"Ivan Turbincă" is an 1880 short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

, fairy tale

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...

 and satirical

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 text by Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n writer Ion Creangă

Ion Creanga

Ion Creangă was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes...

, echoing themes common in Romanian

Folklore of Romania

A feature of Romanian culture is the special relationship between folklore and the learned culture, determined by two factors. First, the rural character of the Romanian communities resulted in an exceptionally vital and creative traditional culture. Folk creations were the main literary genre...

 and European folklore

European folklore

European folklore or Western folklore refers to the folklore of the western world, especially when discussed comparatively.There is, of course, no single European culture, but nevertheless the common history of Christendom during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period has resulted in a number...

. It recounts the adventures of an eponymous Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n soldier, who passes between the world of the living, Heaven

Heaven

Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...

 and Hell

Hell

In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

, on a quest for immortality

Immortality

Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...

. In the beginning of the story, God rewards Ivan's charitable nature with a pouch with which he can trap all things in existence, and used by the soldier to subdue Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

 and the multitude of devils, and eventually serve his purpose of cheating Death

Cheating Death

The phrase cheating death is commonly used to describe the manner in which a person avoids a possibly fatal event or who prolongs their life in spite of considerable odds...

. The text also includes a portrayal of Saint Peter

Saint Peter

Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...

 as the gatekeeper of Heaven, a reference to the miraculous powers of Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas , also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra . Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker...

, as well as humorous references to the lifestyle of local aristocrats, or boyar

Boyar

A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....

s. The protagonist himself is shown to be devoted and intelligent, but is primarily motivated by partying and drinking, activities which he engages in for eternity.

One of Creangă's celebrated contributions to Romanian literature

Literature of Romania

Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....

, "Ivan Turbincă" has become a familiar point of reference for the reading public and critics in both Romania and Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

. It has notably inspired a short story by Moldovan author Vlad Ioviţă

Vlad Ioviţă

Vlad Ioviţă was a writer from Moldova.- Biography :George Meniuc was born on December 23, 1935 in Cocieri...

 and the 1967 Moldovan film

Cinema of Moldova

The Cinema of Moldova developed in the early 1960s during the Soviet period, experiencing a flowering of about a decade and a half. Stagnation followed, and after the Moldavian SSR became independent in 1991, the industry almost completely disappeared....

 Se caută un paznic.

Early adventures

The "Ivan Turbincă" story opens with a brief overview of the protagonist's life in the Imperial Russian Army, which had been his home from childhood. Having survived over the age limit, Ivan is given his weapons and two rubles

Russian ruble

The ruble or rouble is the currency of the Russian Federation and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union prior to their breakups. Belarus and Transnistria also use currencies with...

, and released from service. While traveling down a country road, he ends up walking behind God and Saint Peter, who are visiting the world of humans incognito. When Saint Peter expresses alarm at the sight of a soldier who might be prone to mistreating civilians, God informs that that Ivan is a kind man of outstanding generosity, and urges Peter to test that himself. They transform themselves into beggars, and wait at each end of a bridge for Ivan to pass through. The soldier proceeds to give them both of his rubles, stating that "God will again render onto me, for there's more of his to give." As Ivan leaves the scene, the moved Peter urges his divine companion to reward the soldier. They both catch up with him, whereupon God reveals himself and lets the astonished Ivan have his money back. The soldier kneels and prays God to bless his army issue pouch (turbincă), "so that I may be able to pack inside of it anybody I may wish; and so that they could never get out without my approval." The amused God grants him this wish, and, before leaving, informs Ivan that, should he ever feel tired of roaming the land, he'll be welcomed to knock on the gate of Heaven.

The old soldier continues his aimless travel, determined to put his pouch to the test. That evening, he reaches the house of a boyar, and, profiting from his "Imperial man" status, demands and receives lodging. The reluctant and stingy boyar decides to trick the unwelcome guest by making him sleep inside the only one of his houses where devils are supposed to be roaming. The soldier falls asleep on a divan

Divan (furniture)

A divan is a piece of couch-like sitting furniture; or in the UK, a box-spring based bed....

, only to be rudely awakened when his pillow is throw away by invisible hands, and again when the entire room is animated by loud, onomatopoeic sounds. Ivan puts a stop to this when he yells Paşol na turbinca! (an approximate Romanian

Romanian language

Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

 rendition of the Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 for "Git into the pouch!"), and all devils throughout the boyar's house are absorbed into his small container. He falls back to sleep, but is again woken up by Satan himself (referred to with the popular etymology Scaraoschi), who is infuriated by the loss of his servants, and slaps the soldier over the face. Ivan is much annoyed by this, and promptly orders his aggressor into the pouch, with the other devils. At daybreak, Ivan takes his revenge on the boyar by awaking his entire household, and claiming that he has spend the night trapping rabbits in his bag, and asks the host to provide him with ramrods so that he may peel the skin off the animals. The boyar, understanding of what Ivan means, hands him "a cartload" of sticks, whereupon the protagonist drags the devils out one by one and gives each of them a severe beating, making them promise never to return. The emotional boyar embraces the rescuer of his property and offers him permanent lodging, but Ivan declines, stating that his task is to defend God, "every man's emperor". As he leaves the premises, the narrator notes: "It seems to me that the boyar himself [...] had come to fear the pouch, so he did not feel too sorry at seeing Ivan leave".

Cheating Death

Back on the road, Ivan states his new purpose, that of finding out where God dwells, and invokes the help of Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas , also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra . Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker...

. Immediately after kissing an icon of the saint, he finds himself transported to the gate of Heaven. He repeatedly bangs on it, until Saint Peter, the gatekeeper, asks him to state his name and purpose. Still on the other side of the door, Ivan inquires about the essentials of Heaven, being informed that the place does not hold tobacco, vodka

Vodka

Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....

, women or lăutari

Lautari

The Romanian word Lăutar denotes a class of traditional musicians. Most often, and by tradition, Lăutari are members of a professional clan of Romani musicians , also called Ţigani lăutari. The term is derived from Lăută the name of a string instrument...

, but that he will find all of these in Hell. He rushes there, and has a similar conversation with one of the devils, whose report is to Ivan's satisfaction. Once the gate is opened, the devils find themselves perplexed and, recalling their earlier encounter with the soldier, decide to service him and tolerate his whims. They are left despondent by their new master's drunken partying and exploitative demands, until the creature known as Talpa iadului ("The Foundation of Hell"), portrayed as the cleverest demon, promises to overturn the situation: she creates a drum, and bangs on it the rhythm of march

March (music)

A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...

, tricking the inebriated soldier into believing that war has started. He takes hold of his belongings and rushes out of Hell, leaving the devils to lock the gate behind him.

Ivan then falls back on his original plan of serving God, and returns to the entrance of Heaven, which he obstinately guards for days on end. He is there as a self-appointed guard when Death herself attempts to report back to God for instructions, and, as she insists on getting past him, traps her in the pouch. Leaving the item to hang on a tree, the soldier again bangs on the door, and is allowed inside Heaven for an audience with God. He proceeds to inform divinity that Death is at the gate, but without specifying that she is his prisoner, and asks what orders he should relay. Amused by Ivan's behavior, God asks him to tell the visitor that, for the following three years, she should only kidnap the old folk "such as yourself". The soldier returns, releases his prisoners, and tweaks the original order to say that Death must roam the forests and consume the old trees within the space of three years. This she does and, when the term expires and she runs back to Heaven, she is shocked to find the soldier is still by the gate. A heated exchange follows, at the end of which Ivan sends Death back into the pouch and leaves for another audience with God. The latter, the narrator informs, is aware of Ivan's ruse, but decides to play along: he lets his guest know that he should tell Death to capture the young for three years, and then misbehaved children for another three. Ivan again misinterprets the command, forcing Death to eat first young trees, then twigs, for a total of six years. Once her ordeal is over, she is back at Heaven's entrance, and again in front of Ivan. He again traps her, telling her that this is revenge for people she has killed "since Adam

Adam

Adam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...

", and informing her that she will no longer be allowed out of the bag.

The episode is interrupted by God, who lets Ivan know that he should hand in his pouch and prepare for his own timely death, leaving him three days to prepare. The man uses this interval to reflect on his adventures and fashion himself a coffin. When newly released Death returns to him, Ivan claims not to be aware of how people are supposed to be laid to rest. He exasperates his adversary by dropping himself into the coffin every which way but the proper one, until she decides to teach him by personal example. Once Death is on her back, eyes closed and hands crossed on her chest, Ivan seals the coffin lid and traps her inside. God again intervenes, and is shown to be upset about the soldier's tricks: while he resigns in front of Ivan's determination to live, he punishes him to spend eternity as an old man. The story ends with the indication that Ivan went on to party for ever, boozing and attending a succession of guleaiuri (banquets or wedding parties), and that "he may still be alive now, if he did not die in the meantime."

Critical reception and legacy

Ion Creangă's version of the story probably incorporates an old theme in Romanian folklore

Folklore of Romania

A feature of Romanian culture is the special relationship between folklore and the learned culture, determined by two factors. First, the rural character of the Romanian communities resulted in an exceptionally vital and creative traditional culture. Folk creations were the main literary genre...

 and is believed to be an echo of themes shared by several
European traditions

European folklore

European folklore or Western folklore refers to the folklore of the western world, especially when discussed comparatively.There is, of course, no single European culture, but nevertheless the common history of Christendom during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period has resulted in a number...

. Writing early in the 20th century, researcher Tudor Pamfile

Tudor Pamfile

Tudor Pamfile was a Romanian writer.Tudor Pamfile was born on June 11, 1883 in the village of Ţepu in Tecuci County . He attended primary school and the gimnasium in Tecuci, and the transferred to the Military School in Bucharest...

 integrated "Ivan Turbincă" within a large framework of Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

an folkloric accounts in which Death or Samodiva

Samodiva

Samodivas or samovilas are woodland fairies found in South-Slavic folklore and mythology.-Etymology:The words samodiva and samovila go back to some very old Indo-European roots with a meaning of "divinity", "demon", "rave", "wild", "virgin" and "rage".-Appearance:Samodivas are commonly depicted...

are the antagonist

Antagonist

An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...

s. Also according to Pamfile, the story of a soldier escaping fatality in a fashion similar to Ivan's is present in Ukrainian folklore

Ukrainian folklore

Ukrainian folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in Ukraine and among ethnic Ukrainians. The earliest examples of folklore found in Ukraine is the layer of pan-slavic folklore that dates back to the ancient Slavic mythology of the Eastern Slavs. Gradually, Ukrainians developed a layer...

. The interest in uncovering the links between Creangă's stories and oral literature

Oral literature

Oral literature corresponds in the sphere of the spoken word to literature as literature operates in the domain of the written word. It thus forms a generally more fundamental component of culture, but operates in many ways as one might expect literature to do...

 was later pursued by other commentators. Focusing on the episode in which Ivan plays stupid in front of Death, Romanian researcher of children's literature

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

 Muguraş Constantinescu described the similarity between Creangă's character and Till Eulenspiegel

Till Eulenspiegel

Till Eulenspiegel was an impudent trickster figure originating in Middle Low German folklore. His tales were disseminated in popular printed editions narrating a string of lightly connected episodes that outlined his picaresque career, primarily in Germany, the Low Countries and France...

, a popular character in German folklore

German folklore

German folklore shares many characteristics with Scandinavian folklore and English folklore due to their origins in a common Germanic mythology. It reflects a similar mix of influences: a pre-Christian pantheon and other beings equivalent to those of Norse mythology; magical characters associated...

. Constantinescu, who analyzed the manner in which old age is depicted in the 19th century writer's work, saw "Ivan Turbincă" as standing for a "well-adjusted, cheerful, jovial side" of man's final years, concluding: "Even if [Ivan's] eternal old age is located on the border between boredom and entertainment, it allows room for games, pranks, mischief, which may yet become characteristic for old age, too commonly associated with disease, powerlessness, sadness." Literary historian Mircea Braga, who discussed the presence of folkloric narrative motifs in Creangă's main stories, noted that such texts are usually introduced by a "perturbing situation"—in the case of "Ivan Turbincă", the acquisition of "an item with miraculous qualities." Another such omnipresent element, Braga argues, is the series of "trials" which are imposed on the various protagonists, and which, in this case, are found "in the haunted house episode, in that of hellish partying or in Death's successive pressures." Essayist and literary chronicler Gheorghe Grigurcu comments on the manner in which protagonist defies Death, seeing it as "probably an archaic manner of conjuration

Conjuration

Conjuration is used in many video games, mainly RPGs, where it is usually referred to as summoning.* A notable example is the Final Fantasy franchise which incorporates summoning of monsters to fight alongside the characters....

, the residue of a magic ritual."

A controversial reinterpretation of the story was publicized during the final stages of Romania's communist regime

Communist Romania

Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...

, when the official national communist

National communism

The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....

 ideology came to endorse radically nationalist

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

 claims such as Protochronism

Protochronism

Protochronism is a Romanian term describing the tendency to ascribe, largely relying on questionable data and subjective interpretations, an idealised past to the country as a whole...

. At that stage, retrospectively called "cultural megalomania

Megalomania

Megalomania is a psycho-pathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of power, relevance, or omnipotence. 'Megalomania is characterized by an inflated sense of self-esteem and overestimation by persons of their powers and beliefs'...

" by historian Lucian Boia

Lucian Boia

Lucian Boia is a Romanian historian, known especially for his works debunking Romanian nationalism and Communism.-Bibliography:* Eugen Brote: Litera, 1974...

, Protochronist ideologue Dan Zamfirescu claimed that Ion Creangă was equal or superior to world classics Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

, William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...

, and found Ivan Turbincă, "the character who dominates world history in our century", to be "more contemporary than Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

, Faust

Faust

Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...

, Don Quixote, and Alyosha Karamazov

Alyosha Karamazov

Alyosha Karamazov is the protagonist in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. His full name is given as Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov and he is also referred to as Alyosha, Alyoshka, Alyoshenka, Alyoshechka, Alexeichik, Lyosha, and Lyoshenka. He is the youngest of the Karamazov brothers,...

". Outside of this context, the story served to inspire the Timişoara

Timisoara

Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...

-based writer Şerban Foarţă

Şerban Foarţă

Şerban Foarţă is a contemporary Romanian writer.-Works:* Texte pentru Phoenix , Litera Publishing House, Bucharest, 1976 * Simpleroze , Facla Publishing House, Timişoara, 1978* Şalul, eşarpele Isadorei/Şalul e şarpele...

, who used it as the basis for a 1983 adaptation for the Romanian stage. According to theater chronicler Sanda Diaconescu, the text was fused with fragments from Creangă's other works, and, in general, with "gems from the archaic treasures of Romanian folklore."

The "Ivan Turbincă" story is also popular in Romania's neighboring state of Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

, which, as the Moldavian SSR

Moldavian SSR

The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic , commonly abbreviated to Moldavian SSR or MSSR, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union...

, has been part of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 and is historically included in the region of Bessarabia

Bessarabia

Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....

. The 1967 film Se caută un paznic, made by writer Vlad Ioviţă

Vlad Ioviţă

Vlad Ioviţă was a writer from Moldova.- Biography :George Meniuc was born on December 23, 1935 in Cocieri...

 and director Gheorghe Vodă

Gheorghe Vodă

Gheorghe Vodă was a writer from Moldova.He died on February 24, 2007 in Chişinău. Among the participants of the funeral of the late Gheorghe Vodă were Arcadie Suceveanu, vice president Moldovan Writers' Union, Ion Ungureanu, Vladimir Beşleagă, Anatol Codru, Andrei Vartic, Andrei Strâmbeanu, Mihai...

, was loosely based on the Creangă narrative, and constituted an early sample of Moldovan cinema

Cinema of Moldova

The Cinema of Moldova developed in the early 1960s during the Soviet period, experiencing a flowering of about a decade and a half. Stagnation followed, and after the Moldavian SSR became independent in 1991, the industry almost completely disappeared....

. Structured around a similarly titled experimental

Experimental literature

Experimental literature refers to written works - often novels or magazines - that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style.-Early history:...

 prose work by Ioviţă, it received special notice for its musical score, the work of composer Eugen Doga

Eugen Doga

Eugen Doga is a Moldovan/Romanian composer. After the fall of the Soviet Union he lives in Moscow, Russia.-Biography:Doga was born on March 1, 1937 in the village of Mocra in the Rîbniţa district of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic...

: Moldovan film critic Ana-Maria Plămădeală found it in harmony with the film's "symbiosis of the comedic and the philosophical". Plămădeală also believes that the music and film both created a discreet satire of Soviet pressures on the local population: "The synthetic style of the melodic structure helps the young filmmakers to transfer Creangă's ideas into a world of totalitarian

Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...

 oppression, highlighting the eternal aspiration of a nation haunted by the atrocities of history toward spiritual emancipation." A similar verdict was passed on Ioviţă's original text by literary critic Viorica Stamati-Zaharia, who detected possible ironies aimed at the guidelines of socialist realism

Socialist realism

Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...

. A version of the play was staged in 2009 by Moldovan actor-director Ion Sapdaru, and was notably hosted by the National Theater Bucharest.

The story is among those of Ion Creangă's that have been known to an English-speaking audience since the interwar period

Interwar period

Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....

, when they were first circulate din translation. According to British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 author Paul Bailey

Paul Bailey

Paul Bailey is a British writer and critic, author of several novels as well as biographies of Cynthia Payne and Quentin Crisp.-Biography:...

, the versions rely on archaism

Archaism

In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately or as part of a specific jargon or formula...

s and are unsatisfactory; he recommended new translations, in particular one of the "terribly amusing" "Ivan Turbincă".