ABSTRACT. Two myths, at least, come our way when we contemplate the poet’s heredity and childhood: whether we have a family history of “tainted blood” and, on the other hand, whether the poet’s childhood is unhappy in principle. With examples extracted from Eminescu’s biography, we will give a major “Yes” to the first rhetorical question and a tentative “No” to the second; if further asked to specify if this latter answer holds true only for the Romanian poets, we will have to admit that our expertise extends only that far. pp. 16–19

Keywords: Mihai Eminescu; heredity; within-family study