Dimitrie Ralet

Belonging to the upper strata of boyardom, he was of Phanariote and Aromanian descent, and may not have been born in Moldavia; his family history, as well as the circumstances of his birth and early life, remain mysterious and controversial. His father, the Spatharios Alexandru Ralet, was a judge in the northern Moldavian city of Botoșani, and the owner of Bucecea town. Possibly educated abroad, and already a polyglot in his twenties, Dimitrie took over his father's job at the tribunal in 1841 - but only served briefly, and with interruptions. He first published as a translator in 1837, before making his actual debut in 1840, with short essays in social satire that evidenced a deep familiarity with 18th-century French literature. Ralet was an introspective and self-deprecating adherent of Romanticism, whose youthful contributions helped establish a deadpan register in modern Romanian humor.