Books

The foyer of the Pictura Hall of NTB, will host on Thursday, June 9, 2022, at 7 pm, in the presence of the author, the release of the book The Slave of Success. The Political Life of Victor Eftimiu Under Six Constitutions, Humanitas 2022, signed by Prof. Univ. Dr. Cristian Preda.

The date and venue of the event were not chosen by chance: on the same evening, Victor Eftimiu's play, The Man Who Saw Death, will be performed at the Pictura Hall of NTB at 8 pm. The audience who will watch the performance will also be able to participate in the presentation of this book, in the presence of the author, "full of data, information and insights, of twists of situations, portraits of the era and mirrors directed towards the present (which) conquers from the first pages, inviting to a new reflection on the duplicities and metamorphoses of success in literature and politics"- as the writer Tatiana Niculescu* defines it in the recommendation on the fourth cover of the book.

Iulia Popovici, Ioan Stanomir and Radu Vancu* will be the speakers at the event, moderated by Ovidiu Nahoi, editor-in-chief of Radio France International Romania, and Marius Bodochi, the well-known actor of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre, will illustrate it with a reading of an excerpt from Victor Eftimiu's Confessions.

If we look at the biography of Victor Eftimiu, who "had not only had a vast oeuvre, but also a fabulous life", as Cristian Preda demonstrates, we find that the playwright, poet, prose writer, journalist, who is the main character of the book, was - on three occasions (1920 - 1922, January - July 1930 and 1944 - 1945) – the director of the National Theatre, which he led with grace, leaving behind him a series of achievements, some of which still stand testimony today: busts and paintings of great playwrights and actors, executed by outstanding artists of the time, the publication "National Theatre Magazine", the collection "National Theatre Library".

It was therefore natural for the I.L. Caragiale National Theatre to have the honor to host, in one of its most beautiful spaces, the foyer of the Pictura Hall, the release of a book that reconstructs, from multiple angles, the political and intellectual biography of a great personality of the Romanian culture, bringing "before readers a Romania that has gone through two world wars, six Constitutions, four kings, two republics, popular and socialist, and a totalitarian regime of Soviet origin. The history of Victor Eftimiu's meticulously constructed career is also the history of institutions, mentalities and the writers' guild over more than 70 years" (Tatiana Niculescu).

*Prof. Cristian Preda, political scientist, professor of political science, dean of the Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest.

Ovidiu Nahoi, journalist, editor-in-chief of Radio France International Romania.

Iulia Popovici, journalist, theatre and film critic, performing arts curator.

Prof. Univ. Dr. Ioan Stanomir, literary critic, publicist, political scientist, professor of constitutional law at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Bucharest.

Radu Vancu, poet, prose writer, essayist and translator, lecturer at "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu. President of PEN Romania.

Tatiana Niculescu, writer, former editor and programme producer, and then editor-in-chief‑of the Romanian section of the BBC World Service in London and Bucharest.

Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu