Investigating the works ' main characteristics, George Călinescu stressed that Eliade owed much of his style to the direct influence of French author André Gide, concluding that, alongside Camil Petrescu and a few others, Eliade was among Gide's leading disciples in Romanian literature.

George Călinescu criticized the book for inconsistencies and " excesses in Dostoyevskianism ", but noted that the Lecca family portrayal was " suggestive ", and that the dramatic scenes were written with " a remarkable poetic calm.

Noting that the plot and setting reminded one of horror fiction works by the German author Hanns Heinz Ewers, and defending Domnişoara Christina in front of harsher criticism, Călinescu nonetheless argued that the " international environment " in which it took place was " upsetting ".

Eliade's short story Şarpele (" The Snake ") was described by George Călinescu as " hermetic ".

Eliade himself referenced the story and Aldous Huxley's experiments in the same section of his private notes, a matter which allowed Matei Călinescu to propose that Un om mare was a direct product of its author's experience with drugs.

Early on, George Călinescu argued that the totalitarian model outlined in Huliganii was: " An allusion to certain bygone political movements [...], sublimated in the ever so abstruse philosophy of death as a path to knowledge.

Matei Călinescu did not reject Culianu's version, but argued that, on its own, the piece was beyond political interpretations.

Also, George Călinescu was a more complex writer who, among different literary creations, produced the monumental " History of the Romanian literature, from its origins till present day ".

According to literary historian George Călinescu, Iorga's " huge " and " monstrously " comprehensive research, leaving no other historian " the joy of adding something ", was matched by the everyday persona, a " hero of the ages ".

According to George Călinescu, Nicolae Iorga was overdependent on his memory, which could result in " utterly fictitious " critical apparatuses for his scientific works.

Călinescu suggests that Iorga was an " anachronistic " type in his context: " approved only by failures ", aged before his time, modeling himself on ancient chroniclers and out of place in modern historiography.

According to Călinescu, Iorga was visibly embarrassed by even 19th century Romanticism, out of his territory with virtually everything after " Villani and Commynes ", and endorsing the " obscure manqués " in modern Romanian letters.

It is generally agreed that there was no such escape attempt, and that Codreanu and the others were killed on the King's orders, probably in reaction to the November 24, 1938, murder by legionnaires of a relative ( some sources say a " friend ") of Armand Călinescu, then Minister of the Interior in the King's cabinet.

On March 7, 1939, a new government was formed with Călinescu as prime minister ; on September 21, 1939, he, in turn was assassinated by legionnaires avenging Codreanu.

After the fascist National Legionary State was proclaimed by the Iron Guard in late 1940, a bronze bust of former Premier Armand Călinescu ( whom the Guard had assassinated in September 1939 ), was chained and dragged through the city streets.

A generation younger than Ibrăileanu, George Călinescu also noted the contrast between Mihail Kogălniceanu and his predecessors, as two sets of " Messianist " intellectuals — in this contrast, Heliade Rădulescu was " hazy and egotistic ", whereas Kogălniceanu and others had " a mission which they knew how to translate into positive terms ".

The latter conclusion was partly shared by Călinescu, Tudor Vianu and literary researcher Z. Ornea.

The ban on the Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to have harbored Legion meetings to be closed down ( including several restaurants in Bucharest ).

Armand Călinescu ( 4 June 1893 – 21 September 1939 ) was a Romanian economist and politician, who served as Prime Minister between March 1939 and the time of his death.

He was born in Piteşti as the son of Mihai Călinescu, a Romanian Army veteranian, and his wife Ecaterina, née Gherasim.

Mihai Călinescu was a landowner and relatively wealthy man.

His equally firm opposition to the fast rise of the fascist Iron Guard ( the Legionaries, a group he helped outlaw in January 1931 ), contributed to the fall of the 1933 Vaida-Voevod government of which Călinescu was a member.

Călinescu remained in office during the authoritarian regime established by King Carol after that date — he was also a founding member of the National Renaissance Front ( FRN ) created by as the sole legal party in December 1938, and was generally seen as very close to Carol.

* 1939 – Romanian Prime Minister Armand Călinescu is assassinated by ultranationalist members of the Iron Guard.

Eliade's views at the time focused on innovation — in the summer of 1933, he replied to an anti-modernist critique written by George Călinescu:

At the time of his arrest, he had just interrupted a column on Provincia şi legionarismul (" The Province and Legionary Ideology ") in Vremea, having been singled out by Prime Minister Armand Călinescu as an author of Iron Guard propaganda.

One is glory, determined by either work or procreation, and the other the asceticism of religion or magic — both, Călinescu believed, where aimed at reaching the absolute, even in those cases where Eliade described the latter as an " abyssal experience " into which man may take the plunge.

For Călinescu, such a perspective on life culminated in " banality ", leaving authors gripped by the " cult of the self " and " a contempt for literature ".

George Călinescu referred to this series as Iorga's " interesting " and " eminently subjective " literature ; " dignified " and dominated by " explosions of sentiment ", it echoes, according to Călinescu, the Renaissance model of Ion Neculce.

Initially, Călinescu intended to enter the political scene as a member of the dominant National Liberal Party ( PNL ), but his views on politics were rejected by its leader Ion I. C. Brătianu.

He soon became involved in a virulent dispute with historian Nicolae Iorga, when the latter issued harsh criticism regarding Carol's January 1939 initiative to dress large sections of the society, including Romanian Academy members, in various uniforms ( a measure backed by Călinescu ); Iorga remarked with irony: " I'm prepared to wear the FRN uniform, but allow me to wear a speared helmet on my head, on which to place is, to Impalement | impale the Minister of the Interior ".

In May, after witnessing the result of Nazi pressures on Austria ( see Anschluss ), Călinescu decapitated the Guard by ordering arrests of its leaders, beginning with that of Codreanu, as well as many of its members and sympathisers ( including Nae Ionescu and Mircea Eliade ).

Having been secretly blacklisted at the same time as Nicolae Titulescu, Dinu Brătianu, and General Gavrilă Marinescu, Călinescu was assassinated in Bucharest by Iron Guard members under the direct leadership of Sima ( exiled in Steglitz at the time ), the last of several attempts ( which included an attack on the Romanian Athenaeum and bombing a bridge over the Dâmboviţa River — both of which were uncovered by police ).

While passing through the Eroilor area on its return from the Cotroceni Palace, Călinescu's luxury automobile, a Cadillac, was ambushed by that of the assassins, who shot Călinescu, his bodyguard Radu Andone, and his driver ( Miti Dumitrescu drove his car into the Premier's, which came to sudden stop as it ran into a cart — Andone was gunned down as he stepped out of the car, and Călinescu as he stood waiting on the back seat ; over twenty bullets were recovered from his body ).

Călinescu observed that while Pârvan's natural aptitude was fairly common, his tendency to exercise all the powers of his mind in the ascetic pursuit of an intellectual ideal was transformed into an existential philosophy: Life is transitory, but man can defeat death and oblivion through creation, thus leaving a permanent record of a temporary existence.

In his main work on the history of Romanian literature, George Călinescu included Caragiale among a group of " Balkan " writers, whose middle class status and often foreign origin, he argued, set them apart irrespective of their period — others in this category were, in chronological order, Anton Pann, Tudor Arghezi, Ion Minulescu, Urmuz, Mateiu Caragiale, and Ion Barbu.

Uniquely among students of Caragiale's work, George Călinescu argued that the writer's main interest was not in criticizing the liberals, but actually in an overall rejection of the most embedded Junimist tenets, which, in Călinescu's view, had engendered " a lack of faith in the country's own powers ".

In parallel, literary critic George Călinescu argued that " he typological structure is present in Caragiale's work as a supporting structure, without being essential.

Among the group of insane characters in Caragiale's work, Călinescu counted those of sketches and stories like 1 Aprilie (" 1st of April "), where an April Fool ends with a murder, and Două loturi, where the clerk Lefter Popescu goes through the tribulations of having lost his winning ticket.

In 1936, Călinescu received his Doctorate in Literature from the University of Iaşi with a thesis on Avatarii faraonului Tla, a posthumous work of Mihai Eminescu whose value he was the first to publicize.

Thus, commentators such as Matei Călinescu and Carmen Muşat have also argued that a main characteristic of Eliade's fantasy prose is a substitution between the supernatural and the mundane: in this interpretation, Eliade turns the daily world into an incomprehensible place, while the intrusive supernatural aspect promises to offer the sense of life.

According to Călinescu, the " philosopher-myths " ( Iorga and Pârvan ) also shaped the anti-Junimist outlook of the 1930s Trăirists, who returned to ethnic nationalism and looked favorably on the Dacian layer of Romanian identity.

A staunch ally of France and the United Kingdom and a steadfast adversary of the pro-Nazi Germany movements in Romania, Călinescu also supported King Carol II's move to counter the Guard's success ; he first confronted the PNŢ leadership during the elections of 1937, after it signed an electoral agreement with the Guard.

Călinescu was also Minister of the Interior and Minister of Defense.

One year later, under the National Legionary State ( the Iron Guard's government ), Marinescu and Argeşanu, alongside other politicians, were executed in Jilava ( September 1940 ); it was also at that time that the Călinescu family crypt in Curtea de Argeş was dynamited, while a bronze bust of him which awaited unveiling was chained and dragged through the streets of Piteşti.

A similar view was expressed by Vianu's predecessor, Silvian Iosifescu, who also stressed that Caragiale always avoided applying the Naturalist technique to its fullest, while George Călinescu himself believed that the characters ' motivations in O făclie de Paşte are actually physiological and ethnological.

George Călinescu also believed that, aside from his individual nature, Zibal provided readers with an accurate insight into Jewish reactions to systemic persecution and death threats.

He served as Minister of Agriculture in the Iuliu Maniu's government of 1928-1930 ( being seconded by Armand Călinescu ), then, between 1930 and 1933, he was the Minister of Internal Affairs ( he also held the office of Foreign Minister between late 1930 and early 1931 ).

Călinescu also wrote poems ( Lauda lucrurilor ) and plays ( Şun, mit mongol ) while continuing to practice journalism, although Cronicile mizantropului abruptly became Cronicile optimistului after the Communists seized power in 1947.