Mateiu Ion Caragiale (Romanian: [maˈtej iˈon karaˈd͡ʒjale]; also credited as Matei or Matheiu; Mateiŭ is an antiquated version;[1][2] March 25 [O.S. March 12] 1885 – January 17, 1936) was a Romanian poet and prose writer, best known for his novel Craii de Curtea-Veche, which portrays the milieu of boyar descendants before and after World War I. Caragiale's style, associated with Symbolism, the Decadent movement of the fin de siècle, and early modernism, was an original element in the Romanian literature of the interwar period. In other late contributions, Caragiale pioneered detective fiction locally, but there is disagreement over whether his work in the field produced a complete narrative or just fragments. The scarcity of writings he left is contrasted by their critical acclaim and a large, mostly posthumous, following, commonly known as mateists.