Born a Wallachian subject, Bonifaciu Florescu descended from the boyar nobility: the Bălcescus recognized him as a family member; the Florescus, however, refused to accept that Nicolae Bălcescu was the father.

[3] Despite taking the same name, Nicolae and his two brothers descended from the clan through their mother Zinca; she married Pitar Barbu sin Petre Căpitanul—a gentleman farmer of Prahova, who also owned townhouses in Bucharest.

"[47] Perpessicius also proposes that it formed part of a press campaign "in bad taste", "as vociferous as it was impotent", seeking to undermine Junimea's steady rise,[48] with Florescu "in so very many ways, from the pestering to the inept, ready to censor Eminescu's budding oeuvre.

His mind fuzzy, filled with oakum, his style laden and bombastic, Planning nonetheless to teach us words of beauty, art that's plastic; Dragging his stiff paws of wisdom into verse that we had made, He expects that decent people will take note, like he's obeyed.

[55] Overall, Potra notes, Florescu was largely unemployed, and pushed to make his living by giving private lessons in French—his students included the two daughters of physician Constantin Istrati and the future dramatist Ioan Bacalbașa.

The lessons were a corpus of "critical modern history" (published as a textbook in 1875), discussing such topics as progressivism, the Ancien Régime, British constitutionalism, and German nationalism, as well as the genesis of Wallachian boyardom.

[59] Some controversy did occur locally when Florescu expressed his democratic beliefs in his university lectures, describing boyardom as a bane and congratulating his own family for giving up on privilege.

[60] His early work as a polemicist includes two volumes of Etiam contra omnes ("Even against All"), published alongside the brochure Una suta de adevĕrurĭ ("A Hundred Truths").

[69] Florescu also involved himself in the dispute over Jewish emancipation: with his school friend Damé, he translated into French Hasdeu's Histoire de la tolérance religieuse en Roumanie ("History of Religious Tolerance in Romania").

[75] As a "Red", Florescu tried but failed to present himself as a candidate in Ilfov County: in primaries, his colleagues preferred Eugeniu Stătescu over him;[76] in June 1876, he withdrew from Stindardul, declaring himself exhausted by the elections and by his regular work, the "five hours of daily tutoring".

"[78] In July 1876, minister Gheorghe Chițu ruled Florescu's 1873 appointment valid, but only assigned him to a history-and-French teacher's position at Saint Sava High School.

However, this was converted into a Romance studies chair by government order, then assigned to Gian Luigi Frollo—the enduring perception was that Brătianu was clamping down on French influence, for fear of upsetting Germany.

[91] Similarly, critic Adrian Marino notes that, while Macedonski's program was "constructive, evolved and receptive of the most fecund modern orientations", its main adherents, Florescu included, were "insignificant [and] obscure".

[97] In 1884, the Florescus moved out of Pasajul Roman and to a small house on Calea Victoriei, with Bonifaciu founding a literary serial, Biblioteca Omuluĭ de Gust ("The Library of Tasteful Men"),[98] where he issued the collected poems of Alexandru Depărățeanu.

The core issue was again nationalism: Prime Minister Brătianu gave in to Austro-Hungarian demands, and expelled a group of Transylvanians, including Nicolae Ciurcu, publisher of L'Indépendance Roumaine.

"[111] Florescu was a heavy drinker and smoker, and, according to another one-time student, Constantin Kirițescu, only seemed at ease in coffeehouses and bars; he despised Saint Sava and, with time, only showed up for that work because it paid a salary.

[112] A rumor later recorded by poet Tudor Arghezi has it that he let all his students pass the final exams if they bought one of his books—Florescu himself handed them their copies, after rummaging through a coffer that also included "his and his wife's dirty linen", as well as "Swiss-cheese rind".

[114] While his picturesque demeanor was laughed at, Florescu's erudition was acclaimed, in particular concerning his passionate Saint Sava lessons about 18th-century French literature, which was regarded as his main field of expertise.

[108] Novelist Gala Galaction, who studied in a parallel class, under Tănase Tănăsescu, recalled in 1930 that Florescu was dismissive toward his colleagues, but also that he had reason be proud: "haughty, daydreaming, with something missing upstairs, [he was] still one great scholar".

[117] Also in 1889, Florescu translated Catulle Mendès' Imagerie parisienne, adding his own "Romanian Sanguines",[12][118] and returned to the University of Bucharest with another "free" course, this time on French literature.

[120] Interested in spiritism, from about 1890 Florescu also attended Hasdeu's séances, alongside Bishop Ghenadie, George Ionescu-Gion, and Ioan S. Nenițescu; Theodor Speranția acted as medium.

[122] His work of the period also covered selections from other classics and moderns of French literature: Molière, Voltaire, Rodolphe Töpffer, Alexandre Dumas, Edgar Quinet, George Sand, Henri Murger, Paul Armand Silvestre, Théodore de Banville, and José-Maria de Heredia; more exotically, he also rendered into Romanian works by Walter Scott and Fernán Caballero, as well as samples of Malagasy and Indian poetry.

"[128] Joining the nonpartisan Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians, Florescu was a direct contributor to its irredentist propaganda, working alongside the Italian sympathizer Roberto Fava.

[132] Bibesco then enlisted Florescu's services in clearing Prince Gheorghe of the allegations that he intended to concede all of Wallachia's mining industry to Russian venture capitalists.

"[135] Reflecting back on the period in 1939, Iorga himself noted: "Shame that in this literary world of ours, guided by groups and interests, that poor man never heard a good word for that consuming labor of his and for his true talent, inherited from his father.

"[136] Florescu gathered his Literatorul pieces as Aquarele și poeziĭ în proză ("Watercolors and Prose Poems"), with contributions by Demetriade and a C. Drăgulinescu, and with samples from Murger.

[122] Before August 1899, Florescu's work was hampered by an illness, later diagnosed as ventricular hypertrophy; he was living with his family in a small house on Speranței Street, north of Colțea Hospital.

[154] As a literary innovator directly inspired by Catulle Mendès,[155] Florescu tied to popularize a genre prose poetry "from life", the so-called "watercolors" or "sanguines".

[158] Florescu also earned some attention as a literary essayist, popularizer, and critic—much inspired by four scholars, whom he deemed the elite of French literature: Abel-François Villemain, Sainte-Beuve, Hippolyte Taine, and Emile Hennequin.

[37] Bonifaciu Florescu's work and family history gained more exposure after the August 1944 coup and during early Romanian communism, when left-wing ideologies turned Bălcescu into their hero.