According to his own recollections, Constantin grew up passionate about storytelling, picking up accounts from the family cook, a senior Romani man (and former slave), and from his maternal grandmother, who was passionate about Napoleon. After mediocre and unruly beginnings in school, he improved himself to take first prizes, being largely motivated by books which were offered to the highest ranking graduate. He completed A. T. Laurian High School in 1903 and went on to study law in Germany, obtaining a doctorate from the University of Rostock in 1910. After returning home, he worked as a lawyer for some fifteen years, both in his native town and in the national capital Bucharest. In the early 1910s, his prose was hosted in "Viața Romînească" magazine. In 1913, Gane took part as a volunteer in the Second Balkan War, destroying his literary notebooks before his departure for the front. From 1916, he also fought in the campaigns of World War I, part of the 8th Chasseurs Regiment stationed at Mănăstirea Cașin. His combat experience was recorded in "Amintirile unui fost holeric" ("The Recollection of a Former Cholera Patient", 1914; Romanian Academy prize) and "Prin viroage și coclauri" ("Through Ravines and Boondocks", 1922). This was followed in 1923 by a family history, "Pe aripa vremei" ("On the Wing of Time").