In this exuberant and touching portrait of youth, Eliade recounts the fictional version of his university years in late 1920's Bucharest. Marked by a burgeoning desire to 'suck out all the marrow of life', the protagonist throws himself into his studies; engaging his professors and peers in philosophical discourse, becoming one of the founding members of the Student's Union, and opening---up the attic refuge of his isolated teenage years as a hotspot for political debate and romantic exploration.

Readers will recognize in these pages the joy of a life about to blossom, of the search for knowledge and the desire for true love. Already an accomplished writer as a young man, this follow-up to his Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent reveals a keen observer of human behaviour, a seeker of truth and spiritual fulfillment whose path would eventually lead him to become the ultimate historian of 20th-century religions.

Mircea Eliade was born in 1907 in Bucharest. In 1957 he took up the chair of history of religion at the University of Chicago, a post that he held until his death in 1986. His work includes studies of religion that remain influential, such as The Sacred and the Profane, and numerous works of literature, including The Forbidden Forest, Bengal Nights and Youth without Youth. Christopher Bartholomew is the translator of Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area.