![]() ![]() Creangă recounts his early disappointment with school activities and appetite for truancy, noting that his motivations for attending were the promise of a priest's career, the close supervision of his mother, the prospects of impressing Smărăndița, and the material benefits of singing in the choir. The fragment is also a humorous retrospective account of his interactions with other children, from their favorite pastimes (trapping flies with the horologion) to Creangă's crush on Smărăndița and the misuse of corporal punishment by a jealous peer tutor. ![]() One of the first episodes detailed by the book relates to corporal punishment as recommended by the priest: children were made to sit on a chair known as Calul Balan ('White Horse') and strapped with a device called Sfântul Nicolai (or 'Saint Nicholas', after the school's patron saint). ![]() The first chapter introduces and focuses on several characters directly linked to Nică's earliest school years: Vasile an Ilioaei, the young teacher and Orthodox cleric, who enlists him in the new class Vasile's supervisor, the stern parson Smărăndița, the intelligent but misbehaved daughter of the priest Creangă's father Ștefan and mother Smaranda. Creangă's account opens with an extended soliloquy and a nostalgic description of his native area, with a short overview of Humulești's history and his family's social status. ![]()
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May 2023
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