In contrast to her, Felix is an ambitious intellectual, romantic and sensitive, but because he is totally inexperienced, he sees in Otilia the feminine ideal. The novel is highly descriptive, with lengthy and at times convoluted sentences, and there is a preference for neologisms like 'fata juvenila' (juvenile face), 'aspect bizar' (bizarre aspect), and 'barbat chic' (chic man), which accounts for the modernity of the novel. He consults different doctors, follows a special treatment spending money on medicine and even inviting priests to holy house. Felix is soon attracted to Otilia who is, by all accounts, an attractive young woman, a couple of years older than Felix. Like a romantic person that he is, he falls for it and trusts her, which is bringing him only disappointment because she has left him every time when she promised him otherwise.

In the end, she gives up on her love for Felix and chooses to marry Pascalopol and run away with him to Paris.To her horror he marries a woman of dubious morals and virtue though it seems that they were only cohabiting and not properly married and the relationship is broken off. She ignores this advice and begins wearing even more garish makeup and walking up and down the boulevard in hopes of attracting attention. His money is managed by his uncle Costake (Constantin Giurgiuveanu), who is actually Felix’s father’s sister’s husband. Parental Neglect: Olimpia and her husband constantly leave their two month old son alone on a crib without any kind of railing, resulting in the baby tumbling down from it and dying of a concussion.

A third goes to Otilia, unbeknownst to them, and the rest is stolen by Stănică, who divorces Olimpia almost immediately. He will try later with Georgeta, a woman with whom Felix has a brief fling while Otilia is in Paris.He also has trouble concentrating, and stops the tutoring session after only half an hour, claiming a headache. Downer Ending: Costache is robbed of most of his fortune and dies, Otilia is pressured to leave the house she grew up in by Aglae and she gives up on her love for Felix and ends up running away with the much older Pascalopol.

Aglae is a hypocritical, tyrannical, greedy and cruel woman with no sympathy for anyone aside her own children (and even then, she clearly favors her son over her daughters). Romanul devine o satira vehementa la adresa burgheziei in care relatiile copii-parinti s-au degradat datorita banului. Laser-Guided Karma: After all their machinations and efforts, the Tulea family doesn't get the bulk of Costache's fortune. Pascalopol is jealous of the handsome and young Felix, whom he rightfully sees as a rival for Otilia's affections. Felix can't recognize the woman in the photo, and realizes that the freshness of youth has left Otilia.

This is Călinescu’s best-known novel and shows that he clearly knows his Balzac, with a comic tale of thwarted love, an avaricious old man, grasping and obnoxious relatives and a somewhat gothic atmosphere, set primarily in a capital city (in this case, of course, Bucharest).

In a moment of envy, Felix asks Otilia to stop communicating with Pascalopol, but, after being invited by him at his house, realizes the mistake he made in front of Otilia. Any legal work he gets is either of a very dubious nature or for gullible clients, from whom he takes the money but does little to help. Arranged Marriage: Costache's first marriage was arranged by his and his bride's family, and he had no say in it. At the end of the novel, Felix sees a photograph of an older Otilia, and notes that although she is still attractive, her mysterious, youthful beauty and energy has gone from her face, leading him to remember her words.

At the end of the story, Stănică finally jumps up the social ladder after stealing a large part of Costache's fortune. The second daughter, Aurica, is obsessed with the idea of getting married and getting increasingly desperate as she ages. In a particularly creepy passage, Costache remembers that his young wife was playing with dolls while pregnant. However, they divorce in the end because Pascalopol decides it's better for Otilia to live a free life. While abortion still carries a stigma today, having premarital sex wouldn't destroy somebody's reputation.