Louis-Ferdinand Céline was the
pen nameA pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
of French writer and
doctorA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
Louis-Ferdinand Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961). The name "Céline" was chosen after his grandmother's first name. Céline is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, developing a new style of writing that modernized both French and World literature. He remains, however, a controversial figure because of extreme anti-Semitic statements published during 1937 and the Second World War.
Early life
The only child of Ferdinand-Auguste Destouches and Marguerite-Louise-Céline Guilloux, he was born Louis-Ferdinand Destouches in 1894 at
CourbevoieCourbevoie is a commune in the north-western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 8.2 km. from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe....
, just outside Paris in the
SeineSeine was a département of France encompassing Paris and its immediate suburbs. Its préfecture was Paris and its official number was 75. The Seine département was abolished in 1968 and its territory divided among four new départements....
département (now
Hauts-de-SeineHauts-de-Seine is a département in France. It is part of the region of Île-de-France region, and covers the near western suburbs of Paris...
). His father was a minor functionary in an insurance firm and his mother was a lacemaker. During 1905 he was awarded his
Certificat d'études, after which he began working as an apprentice and messenger boy in various trades. Between 1908 and 1910 his parents sent him to Germany and England for a year in each country in order to acquire foreign languages for future employment. In 1912, at a time when nationalism in France reached a "fever pitch" following the Morocco crisis of 1911 and induced a period one historian has called "The Hegemony of Patriotism, 1911-1914, particularly affecting opinion in the
lycées and
grandes écoles of Paris, he began a three-year enlistment in the 12th Cavalry Regiment stationed in Rambouillet. During October 1914 he was wounded in action near Ypres, and was awarded the
médaille militaire in November, and appeared on the cover of the weekly
l'Illustré National in December. The head injury left him with recurrent
tinnitusTinnitus is the perception of sound within the human ear in the absence of corresponding external sound....
. During 1915 his arm wounds were such that he was declared physically unfit for any more active duty. He was sent to London to work in the passport office there. While in London, he was married to Suzanne Nebout and divorced one year later. During 1916 he began a sojourn in the
CameroonsBritish Cameroons was a British Mandate territory in West Africa, now divided between Nigeria and Cameroon.The area of present-day Cameroon was claimed by Germany as a protectorate during the "Scramble for Africa" at the end of the 19th century...
with a French lumber company and returned in 1917. For the next three years he worked for the
Rockefeller FoundationThe Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
in
BrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Brittany was previously a kingdom and then as a duchy it was a fief of the Kingdom of France. It was at one time called Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, dispensing information on tuberculosis, while continuing his secondary studies on his own in
RennesThe Parlement de Bretagne| map =|region = Bretagne|department = Ille-et-Vilaine|arrondissement = Rennes|canton = Chief town of 11 cantons|INSEE = 35238...
. During 1919 he completed his baccalauréat and married Édith Follet, daughter of the director of the medical school in
RennesThe Parlement de Bretagne| map =|region = Bretagne|department = Ille-et-Vilaine|arrondissement = Rennes|canton = Chief town of 11 cantons|INSEE = 35238...
. During 1920 his daughter Colette was born. During 1924 he received his medical degree, for which he wrote a doctoral thesis on Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis. During 1925 he left his family for good and under the aegis of the
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
he travelled to Switzerland, England, the Cameroons, Canada, the United States, and Cuba. During 1928 he established a private practice in
MontmartreMontmartre is a hill which is 130 meters high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...
, in the north end of Paris, specializing in
obstetricsObstetrics is the surgical specialty dealing with the care of women and their children during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal. Midwifery is the non-medical equivalent...
. During 1931 he ended his private practice to work in a public dispensary.
During 1932 he completed
Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of the NightJourney to the End of Night is the first novel of Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work describes antihero Ferdinand Bardamu....
) and was almost awarded the Goncourt Prize.
Literary life and awards
His best-known work is
Voyage au bout de la nuit (
Journey to the End of the NightJourney to the End of Night is the first novel of Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work describes antihero Ferdinand Bardamu....
), translated into English most recently by
Ralph ManheimRalph Frederick Manheim was an American translator of German and French literature, as well as occasional works from Dutch, Polish and Hungarian...
. It violated many of the literary conventions of the time, using the rhythms and, to a certain extent, the vocabulary of slang and vulgar speech in a more consistent (and occasionally difficult) way than earlier writers who had made similar attempts (notably
Émile ZolaÉmile François Zola was an influential French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism, an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalisation of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused...
), in the tradition of
François VillonFrançois Villon was a French poet, thief, and vagabond. He is perhaps best known for his Testaments and his Ballade des Pendus, written while in prison...
. The book became a public success, but Céline was not awarded the
Prix GoncourtThe Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"...
, despite strong support; the voting was controversial enough to become the subject of a book (
Goncourt 32 by Eugène Saccomano, 1999).
During 1936 he published
Mort à crédit (
Death on the Installment PlanDeath on Credit is a novel by author Louis-Ferdinand Céline, published in 1936. The most common, and generally most respected English translation is Ralph Manheim's....
), giving innovative, chaotic, and antiheroic visions of human suffering. Here, he extensively uses ellipses scattered all throughout the text to enhance the rhythm and to emphasise the style of speech.
By both these books he not only showed himself to be a great innovator of style but also a masterful story teller. He was widely admired at that time by
Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy and Existentialism, and his work continues to influence further...
.
Exile
During the development of Nazi Germany, he wrote three typically cynical and antisemitic pamphlets:
Bagatelles pour un massacre (Trifles for a Massacre) (1937),
L'École des cadavres (School of Corpses) (1938) and
Les Beaux draps (The Fine Mess) (1941), the last one published during the occupation of France. Céline fled France during liberation, and joined the last remnants of the Vichy government in
SigmaringenSigmaringen is a town in southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Situated on the upper Danube, it is the capital of the Sigmaringen district....
. He subsequently lived in exile for a number of years.
The massacre that Céline had in mind when he titled his first overtly antisemitic pamphlet
Bagatelles pour un massacre was that of the "goïms," or Gentiles, who he thought would be led in slaughter once again in another great war. Céline had been mobilized during the First World War where he received a serious arm injury in the course of a mission for which he had volunteered. During later years he was to claim that he had undergone
trepanationTrepanation is a medical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater in order to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases. It may also refer to any "burr" hole created through other body surfaces, including nail beds...
at the hands of army surgeons in 1915 (the fictional character Robinson claims to have undergone this procedure in
Journey to the End of the Night). This claim was a false one, invented for reasons involving Céline's desire to picture himself as an unjustly persecuted loner. Records from the Paul Brousse Hospital in Villejuif on the outskirts of Paris state that only his arm was operated on.
Although Céline's political ideals appeared to have had much in common with the Nazis, he was publicly critical of
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
whom he called a "Jew" and of "Aryan baloney". His
fascistFascism, , comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology and a corporatist economic ideology developed in Italy. Fascists believe that nations and/or races are in perpetual conflict whereby only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and by asserting themselves in...
views are evident in
L'Ecole des cadavres where he calls for a Franco-German alliance in order to counter the alliance between British intelligence and "the international Jewish conspiracy"
Céline was a friend of the German-French sculptor
Arno BrekerArno Breker was a German sculptor, best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, which were endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of so-called "degenerate art"....
.
He visited Breker last time in Germany during 1943 at Breker's Castle Jaeckelsbruch near Berlin. After the Vichy regime fell in 1944, Céline escaped judgment by fleeing to
SigmaringenSigmaringen is a town in southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Situated on the upper Danube, it is the capital of the Sigmaringen district....
, Germany, accompanying the Vichy Chief of State Marshal
Philippe PétainHenri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
, and President
Pierre LavalPierre Laval was a French politician. He served four times as President of the council of ministers of the Third Republic, twice consecutively. Following France's Armistice with Germany in 1940, he served twice in the Vichy Regime as head of government. After the Liberation , he was arrested,...
. For a brief time Céline acted as Laval's personal physician.
A fictional account of this period can be found in Céline’s novel "D'un château l'autre" (
Castle to CastleCastle to Castle is the English title of the 1957 novel by Louis-Ferdinand Celine, titled in French D'un château l'autre. Written about his experiences in exile with the Vichy French government in Germany towards the end of the war at Sigmaringen....
), published in 1960.
After the end of the Nazi government Céline subsequently fled to Denmark (1945). Named a collaborator, he was convicted in absentia (1950) in France, sentenced to one year of imprisonment and declared a national disgrace.
He was subsequently granted amnesty and returned to France during 1951.
Later life and death
Céline regained fame in later life with a trilogy telling of his exile:
D'un château l'autre, (describing the fall of
Schloss SigmaringenSigmaringen Castle was the princely castle and seat of government for the Princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Situated in the Swabian Alb region of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, this castle dominates the skyline of the town of Sigmaringen...
),
Nord and
Rigodon. He settled in Meudon, where he was visited by several friends and artists, among them the famous actress
Arletty-Biography:Arletty was born Léonie Marie Julie Bathiat in Courbevoie , to a working-class family. Her early career was dominated by the music hall, later appearing in plays and cabaret. Arletty was a stage performer for ten years before her film debut in 1930...
. He became famous among the Beat Movement. Both
William S. BurroughsWilliam Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer.Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life...
and
Allen GinsbergIrwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet. Ginsberg is best known for the poem "Howl" , in which he celebrates fellow members of the Beat Generation and critiques what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States.-Early life and family:Ginsberg was born into...
visited him in his Parisian apartment during the 1950s. Céline died on 1 July 1961 of a ruptured aneurysm and was interred in a small cemetery at Bas Meudon (part of
MeudonMeudon is a municipality in the south-western suburbs of Paris, France. It is in the département of Hauts-de-Seine. It is located from the center of Paris.-Geography:...
in the
Hauts-de-SeineHauts-de-Seine is a département in France. It is part of the region of Île-de-France region, and covers the near western suburbs of Paris...
département). His house burned down on the night of May 23, 1968, destroying manuscripts, furniture and mementoes, but leaving his parrot Toto alive in the adjacent aviary.
Work and legacy
Journey to the End of the NightJourney to the End of Night is the first novel of Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work describes antihero Ferdinand Bardamu....
is among the most acclaimed novels of the 20th century. Céline's legacy survives in the writings of
Samuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish writer, dramatist and poet. Beckett's work offers a bleak outlook on human culture and both formally and philosophically became increasingly minimalist....
,
Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy and Existentialism, and his work continues to influence further...
, Queneau and
Jean GenetJean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...
among others, and in the admiration expressed for him by people like
Jean-Marie Gustave Le ClézioJean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio , usually identified as J. M. G. Le Clézio, is a globetrotting French author, professor, and Nobel laureate...
, Robbe-Grillet, and Barthes. In the United States, writers like
Charles BukowskiHenry Charles Bukowski was a German American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Bukowski's writing was heavily influenced by the geography and atmosphere of his home city of Los Angeles, and is marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol,...
,
Henry MillerHenry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
,
Jack KerouacJack Kerouac was an American author, poet and painter. Alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, he is considered a pioneer of the Beat Generation....
,
Joseph HellerJoseph Heller was an American satirical novelist, short story writer and playwright. He wrote the influential novel Catch-22 about American servicemen during World War II...
, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.,
William S. BurroughsWilliam Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer.Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life...
, and
Ken KeseyKenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s...
owe an obvious debt to the author of
Voyage au bout de la nuit, though the relatively late date of the first English language translation means that any direct influence can be difficult to demonstrate, except of course in Henry Miller's case, who read the book in French shortly after it was published while he was living in Paris. Few first novels have had the impact of
Journey to the End of the Night. Written in an explosive and highly colloquial style, the book shocked most critics but found immediate success with the French reading public, which responded enthusiastically to the violent misadventures of its petit-bourgeois antihero, Bardamu, and his characteristic nihilism. The author's military experiences in WWI, his travels to colonial French West Africa, New York, and his return to postwar France all provide episodes within the sprawling narrative.
Pessimism pervades Céline's fiction as his characters sense failure, anxiety, nihilism, and inertia. The narrative of betrayal and exploitation, both real and imagined, corresponds with his personal life. His two true loves, his wife and his cat, are mentioned with nothing other than kindness and warmth. A progressive disintegration of personality appears in the stylistic incoherence of his books based on his life during the war:
Guignol's Band, D'un château l'autre and
Nord. However, some critics claim that the books are less incoherent than intentionally fragmented, and that they represent the final development of the style introduced with
Journey to the End of the Night, suggesting that Céline maintained his faculties in clear working order to the end of his days.
Guignol's Band and its companion novel
London Bridge center on the London underworld during WWI. (In
London Bridge a sailboat appears, bearing the name
King Hamsun, obviously a tribute to
another collaborationist writerKnut Hamsun was a Norwegian author. He was considered by Isaac Bashevis Singer to be the "father of modern literature", and by King Haakon to be Norway's soul. In 1920, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil"...
.) Celine's autobiographical narrator recounts his disastrous partnership with a mystical Frenchman (intent on financing a trip to Tibet by winning a gas-mask competition); his uneasy relationship with London's pimps and prostitutes and their common nemesis, Inspector Matthew of Scotland Yard. These novels are classic examples of his black comedy which few writers have equaled.. He continued writing right up to his death in 1961, finishing his last novel,
Rigodon, in fact on the day before he died. In
Conversations with Professor Y (1955) Céline defends his style, indicating that his heavy use of the ellipsis and his disjointed sentences are an attempt to embody human emotion in written language.
His writings are examples of black comedy, where unfortunate and often terrible things are described humorously. Céline's writing is often hyper-real and its
polemicPolemics is the practice of disputing or controverting significant, broad-reaching topics of magnitude such as religious, philosophical, political, or scientific matters...
qualities can often be startling; however, his main strength lies in his ability to discredit almost everything and yet not lose a sense of enraged humanity. Céline was also an influence on
Irvine WelshIrvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. He has also written plays and screenplays, and directed several short films.-Biography:...
,
Günter GrassGünter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author and playwright.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
and
Charles BukowskiHenry Charles Bukowski was a German American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Bukowski's writing was heavily influenced by the geography and atmosphere of his home city of Los Angeles, and is marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol,...
. Bukowski has famously said that "
Journey to the End of the Night was the best book written in the last two thousand years."
As the years go by and the future unfolds, attitudes might change regarding Céline's role on the French political scene beginning in 1937. But the existence of the pamphlets will probably forever be a stumbling block to admirers of his novels.
External links