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Camil Petrescu was a playwright, novelist , and poet, and the initiator of the modern novel in Romania. The Last Night of Love, The First Night of War appeared in the interwar period (in 1930) and marked an innovation in the context of Romanian prose by synchronizing with the universal literature of the time. It is a modern novel – subjective, with psychological analysis – and also one of authenticity and experience. Petrescu is against " beautiful writing" (anticalliphile) , preferring to be spontaneous without unnecessary stylistic embroidery. His style is raw, and all verbs have an emotional load, suggesting mental moods: “simt” (feel), “înţelegeam” (understood) , “mocnisem” (smoldering), “am crezut” (thought), “îmi dau seama” (I realize), “mă gândesc” (I think), and “mă întreb” (I wonde).

"It is a modern novel – subjective, with psychological analysis – and also one of authenticity and experience."

In the novel, Petrescu tells the drama of the lucid intellectual, “the story of Ştefan Gheorghidiu, a philosophy student, who lives the agony and death of his love.” The title of the book suggests the two extremes of Ştefan’s life. The symmetry of the title matches the two parts of the novel, and the repetition of the word “night” in both halves of the title hints at the inner darkness that marks the two experiences that consume the main character: love and war. The first part, The Last Night of Love, is completely fictitious and expresses the aspiration for absolute love. It opens with Ştefan as a fresh reservist lieutenant in the spring of 1916, during a concentration on Prahova’s Valley. Ştefan is at the officers’ mess hall, when there is a discussion about love and fidelity inspired by an article from the press, about a man who killed his unfaithful wife and was acquitted in court. This discussion triggers memories in the protagonist of his two-and-a-half years of marriage to Ela, his ex-wife. Initially, his marriage had been quiet, the two leading a modest life but seemingly happy. Subsequently, they receive an inheritance following the death of Ştefan’s uncle Tache, and this radically changes the young couple’s life. A new social status transforms Ela and she reveals her true character, leading to the disintegration of love in the young family.

Under the influence of a cousin of Ştefan, Ela is drawn into a fashionable and carefree world. In the house of this cousin, Ştefan and Ela meet Mr. G, and Ştefan notes that Ela seems very happy around him. He starts to be increasingly suspicious that Ela could be unfaithful to him. After a brief separation, Ela and Ştefan reconcile and he arranges a summer party in Câmpulung. When he sees Mr. G in town, he becomes certain that Ela is unfaithful, and he plans to kill them both. But his plan is thwarted when he is forced to go to the regiment.

Part two of the novel, The First Night of War, is inspired by the author’s real experiences, drawing on his front diary and articles written during the First World War, which gives authenticity to the novel. Dramatic experiences from the front change Ştefan’s attitude to other aspects of life. He is injured and hospitalized, and when he recovers, he returns to Buharest. For the first time, he perceives Ela as being nothing but a stranger to him and he realizes soberly that he could “găsi alta la fel” (find another one). He decides to divorce Ela, leaving her all alone: “absolut tot ce e în casă, de la obiecte de preţ la cărţi, ...de la lucruri personale la amintiri. Adică tot trecutul” (absolutely everything in the house, from valuable objects to books ... from personal things to memories. All the past).