Nicolae Breban

Nicolae Breban (; born 1 February 1934) is a Romanian novelist and essayist of partial German descent.

Biography Breban was born in Baia Mare, Maramureș County, Transylvania, Socialist Republic of Romania, the son of Vasile Breban, a Greek Catholic priest in the village of Recea. 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, Breban 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 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 24 October 1997, he became a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, and on 14 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 Gesänge, 2021 - Übersetzt von Christian W. Schenk, mit Kupferstichen von den Erste deutschen Künstlern, XVI-XVIII, Dionysos Verlag, Boppard am Rhein Germany, Erste deutsche Ausgabe,

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

Awards The „Ion Creangă” Award of the Romanian Academy (1965) The Romanian Writers' Union Award (1968) The Romanian Writers' Union Award (1994) The Romanian Writers' Union Award „Opera Omnia” (2000)