Patrick McGuinness

Patrick McGuinness, Poet and Academic of Irish and Belgian extraction. His first novel, The last Hundred Days, (Seren Books, 1911) is based on his experience of life during the terminal years of Ceausescu’s dictatorship.

Poet si Universitar de origine Irlandeza si Belgiana, Patrick McGuinness a debutat cu romanul intitulat Ultima suta de zile (The last Hundred Days, Seren Books, 1911) care povesteste despre anii traiti in perioada  agoniei  Ceausiste.

Patrick McGuinness:   Father and Son

(in memory of my father, and in welcome to my son)

In the wings there is one who waits to go on,
and another, his scene run, who waits to go.
I would like to think they met; if not here
then like crossed letters touching in the dark;

the blank page and the turned page,
the first and the last, shadows folding
over and across me, in whom they’re bound.

Published in Metre, Spring 2005

Tata si Fiu

(In Memoria Tatalui si  Binevenirea Fiului meu)

In culise un om asteapta sa intre in scena,

iar altul, cu rolul terminat, asteapta sa plece.

Asi vrea sa cred ca s-ar fi intalnit, cel putin aici,

daca nu, intocmai cuvintelor, trecand prin ceata;

o pagina alba si una intoarsa,

prima si ultima, umbre impaturite

peste mine si prin mine, o fibra din trupul meu.

(versiune in limba Romana © Constantin ROMAN, 16 Iulie 2011)

In Memory of my Father, and in Welcome to my Son

"Curierul Romanesc" Oct-Dec 2009, Romanian-Language Quarterly, Sweden

Curierul Romanesc, Suedia (nr 4, 2009):

Interviul luat de Silvia Constantinescu autorului Antologiei ‘Blouse Roumaine -the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women’ (partea I)

CONSTANTIN ROMAN:

“ÎN REALIZAREA LUCRARII MELE ‘ANTOLOGIA FEMEILOR DIN ROMÂNIA’, M-AM IZBIT DE IGNORATA SI DEZINTERESUL PUBLICULUI LARG DIN STRAINATATE FATA DE ROMÂNIA SI TOT CE REPREZINTA EA, ÎN AFARA DE STEREOTIPIA: DRACULA – CEAUSESCU – ORFELINATE – CORUPTIE – INFRACTIUNE.”

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Constantin Roman, autorul antologiei “Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women”.

Foto: © Constantin Roman.

Doamna SilviaConstantinescu (Suedia). Photo Courtesy: Octavian Ciupitu.

Pe Constantin Roman l-am prezentat cititorilor deja în numarul 2 din 2003 al CURIERULUI ROMÂNESC. Avusesem atunci o discutie lunga despre viata petrecuta în România comunista a anilor ’50-’60, despre anii de doctorat si activitatea profesionala în Anglia, despre furtul de idei si obstacolele puse de colegii români, atunci când a încercat sa-si prezinte lucrarile stiintifice în România, despre persistenta gândirii staliniste la cei mai multi intelectuali români chiar si dupa caderea regimului stalinisto-ceausist, despre sentimentele pe care le-a nutriti si le nutreste pentru etnia careia ii apartine, despre experienta de exilat-diasporit-expatriat-destarat român, dar si despre recunoasterea meritelor personale prin aprecierea acordata de catre presedintele Emil Constantinescu, al carui Consilier personal pentru Energie si Resurse Naturale a devenit în 1998, care l-a investit cu Ordinul pentru Merit cu gradul de Comandor, si prin conferirea titlul de “Professor Honoris Causa” de catre Universitatea din Bucuresti, acea universitate la care studiase si absolvise în 1966 geofizica.

De data aceasta doresc sa vorbesc cu Constantin Roman despre realizarea lucrarii deosebit de importante, nu numai pentru unicitatea ei în istoria literaturii române, ci si pentru contributia ei la cunoasaterea României în lumea întreaga despre “Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Românian Women”.

În meseria mea de bibliotecara de informatie în Suedia, am întâlnit zilnic elevi, studenti, cercetatori care s-au izbit de lipsa de informatii despre acea Romanie care n-a fost creatia ”partidului comunist si a lui Ceausescu, fiului cel mai iubit al poporului”, ci despre adevarata Românie, care dainuie de secole, înaintea comunismului si a ”eliberarii” tarii de catre armata rosie.

Sunt o femeie cu studii superioare îndelungate, efectuate în doua tari si stiu cât de multa munca cere cercetarea si nu diminuez munca enorma depusa de Constantin Roman pentru realizarea unei astfel de lucrari, dar sunt si bibliotecar de profesie, cu practica îndelungata numai în informatii, la mari biblioteci populare din Suedia si aceasta mi-a dezvoltat capacitatea de apreciere a lucrarilor de referin]a în general si în limbi de mare circulatie în special. Eu stiu din proprie experienta ca în biblioteci nu puteam oferi informatii despre România cititorilor mei, pentru ca ele fie ca erau numai în limba româna, fie ca nu existau de loc.

Lucrarea lui Constantin Roman si-ar fi capatat, desigur, un loc în istoria literaturii române, dar ar fi ramas limitata la aria limbii române, falindu-ne noi între noi cu personalitatile feminine din istoria noastra. Lucrarea lui Constantin Roman si-ar fi câstigat, desigur, un loc în istoria literaturii române, dar pe plan international n-ar fi ajutat sa se împrastie ignoranta cititorilor despre o tara despre care informatiile existente sunt numai despre ”Dracula, Ceausescu, orfelinate, coruptie si infractiune”, informatii primite prin scurtele buletine de stiri din ziare, de la radio sau TV.

Prezentata în limba engleza, a treia limba vorbita pe aceasta planeta, dupa chineza mandarina si spaniola, antologia “Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Românian Women”, da posibilitatea a peste 380 de milioane de vorbitori si cititori ca prim FEMEILE românce, sa fir cunoscua România. Cine poate arata mai bine mentalitatea, sufletul unui popor, daca nu femeile acelui popor, caci ele sunt mamele, logodnicele, sotiile. Si mai vreau sa evidentiez lucrarea lui Constantin Roman “Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Românian Women” pentru ca eu o consider un omagiu adus femeilor românce. Când am primit direct de la Constantin Roman informatia despre aparitia acestei lucrari, m-am oferit s-o prezint imediat cititorilor CURIERULUI ROMÂNESC, considerând ca astfel îmi fac si datoria de bibliotecara, dar si de românca, ajutând astfel la propagarea informatiilor despre România.

I-am pus câteva întrebari lui Constantin Roman despre imensa munca de cercetare necesara în realizarea unei lucrari de referinta de aceasta anvergura, dar si despre problemle financiare pe care le ridica munca în sine de la strângerea de informatii pâna la tiparire.

(Continuare in Partea a II-a)

I

SFIDAREA IDIOCRATIEI

(Partea I)

Constantin ROMAN

Prefata Acad. Prof. John F. DEWEY (Oxford si California)

Centre for Romanian Studies, London, 2010

INCEPUTURI

Universul din care provine Constantin ROMAN este estompat de sita vremii. Odata ajuns in Anglia, meleagurile lasate in urma sunt distruse de sistematizarea revolutiei culturale ale lui Nicolae Ceausescu, iar ruinele lor raman dincolo de   frontiere ostile.

Fiind esuat pe un tarm strain nu a reprezentat in sine un fapt surprinzator pentru un roman ai carui stramosi au trecut adesea granitele nesigure ale tulburatelor imperii carora le apartineau principatele  Moldovei, Ardealului si a Tarii Romanesti, in cautarea  unui pamant mai linistit: aceasta desradacinare nu s’a infaptuit dintr-un impuls, ci mai de graba dintr-o conjunctura neasteptata dictata de criterii de supravietuire.

Cartierul copilariei din Dealul Mitropoliei din Bucuresti

Cadrul patriarhal si molcom al cartierului din Bucuresti unde si-a petrecut copilaria, pecetluita de rasturnarile sociale si politice ce au urmat dupa razboi, aveau sa-i caracterizeze inceputul vietii lui: casa parintilor, intr-o gradina cu pomi infloriti de la poalele Dealului Mitropoliei, unde conversatia din jurul mesei facea aluzie la premiile literare de la Paris, casa bunicilor, mobilata in stil Louis XVI, cu covoare persane si tapiserii  Savonnerie si cu pianul cu coada, de concert, “Steinway” in jurul caruia familia se strangea in fiecare duminica dupa amiaza ca sa asculte nocturnele lui Chopin si sonatele lui Brahms, picturile in gustul unui  fin de siècle cu portrete de tiganci florarese descoperind un san voluptos, rafturile nesfarsite cu carti, ale caror titluri , la o privire mai atenta, erau mai mult in Franceza , urmate de cele din Germana si din alte cateva limbi straine, la fel, vocile din salon se auzeau mai mult in frantuzeste pronuntata cu un accent tipic romanesc cu “r”-aul bine “rulat”.:

Franceza era limba adultilor, care isi impartaseau secrete,

in timp ce copii mici vorbeau nemteste cu guvernantele  venite de peste munti, iar fetele din bucatarie  vorbeau ungureste  si in sfarsit soferii si oamenii de casa vorbeau romaneste.

Biserica din Poieni, Judetul Bacau, ctitorita de stramosii materni

Subiectele de conversatie faceau de multe ori aluzie la mosiile stramosilor din Tara Moldovei sau din campia Dunarii, cu recolte de grau si de floarea soarelui, cu lungi cavalcade in codrii seculari, intreceri de echipaje si batalii cu flori de la Sosea, slobozirea tiganilor si ctitoria bisericilor. Conversatia mai se avanta neasteptat  si in domenii mai savante de profilaxia plantelor, medicina, farmacie, fizica sau chimie, dar mai apoi se pierdea in amintiri apocrife pe atat de bogat brodate, pe cat erau pline de fascinatia unor vremuri apuse. Acestea arau povestile extravagante de la sfarsitul veacului al XIX-lea, al caror ecou l-a auzit chiar si regina Victoria a Angliei, care primind vestea casatoriei nepoatei sale preferate, Principesa Maria (“Missy”) cu Printul Ferdinand de Hohenzollern, a exclamat:

Tara este tulbure, iar imoralitatea societatii bucurestene este de neinchipuit.

Dar pe masura ce evenimentele politice de dupa Yalta si Teheran au inceput sa se desfasoare mai repede, atunci conversatia la masa, chiar mai mult decat povestile de pe timpuri, sau despre expozitiile de arta, despre muzica sau stiinta a inceput sa fie dominata de politica marilor puteri si sfera acestora de influenta, inainte de a fi redusa la conversatia despre cosnita, despre cozile la paine si la carne si despre supravietuire, si mai apoi, in soapta si abea perceptibil, despre prietenii ajunsi in puscarie, conversatie care, pana la urma s-a redus la o liniste adanca, plina de o demnitate subinteleasa de dezamagirea realizarii ca

“nu mai vin Americanii!”

Privind retrospectiv la aceste timpuri, nu este totusi de neconceput faptul ca cele cateva decenii care au despartit timpurile noastre de amintirile acestei copilarii, ne-ar face usor sa ne inchipuim de ce farmecul, inteligenta, hazul si umorul pe cat de fin pe atat de stimulant al conversatiilor bucurestene nu si-au mai gasit pereche pana acum. Aceasta a fost o lume care avea sa dispara in curand pentru totdeauna, o lume care, in timpul initierii din exil, si mai ales acuma cand ea a trecut in vesnicie, Constantin Roman are pentru ea un profund atasament   pentru ca a fost hranit chiar la sanul ei.

Bine inteles ca cele cateva decenii care s-au scurs de atunci, timp pe parcursul caruia s-au perindat nenumarate vexatii sociale si politice de care familia nu a putut scapa, a fost inevitabil ca anumite permutari si adaptari sa se afirme pentru ca autorul sa se fi putut desprinde de umbra  stramosilor lui, lasati pe meleaguri indepartate.

Aceasta adaptare din viata autorului a avut drept urmare o serie de consecinte care, la o prima analiza ar parea oarecum contradictorii, insa, care de fapt sunt perfect de armonioase si chiar direct conjugate.

El povesteste in primul capitol al cartii sale, cum, in timpul liceului aspira la o “educatie universala”, visand la perspectiva unor emotii si trairi in sanul culturii europene de care se simtea rupt si unde spera sa fie reintregit. Aceste visuri nu erau lipsite de fundament, caci de tanar el s-a hranit din lucrarile clasice ale lui Vitruvius, Giorgio Vasari si mai tarziu ale arhitectului si istoricului de arta britanic Banister Fletcher si a invatat cu profesori particulari limbi straine in paralel cu indoctrinarea Marxista obligatorie, impusa in scolile de stat ale regimului totalitar.

Student la Universitatea din Bucuresti

Si iata ca, in ciuda hiperbolelor politice si sociale ale vietii din Romania post-belica care l-au obligat pe Constantin ROMAN sa devina geofizician, (in timp ce el spera, inca din frageda copilarie sa devina arhitect), iata cum, in mod inevitabil, el a devenit un om de o cultura multilaterala in spiritul intelectualilor francezi din veacul al XVIII-lea: viata lui a devenit un sir nesfarsit de sinteze de romantism cu clasicism, de fizica cu poezie, de geologie cu estetica, de viata ordonata cu trairile boeme, de  mostenire conservatoare conjugata cu liberalism, de o gandire structurata a disertatiei stiintifice modificata de un iconoclasm fara preget, de constrangeri geonomice cu ritmul sonetului, de precizia geofizicii cu fascinatia fata de muzica, de alchimia subconstienta a verbului, a emotiei necurmate cu analiza linistita a magicului, de evaziunea visului cu realiatea prozaica. Desi acest lung catalog de antiteze superficial impacate este incomplect, el totusi defineste, pe undeva, etosul unei bipolaritati asemenea unor gemeni dizogotici.

Caci intr-adevar din aceasta convergenta spirituala, din aceasta suprapunere de culturi diferite, din incapatanarea obdurata a tanarului educat intr-o societate controlata de dimensiuni Orwelliene, acest vlastar a fost grefat pe o tulpina noua in Occident si mai apoi a inflorit in aerul pur, in precizia luminata si limpede a universitatii din Cambridge care l-a stimulat in anii 1970: o institutie care avea sa fie martora unor evenimente revelatoare punctuate de revoltele studentilor si de liberarea feminista invocata de Germaine Greer in celebrul sau manifest The Female Eunuch.

Colegiul Peterhouse, Cambridge, ctitorit in 1284, care i-a oferit lui Roman o bursa de doctorat, prin concurs

Continuarea in Sfidarea Idiocratiei (Partea II):

http://www.romanianstudies.org/content/2010/02/sfidarea-idiocratiei-partea-ii-recenzie-constantin-roman-prefata-john-f-dewey/

‘Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women’

An Anthology of 19th and 20th century Romanian Women

1,100 pages, Social and political Overview, 160 biographies, 600 Quotations, 4,000 references,

E-Book available to download,
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Examples of biographies:
ARISTOCRATS: Pss Catherine Caradja, Pss Marina Stirbey,
BALLERINAS: Alina Cojocaru, Magdalena Popa, Ruxandra Racovitza
COURTESANS: Pss Georges Ghika (Liane de Pougy), Elena Lupescu
DESIGNERS: Mica Ertegün
EXPLORERS: Lady Florence Baker
GYMNASTS: Nadia Comaneci
MOVIE STARS: Lauren Bacall, Aurora Fulgida, Maria Forescu, Nadia Grey, Elvire Popesco, Silvia Sidney
OPERA DIVAS: Maria Cebotari, Viorica Cortez, Ileana Cotrubas, Angela Gheorghiu, Nelly Miricioiu, Leontina Vaduva, Virginia Zeani
PAINTERS: Ioana Celibidache, Nathalie Dumitresco, Micaela Eleutheriade
PIANISTS: Cella Delavrancea, Clara Haskil, Madeleine Lipatti
POETS: Ana Blandiana, Nina Cassian, Anna de Noailles, Helene Vacaresco
POLITICAL PRISONERS: Ioana Arnautoiu, Madeleine Cancicov, Ana Novac, Elisabeta Rizea, Annie Samuelli, Sabina Wurmbrand
POLITICIANS; Elena Ceausescu, Hortense Cornu, Ana Pauker
REVOLUTIONARIES: Maria Grant Rosetti,
ROYALTY: Carmen Sylva, Pss Ileana, Archduchess of Austria, Queen Marie, Pss of Great Britain, Queen Anna, Pss of Denmark and of Bourbon-Parme, Helen Queen Mother of Romania, Pss of Greece,
SCIENTISTS: Ana Aslan, Ioana Meitani, Elisabeth Roudinesco
STAGE & COSTUME DESIGNERS: Maria Bjornson, Marie-Jeanne Lecca
VIOLINISTS: Lola Bobescu, Silvia Marcovici
WRITERS: Elizabeth Asquith Bibesco, Marthe Bibesco, Alina Diaconu, Dora d’Istria, Marie-France Ionesco, Doina Jela, Oana Orlea

WHAT THE READERS SAY:

* “It is a Herculean Work…” (Editor, Buenos Aires)

* “It is beautifully written and meticulously researched and presented. It is accessible to the lay reader and will be a treasure-trove for further research by academics drawn from a wide range of disciplines ” (Political Analyst, UK)

* “For those who think that Romania is nothing more than Dracula and Ceausescu, the book has a lot to teach you… ‘ (IT geek, London)

* “Constantin Roman invites us for a walk, during which he enjoins past and present alike, in a brisk coming and going of the narrative. It is a narrative that cannot suddenly end, but rather one which compels us to start all over again and revisit. It is a truly wonderful gift, a very happy surprise indeed of an inherently original book, which haunts us like the persistent music of those Romanian women’s voices.” (French Government Adviser, Paris)

* There is no doubt, what so ever, that if Romania is the creation of a male society as well as of political conjectures, its place in the Western European psyche is entirely due to its women, who knew how to impose their reputation in the aristocratic salons of Paris, in the world of literature, or in the English clubs so intimately linked to politics. For “Blouse Roumaine” is an incursion charged with passion, which conjures varied names, such as Queen Marie of Romania, Countess Anna de Noailles, the Princess Bibesco, or the actress Elvire Popesco, not forgetting the diabolic Ana Pauker and Elena Ceausescu.” (Art Historian, Paris)

* “… an audaceeous choice…” (Reader, France)

* “So long as the masculine and the feminine are not absolutely complementary notions in terms of fair percentages, it is a good idea to write a book about Romanian Women of World repute.” (Novelist, Argentina)

* “… it represents the idea of metamodernism as cultural paradigm to an alternative synthesis of modern and postmodern paradigms” (Researcher, New Zealand)

* …an easy book, which offered me, at least, the joy of reading an interesting, well-documented Anthology, without being bored.” (American Scientist)

* ‘ Blouse Romaine’ is a fascinating book about women who, for the sake of their ideals, sacrificed everything in order to safeguard basic values of humanity, generosity and compassion, women who fought the communist dragon imposed by fellow women. (Researcher, Cluj, Transylvania)

http://www.blouseroumaine.com/buy-the-book/index.html

Constantin Roman © 2009. All Rights Reserved.

A Spanish grandee and Ambassador to the Court of St James’s once compared the success of an Anthology to that of a culinary chef d’oeuvre: for Santiago de Mora Figueroa y Williams, Marques of Tamarón, a great Anglophile but also a refined European:

The perfect anthology, like the perfect hors d’oeuvre, should turn us into gluttons. The many small dishes add up to a balanced and nourishing meal, but they are so exquisite that they whet one’s appetite for more. And the anthology should also include unexpected delicacies, things that even the literary gourmet had not heard about.

On a deeper reflection, Tamarón’s metaphor encapsulates perfectly well the ethos of the ‘Blouse Roumaine’. Yet, as an Anthology of Romanian women, this corpus was initially conceived to connect with a French painting of Henri Matisse – the eponymous canvas, ‘La Blouse Roumaine’ (1940), which hangs today in the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris: for every and each biography contained in this Women’s Anthology is like a minutely embroidered stitch on an ethnic tapestry, such as we have admired, not so long ago in the Retrospective exhibition of Matisse’s collection of textiles, presented at the Royal Academy in London and later also shown in New York. For those of us who missed this exhibition the analogy to the current book is like a roll call of women presented in a sequence of biographical cameos. These sketches are displayed like a series of miniatures in a virtual National Portrait Gallery: they are all glittering stars from Western galaxies and Eastern nebulae, in all 160 of them…

The manuscript gestation involved a work of love and dedication, spanning over several years, a creation which gradually came to life very much like in the Marques of Tamarón’s definition – a “menu of diverse and delicious hors d’oeuvres, visually appealing” but at the same time teasing the imagination and stimulating the taste: for such choice not only offers food for thought as well as for the heart, but also food for academic appetite, extending the frontiers of taste beyond the familiar courses of history, politics, literature, music, film, theatre, feminism or science – for ‘Blouse Roumaine’ is at the same time a trans-disciplinary book.

This subjective if somewhat esoteric compilation of impressionistic essays is preceded by a historical, cultural and political overview of Romanian society. This introductory social fresco sets the tone of the narrative which is perceived through a European looking glass, allowing the reader to consider Romania not in its exotic isolation, but as part of a much broader ‘concert of nations’ and therefore evaluate it within a familiar territory. These will be countries such as France, Italy or Britain which for the last two hundred years were the playground of Romanian aristocrats (Bibesco, Noailles, Ghika, Brancovan, Cantacuzène)

and lately the land of exile of many an uprooted artist and writer (Brancusi, Ionesco, Cioran, Eliade, Georges Enesco, Dinu Lipatti, Clara Haskil, Nadia Gray, Elvire Popesco, Hélène Vacaresco).

The Anthology is complemented by texts often published for the first time in English and sourced from over 4,000 French, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German references. Six hundred quotations convey the narrative an arcane erudition inviting the reader on a joyful pursuit of an abstruse and little-explored subject. This is virgin territory offering sheer delight.

As we turn the pages of this book we are made witness to an exotic cavalcade of female characters who conjure the scent, colour and voices of time past to the present day, from the sunflower fields of the Danube Plains to the darkest forests of Transylvania, from the languid music of the Carpathian panpipes to the uplifting Parisian literary salons and the stages of La Scala, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan operas, or the prestigious Comédie Française and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Further afield some of these intrepid amazons reached the distant shores of the river de la Plata, or, in the 19th century discovered the sources of the White Nile.
Yet, if such momentous revelations were not surprising enough, ‘Blouse Roumaine’ would also evoke associations with scores of famous glitterati and politicians of European and American dimension… For these women of the Orient Express disembarking in Milan, Paris, London, New York or Buenos Aires, women who inspired poets and composers, who created new opera roles, these muses enthralled political eagles and aristocrats alike, caused crown heads to dream and lesser mortals to lose their heads.

Some of these women made their lovers’ suicide respectable, before they retired to the seclusion of their convent to pray for the salvation of their soul, where some of them were suspected of trying to seduce God!… Through these enchantresses come to life a choice array of foreign suitors, lovers, admirers, patrons and sometimes husbands: Lord Carnaervon, the Earl of Asquith, Lord Thomson of Cardington, Satcheverell Sittwell, Noel Coward, David Farrar, Paul Morand, Marcel Proust, Pierre Lotti, Anatole France, Puvis de Chavannes, Vincent Van Gogh, Mark Twain, Verdi, Puccini, Richard Strauss, Eric Satie and more recently Humphrey Bogart, Lord Lloyd Webber, Roberto Alagna, Michel Foucault or Jacques Lacan, to name just a few.

Princess Georges Ghika, aka Liane de Pougy

But looking at this rich social tapestry, this folk embroidery of multicoloured and infinite stitches, one is equally absorbed by the darker side of the 20th century history of women who died in prison for their political beliefs, of Passionarias       who, after the Second World War, took the armed struggle to the Carpathian mountains, women of the maquis, or simply the faceless yet equally important unknown illustrious peasant women, or middle class housewives who steeled their obstinate resolve and silent resistance against the levelling steamroller of dictatorship. 

Constantin ROMAN evokes these heroines with a melancholy acknowledgment of the brutal destruction of a society and culture. This Romanian society was alive and well and it was so aptly described before WWII by Paul Morand and Marcel Proust, by Marie of Edinburgh and Patrick Leigh Fermor, by Satcheverell Sittwell, Elizabeth and Margot Asquith, by Vineretta Singer de Polignac and Violet Trefussis, Olivia Manning, Panait Istrati or Gregor von Rezzori, Colette or Virginia Ocampo, by the Princess Hélène Chrissoveloni Soutso, Princess Marthe Bibesco,     or Countess Anna de Noailles.
This was the ‘faraway country’ which inspired Dorothy Parker’s classic verse:

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Romania.

For some of these women also represent the extravagant if exotic Romanian society evoked in the correspondence of Queen Victoria, Napoleon III, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, Don Pedro of Portugal or Ramsey MacDonald, Winston Churchill, Roosevelt, and de Gaulle. In the process we also admire portraits left to posterity by artists of   world repute such as Rodin, Zuloaga, Whistler, Singer Sargent, de Laszlo, Vuillard, Paul César Helleu, Edmond Lapeyre, Puvis de Chavannes. Many other portraits are also immortalised by the London society photographers Walter Barnett, Van Dyke, Lafayette or Russell Westwood, or brought to life by film directors such as Federico Fellini of ‘La Dolce Vita’ fame, or more recently by opera stage directors such as Francesca Zamballo, David Pountney and even and quite oddly by a young student of Edinburgh University by the name of Gordon Brown, Britain’s future Prime Minister…

Princess Antoine Bibescu by Augustus John (1919)

There is never a dull moment in this gallery of royals and aristocrats but also of ordinary but exuberant women of talent, who fascinated the British society to the point of venting
its wit in the now classic limerick about King Carol II’s mistress, a diabolically seductive and unrepentant divorcee, who kept the English gossip columnists busy for many long years:

Have you heard of Madame Lupescu
Who came to Romania’s rescue?
It’s a wonderful thing
To be under a King:
Is democracy better I ask you?

At the other end of this social spectrum we discover women inspired by loftier ideals: enrolling as fighter pilots during WWII, or breaking world records at parachute jumping, pioneer solo pilots across the Mediterranean, or international sports champions, opera divas, suffragettes shaking the Parisian bastions of male power in the legal profession, in architecture or international diplomacy… women with guts who inspired so many.

These colourful strong-headed and often beautiful ladies, whether of the exile or home-grown variety had all, without exception, an amazing story to tell and often a memorable quote to impart. For Blouse Roumaine is not only a celebration, it is also a memorial to the past, as the stories unfold before our eyes not just as pickings for the literary gourmet and delicacies for the academic palate, but also as an Orthodox liturgy, a Romanian Epiphany which brings alive in our mind a nearly-forgotten but fascinating history with unexpected DNA links to the Western European psyche.

The lyrical, witty, and often satirical and uncompromisingly critical narrative of the ‘Blouse Roumaine’ may appear to some readers if not controversial at least thought-provoking, as it offers forays into some of the recesses of time prior to WWII, reflecting a somewhat politically schizophrenic world of contrasts. To complement this period the reader is offered also a close look into the emotional times of modern communist Nemesis. This is the darker world of the vengeful and remorseless Ana Pauker, Elena Ceausescu and their fawning Court poets which explains the legacy of their system in the post-modern Romania.
The synthesis of such bipolar images conjured in the Blouse Roumaine remains a memorable witness to:

‘the joy and pain and privilege of a writer to save the memories and thereby the physical beauty of past glories, a task which he sets about to carry out supremely well and with an immense joie de vivre’.

. – o O o – .

‘Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women’ preceded by a historical, social and cultural overview contains 1,100 pages, 160 critical biographies, 600 quotations, six indexes and 4,000 selected credits and references.

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The Author:

the Author: Constantin ROMAN

Constantin ROMAN was a Scholar of Peterhouse, the oldest Cambridge College, founded in 1284. He took his PhD in Geophysics at a time evoked in his Memoir published by the Institute of Physics Publishers (Bristol and Philadelphia, http://www.constantinroman.com/continentaldrift/

ROMAN is a Professor Honoris Causa and a Commander of the Order of Merit. He lives in London, where he is a Member of the Society of Authors, an independent consultant and a contributor to British media.

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