The article examines a novel literary phenomenon, namely, the double condition of the Romanian short story from 1830 to 1860. Having had a spectacular evolution, this literary genre which includes romantic and realistic formulas, denotes individual paradigms and outlooks. The short story based on the revolutionary ideological movement during 1848 consisting of melodramatic, autobiographical and historical elements rendered frequently in the form of memoirs, fulfills, first and foremost, not only the function of artistic representation of the social and moral realities (Zoe by Constantin Negruzzi, Buchetiera de la Florența and Istoria unui galbân by Vasile Alecsandri, etc.), but also emphasizes a critical perspective in relation to the epic cliches of the mentioned period. Thus, it explains the presence of reprehensible and ironic responses found in the romantic narrative procedures in the short stories O alergare de cai by Constantin Negruzzi and Iluzii pierdute… Un întăi amor by Mihail Kogălniceanu.