a teacher. His first writing was love poetry in Hungarian. He went to military school and joined the army but resigned, to the disappointment of his parents. He worked as a clerk for a short while and then moved to Bucharest. He was involved in several literary circles and worked a a journalist. He was arrested and then exiled but returned to Bucharest after a short stay in prison. He worked as a secretary to the National Theatre where he met his future wife, the actress, Ștefana (Fanny) Rădulescu.

During World War I , he volunteered for the army but was rejected. His brother, however, did serve, was accused of espionage and desertion and was hanged. Rebreanu himself was arrested in 1918 but managed to escape. After the war he became a full-time writer though, in 1929, he was appointed director of the National Theatre, a job he held for a year. He died of lung disease in 1944, though there is a theory that he was accidentally shot.

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Liviu Rebreanu