DE LA ITINERARIU SPIRITUAL LA ISABEL ȘI APELE DIAVOLULUI. PRELUNGIRILE ROMANEȘTI ALE UNUI MANIFEST

The study aims to investigate the reception, contextual meanings, and underlying structures of Mircea Eliade's first published novel – and his first work in the "Indian cycle" – Isabel and the Devil's Waters (1930). Starting from the fact that this work, despite the inherent inequalities of a debut, has not yet received the analytical attention it deserves, and from its value as an intellectual symptom, the study traces key elements of the text. These elements are relevant not only for understanding the author's psychology but also for his generation (the cult of adventure, the psychology of adolescence, anti-rationalism, demonic vitalism, defiance of prevailing moral norms and conventions, etc.). Last but not least, the novel is analyzed concerning other Eliadian writings and to the author's deep imagination, his mythology, recurring themes, and motifs, with the protagonist's crisis of European consciousness corresponding to the crisis of realism, opening towards the dreamlike and the fantastic.