Worst book? Well, you might not know them, because they're romanian... but here's a list, with names translated and a short summary.
Ion (John) by Liviu Rebreanu.- a farmer is in love with a woman, but marries another only to inherit her lands after her death. Months later, obsessed with getting more lands, he kills his wife and chield and tries to star a relationship with the one he actually loves, but who's another man's wife. John gets killed by the woman's husband.
Ciocoii vechi si noi ( Old kings, new kings) by Nicolae Filimon - A guy named Dinu starts out as a slave for a big-ass archduke, who's the Romanian prince's right hand. In the end, he tricks the archduke, takes all his money, sends him to the madhourse, has 5 chiuldren with his wife.... and gets sacked by another guy only for a stolen pearl necklace.
Baltagul ( The Axe) - by Mihail Sadoveanu - Nechifor, a farmer, dissapears with his sheep . His wife, Vitoria and his son, George, search for him and unvccer the conspiration of two other farmers who killed him for the sheep. t the end, Vitoria kills the two farmers at a wedding, by throwing an axe in each's heads.
O sama de cuvinte ( Some words) by Ion Neculce - despite being in a barely understandable dialect, old Romanian, it talks about both the history of the Kingdom of Moldova in years 1200-1500 and the author's obsession with princess Ruxandra's feet.
O scrisoare pierduta ( A lost letter) - By Ion Luca Caragiale - this one's actually funny, but annoying because it's a bout two political parties who fight for supremacy in the days before the elections, trying dirty tricks such as faking love letters between the members of the other party, or buying the votes of the policemen. Both parties get defeated by a third candidate, that appears only at the end, send by the Government, and the elections are fake, the new guy getting 99% of the votes, when only 28 people voted, none for him.
Maitreyi - by Mircea Eliade : the journey of a romanian guy to India, where he meets Maitreyi, a beatiful indian girl, only 16. He ends up raping her, getting hunted by the police, screwing ugly old ladies on thir way to mount Everest, in Himlaya and when he finnaly meets someone who actually looks good, he's sent back to Romania. The author swears it's the real story, but Maitryi, who actually lived, wrote what actually happened in her book , Dragostea nu moare (Love never dies), where she describes in deatail that Eliade was just a bozo stalking her day and night, and they never did anything romantic, and rape is out of the question since she was still virgin at 89 years old, when she died, in 1988.
Moara cu noroc ( Lucky Windmill ) by Ioan Slavici - the inkeeper of the Lucky Windmill Inn gets into business with Lica, a hunted criminal, and his band. Random murders start occuring near the Inn, and the innkeeper receives lots of money for keeping his mouth shut, When a renegade former soldier, Pintea, appears and revelas that he's got a personal vendetta against Lica, something resembling the Wild West occurs. How does it end? the inkeeper stabs his wife, gets shot by Lica's man, the Inn burns down, Lica rides his horse and end with his head cracked at the base of a tree, Pintea shoots himself and the inkeeper's mother-in-law murders her grandson for money.
Mara - by Ioan Slavici ; Mara, an old woman, is the mother of Persida, a nun wannabe and George, a lazt bum who shot himself in the foot only to not fight in the war. When Persida meets a young german boy, Natzl,she flees with him in Austria, makes him three kids, then gets sold as a slut. Years after, she returns home, onyl to find out her mother, Mara, was now a crazy old woman who sees shiny lights all around and her brother is a serial killer, and she find out she;s got another brother, a step-brother, called Bandi, who's a drug addict. ( yes, these all happen in the 1700 period)
These are only a few of the milder examples.
