Aspects of the Legal Universe in the Novel “Fundacul Varlamului” by Ionel Teodoreanu
In the introduction to his study the author explains that the legal universe is a common presence in Ionel Teodoreanu’s literary work and makes references to the works where it appears. He finds the explanation of this presence in the writer’s family history (both his grandfather and father were lawyers) as well as in his legal formation and profession of lawyer. After referring to the reception of the novel, the author analyses its subject, which is the ideal of passing the moral virtues and dignity on from one generation to another. The legal universe and its specific manifestations occupy an extended place in the economy of the novel, through its main character, Nini Varlam, a talented lawyer who has squandered his vocation, material possessions and life in a Bohemian existence which has brought him on the brink of bankruptcy. He is saved from this situation by his son, who has the same profession but a different structure. The author minutely characterizes the two characters and the secretaries of their lawyer’s offices, relates some of their law suits and describes the world of the courts of law.
Keywords: Ionel Teodoreanu, novel, legal universe, lawyer, impasse, rescue, court of law, prosecutor, character
1. Perpessicius, Doisprezece prozatori interbelici, Bucureşti,Editura Eminescu, 1980, p. 313.
2. Mircea I. Manolescu, Arta avocatului. Şapte prelegeri, Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 1998, p. 275.
3. Cf. Nicolae Ciobanu, Ionel Teodoreanu. Viaţa şi opera, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1970, p. 63.
4. Apud Silvia Tomuş, Ionel Teodoreanu sau bucuria metaforei, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 1980, p. 58.
5. Perpessicius, op. cit., p. 305.
6. Ibidem, p. 310.
7. Ibidem, p. 310.
8. Nicolae Ciobanu, op. cit., p. 226.
9. Ibidem, p. 227.
10. Ibidem, p. 227.
11. Silvia Tomuş, op. cit., p. 99.
12. Cf. şi Nicolae Ciobanu, op. cit., p. 226.
13. Cf. şi Perpessicius, op. cit., p. 311.
14. Ibidem, p. 312.
