If one asked what my favourite author was, I could answer it in one second: I love Mircea Eliade!
I fall in love with him during highschool (at my elder sister's reccomandation) and I've read much of his work. "The spirit creates especially when faced with great challenges!"
(Mircea Eliade, Ordeal by Labyrinth)
Mircea Eliade (1907 – 1986) - a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago (Department of History of Religions at the University of Chicago bears his name, as proof of his vast contributions to the literature in this specialized field) - was one of that group of remarkably gifted Romanians in exile which included Constantin Brancusi, Ioan Petru Culianu, Emil Cioran, Eugen Ionescu and many others.
As a theorist of myth, Eliade ranks along with Levi-Strauss, Malinowski and Cassirer.
Eliade was an intensely prolific author of fiction and non-fiction alike, publishing over 1,300 pieces over 60 years. He earned international fame with LE MYTHE DE L'ÉTERNAL RETOUR (1949, The Myth of the Eternal Return), an interpretation of religious symbols and imagery.
I reccommend you to read some of Mircea Eliade's work. It will give you a new perspective about life!
The best known are:
The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion
Autobiograpy
Maitreyi ("La Nuit Bengali or "Bengal Night)
The Novel of Nearsighted Adolescent
Youth Without Youth
The Secret of Dr. Honigberger
With the Gypsy Girls
For me, Eliade represents a symbol of perseverance and wish for training, assertion, of the desire to dream with eyes wide open, to have the courage not only to set an ideal, but also to follow it, turning it into reality - a model for many young people fighting for their ideals, even if this requires many sacrifices to be done.
