Novel
Journey to the End of the Night
Voyage au bout de la nuit
Louis-Ferdinand Céline · 1932
Synopsis
Ferdinand Bardamu enlists at the start of the war of 1914 and comes back from it wounded and decorated. He then leaves for colonial Africa, goes on to America, where he works on the assembly line at Ford in Detroit, then returns to France, finishes his medical studies and sets up in a poor suburb of Paris, La Garenne-Rancy. Everywhere, from one continent to another, he runs into the same man again, Robinson, whom he met in the war.
Context
The novel appeared from Denoël and Steele in October 1932. It missed the Prix Goncourt, awarded to Les Loups by Guy Mazeline, and received the Prix Renaudot; the Goncourt jury's choice caused a scandal and gave rise to lawsuits. Its language, drawn from popular speech, slang and invented words, divided the critics: some saw a literary revolution in it, others an unreadable book. It was its author's first novel.
Who it is for
Long, in spoken language, without quotation marks or narrator's relays. It reads quickly despite its length, and better aloud.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the great novels of the twentieth century, it was translated into English by John Marks in 1934, then by Ralph Manheim in 1983.
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