„The case of Mrs. Predescu” - Petre Bellu

Before writing about this thrilling book, I would just like to shake off the indignation that grasped me. I bought this book from an antique shop. I must say, at first, I had doubts whether to buy it or not since the cover made me think of one of Sandra Brown’s books. But I bought it. And read it. Reading it, right until the end, I was convinced that it must have been a woman writing it, using a male pen name. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Then, I browsed google and found out that this man really existed. Only a few Romanian antique shop sites showed me some book titles of Petre Bellu, amongst which the most controversial of his works, „The defender may speak now”. But that was all the information I found. Two Spanish sites bring praise, though, to Petre Bellu. Browsing them I found some information about his life and his works. It impressed me the most to see that there were comments of Spanish speaking people that put the novel amongst the most precious „jewelries of the realist literature”. What about us, Romanians? Well, there are few mentions of his name in Romanian. Scribd  site seems to put at our disposal the novel „The defender may speak now”.

Petre Bellu (1896-1952) was born in Roșiorii de Vede, into a poor family, and he spent his childhood in Bucharest. His first novel, published at Ig. Hertz Publishing House, „The defender may speak now” (1934) brings him fame and also the hatred of the famous writers of those times. In the foreword to „The case of Mrs. Predescu” (1935), Bellu gives thanks to Panait Istrati’s support, but also to the publishing house that edited his first novel, being that it had a lot to suffer after it.

„The case of Mrs. Predescu” has at its centre prejudice and social roles. Those imposed by others, and also those imposed by ourselves. Bellu makes a minute description of the feminine soul, but also of the male soul, of the expectations of the parties and their position regarding the requests of the society.

The novel „The case of Mrs. Predescu” was republished in 1991 by Marius Publishing House, which no longer exists. But if it weren’t for its efforts, I wouldn’t have had the pleasure to lose myself in these extraordinary pages, and I would have found myself even more ashamed to discover that, somewhere in Santiago de Chile, people talk about a great Romanian writer that I have never heard of.

Excerpt of „The case of Mrs. Predescu”:

"I want nothing to know about the world! If the world condemns me, so be it!... I want to do it all, against the world. Moreover: I want to get back at the world. What does the world want with me? It wants me to rip off my heart and give it to it, as a satisfaction for its approvals and disapprovals?... Well, I won’t do such a thing! I ask people to leave me alone, and stop giving me advice. I don’t need it. In my heart and mind, I have a more complex and sincere world, with whom I take counsel together when I need it.”