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Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Ralph Manheim

Paperback – May 17, 2006

by Louis-Ferdinand Céline (Author), Ralph Manheim (Translator), William T. Vollmann (Afterword)

161 customer reviews

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The dark side of On the Road: instead of seeking kicks, the French narrator travels the globe to find an ever deeper disgust for life.

Louis-Ferdinand Celine's revulsion and anger at what he considered the idiocy and hypocrisy of society explodes from nearly every page of this novel. Filled with slang and obscenities and written in raw, colloquial language, Journey to the End of the Night is a literary symphony of violence, cruelty and obscene nihilism. This book shocked most critics when it was first published in France in 1932, but quickly became a success with the reading public in Europe, and later in America where it was first published by New Directions in 1952. The story of the improbable yet convincingly described travels of the petit-bourgeois (and largely autobiographical) antihero, Bardamu, from the trenches of World War I, to the African jungle, to New York and Detroit, and finally to life as a failed doctor in Paris, takes the readers by the scruff and hurtles them toward the novel's inevitable, sad conclusion.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Céline is my Proust!”
- Philip Roth

“This is the novel, perhaps more than any other, that inspired me to write fiction. Céline showed me that it was possible to convey things that had heretofore seemed inaccessible.”
- Will Self, New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961) was a French writer and doctor whose novels are antiheroic visions of human suffering. Accused of collaboration with the Nazis, Céline fled France in 1944 first to Germany and then to Denmark. Condemned by default (1950) in France to one year of imprisonment and declared a national disgrace, Céline returned to France after his pardon in 1951, where he continued to write until his death. His classic books include Journey to the End of the Night, Death on the Installment Plan, London Bridge, North, Rigadoon, Conversations with Professor Y, Castle to Castle, and Normance.

Ralph Manheim (1907-1992) was an American translator of German and French literature, as well as occasional works from Dutch, Polish and Hungarian. The PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation, a major lifetime achievement award in the field of translation. is named in honor of Manheim and his work.

William T. Vollmann is the author of The Atlas (winner of the 1997 PEN Center West Award), Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes, and Europe Central. His nonfiction includes Rising Up and Rising Down which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2003.

Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: New Directions; Edition Not Stated edition (May 17, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780811216548
ISBN-13: 978-0811216548
ASIN: 0811216543
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.2 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 161 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > European > French
- #223 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Classics
- #553 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

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JohnL

Bizarre but enjoyable

April 22, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a review of the Kindle edition of the English language version ...
Voyage au bout de la nuit was originally published in 1932, As a first novel, it was quite successful, and has remained something of a lurking classic. It is loosely auto-biographical. The story runs through Céline's traumatic experiences of WW1, through mostly miserable experiences in tropical Africa and the USA and back to France, where the author-narrator becomes a financially unsuccessful medical doctor in Paris. His style is sometimes choppy, jumping from scene to scene, highly vernacular and often makes use of gross exaggeration. There is a lot of slang - somewhat different from that of today - and I bought this English version to help me through reading the French original. I am a reasonable speaker of French, but there is so much "argot" and unusual colourful expression in this book that there are many passages which I found difficult. Thus I have been able to compare this translation with the original as I go along. It is the only translation I know, and may not be the best, but it certainly captures the flavour of the original. Mostly, the English runs close to the French, but there are many places where the translation is very free: inevitable with a work like this. In these instances, the translator has correctly gone for a view of the woods, rather than the trees. I would definitely recommend this version to anyone who either cannot or does not wish to read the original or whose French, like mine, is not quite good enough to handle it without a crib.

15 people found this helpful

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eclecticmn

A great writer. Dark humor and hyperbole. Who could ask for more?

February 27, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

You have to read this book to appreciate it ... a curmudgeon who engages in hyperbole.... would have gone down as a great writer but he wrote anti Semitic tracts so the French made him a scapegoat after WWII.

I laughed myself sick in some parts.

10 people found this helpful

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Ronnie Tyler

Really excellent and great read

August 16, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Controversial author, controversial book. A semi-autobiographical novel following the life of anti-hero, Ferdinand Bardamu. From joining the army as World War I begins, Bardamu travels to colonial Africa, then to the United States, before returning to Paris to become a doctor.
It’s pessimistic, brutal, misanthropic and I loved it. Céline takes the reader through the muck and grime of life, straight into the night.
Highly recommended.

4 people found this helpful

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Terry

Great work, horrid man.

February 18, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I hadn't read Celine for years and forgot how funny he can be when he turns his pen to satirizing war, french society and human foibles. He wrote some of the most vile pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic tracts of our time, but none of it found its way into the novels I've read. You see more racism in the writings of Hemingway and Fitzgerald than Celine. So a reader needs to separate the man from his work or miss out completely on one of the most seminal artists of the 20th century. "Journey" becomes a little tedious in the 2nd half when it deals with Robinson and his tawdry plans and acquaintances. But at its best it remains one of the great novels and a must read.

2 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Wasted many years before reading this, it will stay with me to the end

January 5, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Read it in French, but had to use the English translation as a crib, the vocabulary is just to difficult and it took me awhile to understand his sentence (thought) structure. But one of the greatest things I've read, powerful dissection of the world from a master without illusion or delusion, and that's hard to come by. The use of language (didn't much pay attention to that in the translation) in the original is hypnotizing. Maybe The Plague is in the same class. Maybe.
i started it late and it took several running starts because of the difficult of the language, but once in, I was had for good. Sorry I lived so many years without it.

3 people found this helpful

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James Reynolds

Worth the wait

February 27, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I don’t know why it took so long for me to read this but don’t you wait. It’s original and still fresh after 80+ years. Although five years near wasted studying French makes me a poor judge, the translation is great. The best section is in the USA circa late 1920s and before that in colonial Africa so the novel sags a little toward the end and is pretty much of a downer despite some LOL moments. It will be a while before I read Death on an Installment Plan but I’m pretty sure I’ll get to it

2 people found this helpful

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Busy Reader: Get To The Point

The most beautiful book I've read, but not for everyone

April 28, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Someone said this is a book for young people, and I think that is true. Celine's writing appeals to those who have little confidence, who are afraid of the world, afraid of failure. His protagonist models a way of dealing with failure and defeat. He doesn't scheme to overcome the scary forces arrayed against him. Instead, he simply walks ahead into the chaos with eyes and ears open. In opening to this imperfect world, he is able to transform tragedy into comedy.

Through observation and writing, he proves to himself that he was greater than his circumstances all along, that he never had to be afraid after all. Celine takes up the garbage strewn about by a ridiculous, meaningless plot line and weaves gold out of it. Here is an example, a scene where Ferdinand acts decisively (a near unique occurrence), to leave his prostitute lover Molly in America and return to France:

“'You’re already far away, Ferdinand. You’re doing exactly what you want, aren’t you? That’s the main thing. It’s the only thing that counts …'

The train pulled in. I wasn’t so sure of my plans once I saw the engine. I kissed Molly with all the spirit I had left … I was sad for once, really sad, for everybody, for myself, for her, for everybody.

Maybe that’s what we look for all our lives, the worst possible grief, to make us truly ourselves before we die."

Similar gems appear on every page of the book. It's not for everyone, I admit. Celine's writing reminds me of sad country music. It inspires me with its sadness. If you're discouraged or disappointed with yourself, reading Celine can reassure you. "Well this apparently worthless man opened up to his worthless circumstances and made something beautiful with them. If he can, maybe I can. I don't have to win, just stay awake and accept whatever life gives me."

7 people found this helpful

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Speaker to Animals

Powerful stuff

April 17, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Albatross of a novel ... Need to get through a few pages to make it fly. Then it sings. Gives you a dose of old-school war. At once funny, gritty and moving. Not for all tastes, but I sure liked it.

3 people found this helpful

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