Duiliu Zamfirescu (30 October 1858 – 3 June 1922) was a Romanian novelist, poet, short story writer, lawyer, nationalist politician, journalist, diplomat and memoirist.

[3] In 1882, after briefly serving as a prosecutor in Târgoviște and resigning, Duiliu Zamfirescu moved back to Focșani, where he practiced law and was a French language substitute teacher.

[8] Later in the same year, he settled in Bucharest and joined România Liberă's editorial staff, publishing his first volume of prose and poems, Fără titlu ("Untitled"), in 1883.

[11] He was part of a small group of literary figures who oscillated between Literatorul and Maiorescu's circle—others to do so were Vasile Alecsandri, Veronica Micle and Matilda Cugler-Poni.

[13] He nonetheless maintained some distance to the society, and reportedly irritated Titu Maiorescu by collaborating with the newly established anti-Junimist magazines Literatură și Artă Română (edited by N. Petrașcu, on whom Zamfirescu was to be an influence, and Dimitrie C.

[15] He was a colleague of Dimitrie Ghyka,[16] and remembered for welcoming the ethnic Romanian Transylvanian activist Badea Cârțan during the latter's celebrated trip to the Italian capital (1896).

[16] An enthusiastic admirer of Leo Tolstoy's writings, he began work on a monograph entirely dedicated to the latter (excerpts of which were first published in 1892 issues of Convorbiri Literare).

[15] With his 1894 volume of poetry Alte orizonturi ("Other Horizons"), Zamfirescu entered a prolific phase of his literary career: in 1894–1895, Convorbiri Literare serialized his novel Viața la țară ("Life in the Country"), followed in 1895–1896 by Tănase Scatiu, and, in 1897–1898, În război ("At War");[15] in 1895, he also published his collected novellas (Nuvele romane, "Roman Novellas"), followed by the poetry volumes Imnuri păgâne ("Pagan Hymns", 1897), and Poezii nouă ("New Poems", 1899).

[15] His relations with Dobrogeanu-Gherea was tense, but, in 1890, Zamfirescu approved of the decision taken by the Theodor Rosetti cabinet to award the Romanian citizenship to the philosopher (at a time when his Jewish ethnicity would have made it extremely hard to obtain).

[30] He was relieved of his diplomatic post in 1913, at a time when Maiorescu became Premier of a Conservative Party cabinet—this came after a Romanian Army officer reported statements made by Zamfirescu, which he alleged were unpatriotic.

[30] By late 1918, he became a founding member of the People's Party,[32] led by General Alexandru Averescu, and edited the Iași-based voice of the movement, Îndreptarea.

[33] Duiliu Zamfirescu's last published works were his poetry volume Pe Marea Neagră ("On the Black Sea", 1919) and a collection of autobiographical pieces and short stories, O muză ("A Muse", 1920).

An opponent of both strict Realism and rural traditionalism, Zamfirescu ridiculed the works of Junimist novelist Ioan Slavici as "sentimental mawkishness".

[39] Although his similarities with Junimea were extended after he adopted Neoclassical guidelines, Zamfirescu strongly disagreed with Maiorescu and his disciples on the issue of peasant themes and folklore in novels, arguing that the new literature was supposed to draw inspiration from the urban environment and the rural upper class.

[42] As noted by Ornea, Zamfirescu's focus on the latter group and his nationalism came to contrast with his aesthetic guidelines, and, paradoxically, led to virtually all of his novels having a rural background and displaying a strong sympathy for the peasantry.

[43] Thus, Zamfirescu's positive characters lash out at boyars of foreign origins, to whom they refer as "Phanariotes", and tolerate the unscrupulous Tănase Scatiu in their company only because he is from the countryside.

[46] In his fictional world, peasants make brief appearances as secondary characters, noted for their deep respect for the traditional owners, as well as for their dislike of all change.