Journey to the End of the Night
Encyclopedia
Journey to the End of Night (Voyage au bout de la nuit, 1932) is the first novel of Louis-Ferdinand Céline
. This semi-autobiographical work describes antihero Ferdinand Bardamu
.
Bardamu is involved with World War I
, colonial Africa
, and post-World War I America
(where he works for the Ford Motor Company
), returning in the second half of the work to France
, where he becomes a medical doctor
and establishes a practice in a poor Paris suburb, the fictional La Garenne-Rancy. The novel also satirizes the medical profession and the vocation of scientific research. The disparate elements of the work are linked together by recurrent encounters with Léon Robinson, a hapless character whose experiences parallel, to some extent, those of Bardamu.
Voyage au bout de la nuit is a nihilistic
novel of savage, exultant misanthropy
, combined, however, with cynical humour. Céline expresses an almost unrelieved pessimism
with regard to human nature, human institutions, society, and life in general. Towards the end of the book, the narrator Bardamu, who is working at an insane asylum, remarks:
In 2006 Will Self
described the book as being "a furious attempt to place one man's consciousness at the epicenter of a world that is exploding under the centripetal influences of capitalism, imperialism, consumerism and licentiousness."
and hyperbole
. He writes with the flow of natural speech patterns and writes vernacular
, while also employing more erudite elements.
This influenced French literature considerably. The novel enjoyed popular success and a fair amount of critical acclaim when it was published during October 1932. Albert Thibaudet
, perhaps the greatest of the entre-deux-guerres critics, said that during January 1933 it was still a common topic of conversation at dinner parties in Paris (Henri Godard, "Notice," in Céline, Romans, vol. 1 [Paris: Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1981], p. 1262).
The song End of the Night by The Doors
references this book, as it had a great influence on the work of Jim Morrison
Kurt Vonnegut
cited Journey as one of his influences in Palm Sunday
, and Bardamu's misadventures appear to have influenced Joseph Heller
's Catch-22
.
Charles Bukowski
makes reference to Journey in a number of his novels and short stories, and employs prose techniques borrowed from Céline. Bukowski wrote in Notes of a Dirty Old Man
that "Céline was the greatest writer of 2000 years."
The Xiu Xiu
song "F.T.W." references the book.
The Charlotte Gainsbourg
song "Voyage" also references the book's French and English titles.
In Jean-Luc Godard
's 1965 dystopian science fiction film Alphaville, protagonist Lemmy Caution dismisses a taxi driver's offer of route options to his destination by stating that he is on "a journey to the end of the night". The film depicts the use of poetry as a weapon against a sentient computer system.
Italian film director Sergio Leone
was a fan of the novel and was considering a film adaptation in the 1960s.
The poem inspired the Israeli singer and songwriter Aya Korem
to write a song called "Tania". It is a sad yet satirical song, and Journey is credited in the liner notes
of the album.
The title of noise/punk band Heroine Sheiks
' 2008 release Journey to the Edge of the Knife is a reference to the novel.
The movie Bringing out the Dead
by Martin Scorsese
contains a scene showing the book on a shelf in Frank Pierce's home.
The movie Wild Things
contains a scene in which Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell
) is reading the book when Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon
) goes to question her.
Brooklyn-based hardcore punk
band Swallowed Up included a spoken sample of text from the novel on a track from their 2010 split LP with Black Kites.
illustrated a 1988 edition with 130 drawings.
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Céline was the pen name of French writer and physician Louis-Ferdinand Destouches . Céline was chosen after his grandmother's first name. He is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, developing a new style of writing that modernized both French and...
. This semi-autobiographical work describes antihero Ferdinand Bardamu
Ferdinand Bardamu
Ferdinand Bardamu is the antiheroic protagonist of Louis-Ferdinand Céline's 1932 novel Journey to the End of the Night ....
.
Bardamu is involved with World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, colonial Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and post-World War I America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(where he works for the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
), returning in the second half of the work to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where he becomes a medical doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and establishes a practice in a poor Paris suburb, the fictional La Garenne-Rancy. The novel also satirizes the medical profession and the vocation of scientific research. The disparate elements of the work are linked together by recurrent encounters with Léon Robinson, a hapless character whose experiences parallel, to some extent, those of Bardamu.
Voyage au bout de la nuit is a nihilistic
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
novel of savage, exultant misanthropy
Misanthropy
Misanthropy is generalized dislike, distrust, disgust, contempt or hatred of the human species or human nature. A misanthrope, or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings...
, combined, however, with cynical humour. Céline expresses an almost unrelieved pessimism
Pessimism
Pessimism, from the Latin word pessimus , is a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?"...
with regard to human nature, human institutions, society, and life in general. Towards the end of the book, the narrator Bardamu, who is working at an insane asylum, remarks:
In 2006 Will Self
Will Self
William Woodard "Will" Self is an English novelist and short story writer. His fictional style is known for being satirical, grotesque, and fantastical. He is a prolific commentator on contemporary British life, with regular appearances on Newsnight and Question Time...
described the book as being "a furious attempt to place one man's consciousness at the epicenter of a world that is exploding under the centripetal influences of capitalism, imperialism, consumerism and licentiousness."
Literary style
Céline's first novel is most remarkable perhaps for its style. Céline makes extensive use of ellipsisEllipsis (narrative device)
Ellipsis is the narrative device of omitting a portion of the sequence of events, allowing the reader to fill in the narrative gaps.An ellipsis in narrative leaves out a portion of the story. This can be used to condense time, or as a stylistic method to allow the reader to fill in the missing...
and hyperbole
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally....
. He writes with the flow of natural speech patterns and writes vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
, while also employing more erudite elements.
This influenced French literature considerably. The novel enjoyed popular success and a fair amount of critical acclaim when it was published during October 1932. Albert Thibaudet
Albert Thibaudet
Albert Thibaudet was a French essayist and literary critic. A former student of Henri Bergson, he was a professor of Jean Rousset...
, perhaps the greatest of the entre-deux-guerres critics, said that during January 1933 it was still a common topic of conversation at dinner parties in Paris (Henri Godard, "Notice," in Céline, Romans, vol. 1 [Paris: Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1981], p. 1262).
Influence and legacy
Will Self has written that Journey to the End of the Night "is the novel, perhaps more than any other, that inspired me to write fiction".The song End of the Night by The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
references this book, as it had a great influence on the work of Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
cited Journey as one of his influences in Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday (book)
Palm Sunday is a 1981 collection of short stories, speeches, essays, letters, and other previously unpublished works by author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.-Content:...
, and Bardamu's misadventures appear to have influenced Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller was a US satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His best known work is Catch-22, a novel about US servicemen during World War II...
's Catch-22
Catch-22
Catch-22 is a satirical, historical novel by the American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953, and the novel was first published in 1961. It is set during World War II in 1943 and is frequently cited as one of the great literary works of the twentieth century...
.
Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
makes reference to Journey in a number of his novels and short stories, and employs prose techniques borrowed from Céline. Bukowski wrote in Notes of a Dirty Old Man
Notes of a Dirty Old Man
Notes of a Dirty Old Man is a collection of underground newspaper articles written by Charles Bukowski that were retrieved and published from Essex House in the Open City newspapers and into the paperback series Notes of a Dirty Old Man. His short series was written with a crude humor yet truthful...
that "Céline was the greatest writer of 2000 years."
The Xiu Xiu
Xiu Xiu
Xiu Xiu is an American avant-garde group originally from San Jose, California. The band is the brainchild of singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart, who has been its only constant member since its inception in 2002. His current bandmate is Angela Seo...
song "F.T.W." references the book.
The Charlotte Gainsbourg
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg is an Anglo-French actress and singer. After releasing an album with her father at the age of fifteen, more than twenty years passed before she released two albums as an adult to commercial and critical success...
song "Voyage" also references the book's French and English titles.
In Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's 1965 dystopian science fiction film Alphaville, protagonist Lemmy Caution dismisses a taxi driver's offer of route options to his destination by stating that he is on "a journey to the end of the night". The film depicts the use of poetry as a weapon against a sentient computer system.
Italian film director Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...
was a fan of the novel and was considering a film adaptation in the 1960s.
The poem inspired the Israeli singer and songwriter Aya Korem
Aya Korem
Aya Korem is an Israeli pop/rock singer and songwriter. She was the runner-up for two Female Singer of the Year awards in 2006.-Background:Aya Korem was born on January 7, 1980 in Nazareth Ilit and spent her childhood there. She served as an instructor at the IDF's Armored Corps.Since childhood...
to write a song called "Tania". It is a sad yet satirical song, and Journey is credited in the liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
of the album.
The title of noise/punk band Heroine Sheiks
Heroine Sheiks
The Heroine Sheiks were originally a New York-based Noise Rock band until early 2006, when the band called it quits. In 2008 the band was reformed in Minneapolis, and then only lasting another year. It began in 1999 as a collaboration of Shannon Selberg, George Porfiris, Norman Westberg and John Fell...
' 2008 release Journey to the Edge of the Knife is a reference to the novel.
The movie Bringing out the Dead
Bringing Out the Dead
Bringing Out the Dead is a 1999 drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, and based on the novel by Joe Connelly with the screenplay by Paul Schrader...
by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
contains a scene showing the book on a shelf in Frank Pierce's home.
The movie Wild Things
Wild Things
Wild Things is a 1998 erotic thriller film starring Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Kevin Bacon, Denise Richards, Theresa Russell and Bill Murray. It was directed by John McNaughton. In some countries the film was released as Sex Crimes...
contains a scene in which Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell
Neve Campbell
Neve Adrianne Campbell is a Canadian actress. After beginning her career on stage, and on numerous commercials, she starred on the Canadian television series Catwalk. She then rose to international fame on the Golden Globe-winning 1990s television series Party of Five, playing the role of teenager...
) is reading the book when Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
) goes to question her.
Brooklyn-based hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
band Swallowed Up included a spoken sample of text from the novel on a track from their 2010 split LP with Black Kites.
Publication history
Jacques TardiJacques Tardi
Jacques Tardi is a French comics artist, born 30 August 1946 in Valence, Drôme. He is often credited solely as Tardi.-Biography:After graduating from the École nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris, he started writing comics in 1969, at the...
illustrated a 1988 edition with 130 drawings.
See also
- Le Mondes 100 Books of the CenturyLe Monde's 100 Books of the CenturyThe 100 Books of the Century is a grading of the books considered as the hundred best of the 20th century, drawn up in the spring of 1999 through a poll conducted by the French retailer Fnac and the Paris newspaper Le Monde....