He started primary school in 1891. The author will commemorate this era: "The first pleasures of the printed word and of the science of books also in Maieru I had, in the form of the first readings that I was passionate about, Transylvanian Stories of Ion Pop-Reteganul, about five volumes."
In 1895 he attended two classes at the Border Guard Gymnasium in Năsăud. In 1897 he transferred to the boys' school in Bistrita ("Polgári fiu escola"), also known as the Evangelical Gymnasium in Bistrita (today the "Liviu Rebreanu" National College), where he attended three more classes.
In 1898, when he was in love, the fourth grade student wrote "the first and last poetry". Fascinated by a young actress from a Hungarian traveling band (the naive band, with whom I fell madly in love), he writes a vaudeville, in Hungarian, after the model of the one seen. Later, in Budapest, he cultivated this dramatic genre without success.
In 1900, he began attending the Royal Honvezi High School in Sopron (Ödenburg, northwestern Hungary, near the Austrian border). At the end of the first year he obtained the grade "eminent". As at the Bistrița Gymnasium, he showed a special inclination for the study of foreign languages. The story of the Armenian merchant and his son Gherghel, folklore edited by Vasile Rebreanu (in a children's collection), appeared in Brașov. In 1902, after deviating from the military regulations of the school, he was demoted from the position of quaestor. At the end of the second year of school, he received only the simple distinction. In the third year he also lost the simple distinction, due to the low average "behavior". From 1903 to 1906 he attended the "Ludoviceum" Military Academy in Budapest (although he was attracted to medicine, the courses of which involved unacceptable expenses for Rebreanu's family). Here, again, in his first year, he received the distinction of eminent.
On September 1, 1906, he was assigned as a second lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian army to the 2nd Regiment of Royal Honvei in Gyula. There, in addition to his hobbies, Rebreanu had numerous literary interests: readings, plays, dramaturgical projects. In 1907 he reviewed numerous works of universal literature, sometimes specifying the date of the readings (April 25, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 16 May, 1, 2 July). Among the writers examined were French, Russian, German, Italian, English, Hungarian classics. Several dramatic literature projects were added: Vetélytársak - Örveny (Rivals - The Whirlwind); Valkó föhadnagy (Lieutenant Valkó); Gigi (Ghighi), the last one with characters inspired by the life of the Nasaud "intelligence".
In Budapest and Gyula, he wrote and transcribed five stories, in Hungarian, from the Szamárlétra (Donkey Ladder) cycle, anti-Caucasian satires (unpublished volume). Under pressure from money, he was forced to resign from the army; Previously, writing under "house arrest", he decided to dedicate himself to literature (the Journal captures this moment).
On February 12, 1908, he resigned from the army and returned to Prislopul Năsăud, to the despair of his parents, who knew him as an accomplished gentleman: "Here I got in touch with the Romanian peasant, here I met him better, here I was imbued with all his sufferings and dreams - things that would later pass into my literature ... "On November 1, 1908, he made his debut in the Romanian press in Sibiu, where in the magazine" Luceafărul "his short story called Codrea appeared.