Bucura Dumbravă, pen name of Ștefania "Fanny" Szekulics,Șerban Cioculescu, Caragialiana, Editura Eminescu, Bucharest, 1974, p.351. Szekulicz Constantina Raveca Buleu, , in Contemporanul, Nr. 7/2012 or Seculici (December 28, 1868 – January 26, 1926), was a Hungarian-born Romanian genre novelist, cultural promoter, hiker and Theosophist. Her literary work, mainly written in German, covers romantic stories about the legendary feats of hajduk heroes. They brought her commercial success in both German-speaking Europe and Romania, and were prefaced by Queen-consort Elisabeth of Wied.
Dumbravă promoted many causes, and was involved with several cultural projects, but is mainly remembered for her activity in promoting tourism and environmentalism in Romania. She was an avid traveler and mountaineer, who established some of the country's first hiking clubs. Her travel writing remains a standard in Romanian literature, even though her fiction work is generally forgotten.
Throughout most of her career, Szekulics promoted the inclusion of women in the Romanian Freemasonry. In old age, her essays came to focus on Spiritualist subjects, and, as disciple of Jiddu Krishnamurti, set up the Romanian lodge of the Theosophical Society. She died on her return trip from the British Raj, having attended the Theosophical Conference in Adyar.
Biography
Early life The future writer was born in the city of Bratislava (Pressburg). Her father was either Hungaro-SlovakMarinescu, p.29 or Slovak-Hungarian. On her mother's side, she was ethnic German. Ursula Wittstock, "Zur Deutung der Rumänischen Verse in Clemens Brentanos Novelle 'Die Mehrern Wehmüller und Ungarischen Nationalgesichter' ", in the Babeș-Bolyai University Studia. Philologia 1, Vol. LII, 2007, p.47 Dumbravă herself was raised into German culture, and therefore perceived as a German.Tăslăuanu, p.326-327 Fanny spent her earliest childhood moving between the various parts of Austria-Hungary, visiting Vienna at age 4. A year later, her family had emigrated to the Kingdom of Romania, as friends of the Romanian King, Carol I. Her father worked as an insurance executive, and is credited by some historians with being supervisor of the Masonic Lodge zur Brüderlichkeit.
The royal family soon took notice of Fanny's piano-playing, of her talent for writing German-language poetry, and of her passion for reading Romanian romantic literature.Marinescu, p.29, 30 At the court in Sinaia, she became a confidant and lady-in-waiting of Queen Elisabeth and, in July 1884, made her entry into high society as a guest of the royal couple.
In 1886, Fanny Szekulics became a philanthropist and social activist, founding Tibișoiul Society and providing Sunday school for lower-class children. In later years, she was mainly active as a music critic, art promoter, researcher at the Romanian Academy and lecturer on religious subjects, working with sculptor Carol Storck and musicologist Ion Popescu-Pasărea.Boabe de Grâu, October 1934, p.633, 634 In 1905, she established, together with politician Vintilă Brătianu, Chindia Society, for the preservation and cultivation of Romanian folklore, specifically folk dances. She was joined there by socialite Frozy Nenițescu, who recalled that, at least originally, the society fought against oriental influences in Romanian dress and shunned the "noise-making" tarafuri, and was in turn criticized for its "exclusivity".Boabe de Grâu, October 1934, p.634. See also Marinescu, p.30 Their work was documented in a 1913 film by Nicolae Barbelian, which commits to cultural memory ten individual national dances taught at Chindia.Marinescu, p.29-30
Fanny followed her father's Masonic beliefs and joined into the controversial "Rites of Adoption" Masonry. She corresponded with Annie Besant and Le Droit Humain, becoming recognized as Diva of the Rosy Cross 9th Degree, and probably used the Chindia group in the recruitment of new members.
Literary debut Szekulics' first published volume is Der Haiduck ("The Hajduk"), printed by W. Wunderling of Regensburg in 1908. The same year, translated by Teodor Nica, it saw print with Carol Sfetea of Bucharest, as Haiducul (second edition and third, 1911; fourth edition, 1914).Marinescu, p.30, 35Tamara Teodorescu, Rodica Fochi, Florența Sădeanu, Liana Miclescu, Lucreția Angheluță, Bibliografia românească modernă (1831-1918). Vol. II: D-K, Editura științifică și enciclopedică, Bucharest, 1986, p.194. Pseudonymous, the book enjoyed the allure of mystery, and some assumed that it was in fact a literary attempt by Queen Elisabeth.Marinescu, p.28; Montandon, p.350 The latter had in fact suggested Szekulics' pen name, which echoes the mountainous surroundings of Sinaia: Lake Bucura and the common noun dumbravă ("grove").Marinescu, p.28, 33
A historical novel, Der Haiduck was described in Mercure de France as a fresco of "Romania's first patriots", with an "entrapping subject matter" and a "perfectly adequate sobriety" of tone.Montandon, p.351-352 In Transylvania, critic Ilarie Chendi reported being pleasantly surprised by both the book and the good reception it received in Germany. According to Chendi, the work was notable for its sympathetic depiction of the Romanian peasants, with their "clean and ancient way of life". Ilarie Chendi, "Dări de seamă", in Luceafărul, Nr. 9/1911, p.214-215 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library) Critics were drawn to Szekulics' minute historical research, which included the verification of historical records in the Hurmuzachi collection,Marinescu, p.31; Montandon, p.351-352 but also inspiration from the popular novels of N. D. Popescu-Popnedea. More controversially, she borrowed heavily from a family manuscript on hajduk Iancu Jianu, and was therefore suspected of plagiarism.Marinescu, p.31 The work was also criticized for perpetuating the negative myth of Nikola Abraš (or "Iabraș"), Jianu's main ally, as a traitor to the hajduk insurgency.S. Iancovici, "Iancu Jianu și Nikola Abraš", in Studii. Revistă de Istorie, Nr. 4/1967, p.683
Der Haiduck came out a second time, in 1912, with a foreword by Elisabeth (signed with her pen name, Carmen Sylva).Marinescu, p.34, 35 The same year, Dumbravă completed her "history of the Wallachian uprising of 1821", as Der Pandur ("The Pandur"). It too was published by Wunderling in Germany, and, in Eliza Brătianu's translation, by Carol Sfetea, before being entirely redone in Romanian by the author herself. The narrative centers on the folk hero Tudor Vladimirescu, depicted as the impersonation of national awakening, but also as a ruthless commander and a blunt politician.Tăslăuanu, p.326
Der Pandur was a sequel to Der Haiduck. The final part of this trilogy, focusing on the Wallachian Revolution of 1848, was burned, by accident, before it could be published.Marinescu, p.30 Dumbravă never returned to it, but, by 1918, was conceiving of another novel, tentatively called Book of Sibyl. She still registered success as an amateur musician. In 1913, at Elisabeth's Peleș Castle, her piano-playing accompanied two famous Romanian violinists, George Enescu and Dimitrie Dinicu.Marinescu, p.30-31
Hiker and philanthropist During those decades, the friendship between Dumbravă and Queen Elisabeth centered on their shared interest for hiking through the Southern Carpathians, to and from Sinaia. For Dumbravă, traveling was already a weekly pastime. As recalled by witnesses of these escapades, the physically unattractive and myopic Dumbravă was much admired for her joyful spirit and her adventure-seeking.Boabe de Grâu, October 1934, p.632-633, 634-635 She wore tailor-made mountaineer's clothes, rode a "famous mare" named Liza, and set up her main camp at the Ialomiței caves.Boabe de Grâu, October 1934, p.634-635; Marinescu, p.32-33 According to Frozy Nenițescu, Dumbravă also took political risks, crossing back into Austria-Hungary, and irritating the Hungarian Border Guard officials with her presence.Boabe de Grâu, October 1934, p.635
With the discovery of this passion, Szekulics turned her attention to travel literature. According to comparatist Luiza Marinescu, her subsequent work should be regarded as fitting in with the Romanian tradition of "descriptive romantic literature" (Alexandru Odobescu, Alexandru Vlahuță, Calistrat Hogaș, Nicolae Iorga), but also as informing the German public about "Romanian specificity".Marinescu, p.27, 31 More specifically, critic Mihail Dragomirescu suggests, Szekulics was a disciple of the Junimea society. Himself a member of Junimea, Dragomirescu places the female novelist among the authors illustrating the neoromantic "national ideal" literature promoted, ca. 1900, by cultural theorist Titu Maiorescu.Dragomirescu, p.34, 43-44
By 1914, Fanny Szekulics was helping with Queen Elisabeth's charities, a member of the "Ladies' Committee" at the Queen Elisabeth Polyclinic, Bucharest, and a co-manager of Țesătoarea Career School.Tout-Bucarest. Almanach du high life de l'Indépendance Roumaine, Independența, Bucharest, 1914, p.151-152 With Mărgărita Miller Verghy, Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan and other women writers, Sadoveanu was also a founding member of the Româncele Cercetașe Association, an early branch of Romanian Scouting, and, in this respect, predecessor the Asociația Ghidelor și Ghizilor din România. Lucian Nastasă, Intimitatea amfiteatrelor. Ipostaze din viața privată a universitarilor "literari" (1864-1948) , Editura Limes, Cluj-Napoca, 2010, p.234. ; e-book version at the Romanian Academy George Bariț Institute of History
Soon after, Carol I died, leaving Elisabeth a widow. Reportedly, Dumbravă was able to revive her friend's interest in hiking and literature even after this loss,Boabe de Grâu, October 1934, p.633 and, together with the queen, began work on a book of meditation, the never-completed Cartea Îngerilor ("Book of Angels").Georgescu, p.295-296 She delivered one of Elisabeth's funeral orations upon her death in November 1916.
Cartea munților and Touring Club Fanny Szekulics resumed her activity after World War I. While new editions of Haiducul came out in 1919 and 1925, Dumbravă put out editions of her best-selling new essays: Cartea munților ("The Book of the Mountains") and Ceasuri sfinte ("Holy Hours"). Her first works to be written directly in Romanian, they consolidated her reputation among conservatives and monarchists. According to M. Dragomirescu: "Cartea munților [is] a masterpiece of sound Romanian inspiration and healthy language [...]. Therein is so much love of nature, so much intimacy with the mountains' godly beauties, [...] that it is, without doubt, one of the best works in our literature."Dragomirescu, p.43-44 At the traditionalist review Transilvania, literary chronicler Ion Georgescu upheld Ceasuri sfinte as the antithesis of modernist literature, and as such "a blessing on the Romanian soul".Georgescu, p.295
The new writings blended cultural activism, social ideals, and contemplation of natural beauty. Cartea munților thus stands out for promoting environmental protection, with exhortations such as: "Demand, for each and all, the right to rest in the bosom of nature, the right to sunlight, to fresh air, to the green forest, to the thrills of the desire to climb up mountains".Marinescu, p.27 She was welcoming in influences from the Western Spiritualists, quoting at length from Emanuel Swedenborg's views on the purified and purifying energy of the mountains, concluding: "The discovery of alpine beauty has been a victory of soul over matter." Mystical, ethical and self-help subjects formed the bulk of Ceasuri sfinte, which revives and reinterprets symbolic episodes from various religious sources: the Book of Jeremiah, the Biblical apocrypha, the Acts of the Apostles, Joan of Arc's call to arms, etc.Georgescu, p.296-299