Louis-Ferdinand Céline, página 2 de 5

Con Viaje al fin de la noche, Céline se situó en una posición de privilegio en las letras francesas, de la que ninguna consideración extraliteraria lograría desbancarlo. La prosa amarga y quebradiza de Celine, su caracteristico ritmo acelerado, el lirismos descarnado con que construyo a sus personajes o la altiva mueca con que contemplo la existencia con claves indispensables para comprender la literatura europea y latinoamericana actual

First published in 1932, "Journey to the End of the Night" is regarded as Celine's masterpiece. It is told in the first person and is based on his own experiences during the First World War; in French colonial Africa; in the USA - where he worked for a while at the Ford factory in Detroit - and later as a young doctor in a working class suburb in Paris.The novel gives a picture of those years as seen by an underdog. Celine is very much the product of his age and was particularly marked - like so many other writers - by the senseless carnage of the First World War. Celine's disgust with human folly, malice, greed and the mess that man has made of society and of his own environment lies behind the bitterness and bile that distinguishes his writing and gives it its force. This is exemplified in the superb portraits of mainly ordinary human beings coping with their lives as best they can; caught in poverty or their obsessions - hindered from evading traps of their own making by ignorance and prejudice.

When Celine's first novel, "Journey to the End of the Night" was first published in 1932 it created an instant scandal, being extravagantly praised by its supporters and savagely attacked by its horrified opponents. Four years later came the sequel, "Death on Credit". Both were a new kind of novel, frank about the author's thoughts and actions in a ways that readers had never encountered, ultra-realistic, and full of incidents that could not possibly be true to life, characters that stretched the imagination in spite of their having obviously been drawn from life.In "Death on Credit" Ferdinand Bardamu, Celine's alter ego, is a doctor in Paris, treating the poor who seldom pay him but who take every advantage of his availability. The action is not continuous but goes back in time to earlier memories and often moves into fantasy, especially in Bardamu's sexual escapades; the style becomes deliberately rougher and sentences disintegrate to catch the flavour of the teeming world of everyday Parisian tragedies, struggles to make a living, illness, venereal disease, the sordid stories of families whose destiny is governed by their own stupidity, malice, lust and greed. This fascinating book by one of the greatest 20th Century novelists is an unforgettable experience for the reader.

When Celine's first novel, Journey to the End of the Night was first published in 1932, it created an instant scandal, being extravagantly praised by its supporters and savagely attacked by its horrified opponents. Four years later came the sequel, Death on Credit. Both were a new kind of novel, frank about the author's thoughts and actions in ways that readers had never encountered, ultra-realistic - and full of incidents that could not possibly be true to life - and characters that stretched the imagination.In Death on Credit, Ferdinand Bardamu, Celine's alter ego, is a doctor in Paris, treating the poor who seldom pay him but who take every advantage of his availability. The action is not continuous but goes back in time to earlier memories and often moves into fantasy, especially in Bardamu's sexual escapades; the style becomes deliberately rougher and sentences disintegrate to catch the flavour of the teeming world of everyday Parisian tragedies, the struggle to make a living, illness, venereal disease, the sordid stories of families whose destiny is governed by their own stupidity, malice, lust and greed. This fascinating book by one of the greatest twentieth-century novelists is an unforgettable experience for the reader.

Con el relato de la trágica historia de Semmelweis, el autor francés quiere denunciar la comunidad científica del siglo XIX.

Céline au milieu de l'Allemagne en flammes. Avec ses compagnons d'infortune, - sa femme Lili, l'acteur Le Vigan, et le chat Bébert -, le voici à Baden-Baden dans un étrange palace où le caviar, la bouillabaisse et le champagne comptent plus que les bombardements, puis dans Berlin en ruines, et enfin à Zornhof dans une immense propriété régie par un fou. C'est une gigantesque tragédie-bouffe, aux dimensions d'un pays qui s'effondre, vécue par celui qui se nomme lui-même « le clochard vieillard dans la merde ».

Guignol´s band, inédita hasta ahora en español, constituye la tercera parte de la serie narrativo-autobiográfica que comienza con Viaje al fin de la noche y continúa en Muerte a crédito, y es aquí donde la revolución lingüística iniciada en aquéllas llega a su punto culminante. Céline narra de un modo esperpéntico y alucinado las experiencias de Ferdinand, en el milieu francés de Londres -auténtico oasis de humanidad y libertad frente al horror de la guerra de la que acaba de escapar herido física pero sobre todo psíquicamente- durante el período 1915-1916, y la obra constituye un curioso y paradójico homenaje a la sociedad inglesa y a sus valores más intrínsecos.

Le roman foisonnant où Céline raconte son enfance et sa jeunesse : " C'est sur ce quai-là, au 18, que mes bons parents firent de bien tristes affaires pendant l'hiver 92, ça nous remet loin. " C'était un magasin de " Modes, fleurs et plumes ". Y avait en tout comme modèles que trois chapeaux, dans une seule vitrine, on me l'a souvent raconté. La Seine a gelé cette année-là. Je suis né en mai. C'est moi le printemps.

«La vérité, là, tout simplement, la librairie souffre d'une très grave crise de mévente. Allez pas croire un seul zéro de tous ces prétendus tirages à 100 000 ! 40 000 ! ... et même 400 exemplaires ! ... attrape-gogos ! Alas ! ... Alas ! ... seule la "presse du c?ur"... et encore ! ... se défend pas trop mal... et un peu la "série noire"... et la "blême"... En vérité, on ne vend plus rien... c'est grave ! le Cinéma, la télévision, les articles de ménage, le scooter, l'auto à 2, 4, 6 chevaux, font un tort énorme au livre... tout "vente à tempérament", vous pensez ! et "les week-ends" ! ... et ces bonnes vacances bi ! trimensuelles ! ... et les Groisières Lololulu ! ... salut, petits budgets ! ... voyez dettes ! ... plus un fifrelin disponible ! ... alors n'est-ce pas, acheter un livre ! ...»