Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Louis-Ferdinand Céline impose avec le Voyage au bout de la nuit une langue orale et brutale à la prose française et manque le Goncourt de deux voix.

Voir plus

Médecin de dispensaire devenu l'un des grands prosateurs du XXe siècle, naît le 27 mai 1894 à Courbevoie. Découvrez les éditions originales de Louis-Ferdinand Céline au catalogue.

0 products

No products found
Use fewer filters or remove all

Louis-Ferdinand Céline: From War to Medicine

Louis-Ferdinand Destouches, known as Céline, was born on May 27, 1894, in Courbevoie, into a family of small merchants. He volunteered for the army in 1912, was seriously wounded in 1914, and discharged: the experience of the war would mark all his work. He became a doctor in 1924 and practiced among less privileged populations, first for the League of Nations, then at the Clichy dispensary.

Journey to the End of the Night and Death on Credit: The Revolution of Prose

In 1932,Journey to the End of the Nightwas published by Denoël et Steele. The novel follows Bardamu from the war to the colonies, from Fordist America to the Parisian suburbs. Its novelty lies in its language: Céline transposed orality, spoken syntax, and slang into literary prose. The book missed the Goncourt by two votes but received the Renaudot and was an immediate success. In 1936,Death on Creditcontinued this formal exploration, with the story of a childhood in working-class Paris before 1914.

Exile and the Last Novels: Castle to Castle, North, Rigadoon

From 1937, Céline published anti-Semitic pamphlets. Compromised by his collaborationist leanings, he fled in 1944 to Germany and then Denmark, where he was imprisoned. Convicted in 1950, amnestied the following year, he returned to France and settled in Meudon, where he resumed medicine and writing. His last novels, Castle to Castle (1957),North(1960), and Rigadoon, published posthumously, transpose his wanderings of 1944–1945 through war-torn Germany. Céline died in Meudon on July 1, 1961, the day after completing Rigadoon.

"Petite musique": Influence and Original Editions

Céline brought the rhythm of spoken language into French prose, what he called his "petite musique," a tireless work of transposition evident in his manuscripts. His influence on subsequent writers is considerable. Original large-paper editions of Louis-Ferdinand Céline are available in the KOEGUI bookstore catalog in Bayonne.

FAQ
  • Which original Céline editions are the most sought-after?
    Journey to the End of the Night (1932) and Death on Credit (1936), both published by Denoël et Steele, are the most in-demand. Large-paper copies, particularly on Hollande or Japon paper, with a signed autograph inscription, command the highest estimates.
  • How to identify the original edition of Journey to the End of the Night?
    The original edition was published in October 1932 by Denoël et Steele. The title page, the colophon, and the complete collation allow distinguishing the first printing from reprints of the same year.
  • How to get an original Céline edition appraised?
    Send a photograph of the title page, the justification of the printing (if it exists), and the binding. As members of SLAM, we offer free appraisals.

Céline is not alone in this groundbreaking language.Émile Zolapaved the way for brutal reality half a century earlier;Patrick Modianowould collect its ghosts. Ouroriginal 20th-century editionsbring together these voices that shattered French prose.