Journey to the end of the night
Journey to the end of the night —Journey to the End of the Night, by its original title—is a semi-autobiographical war fiction novel written by the French author Louis-Ferdinand Céline. The work was published by the Denoël et Steele publishing house in October 1932 and is considered one of the best literary texts of the XNUMXth century.
To date, It is on the list of The 100 Books of the Century according to Le Monde. This is a recognition given to the best books of the XNUMXth century in France., named in this way through a census carried out by the Parisian newspaper Le Monde and the French company Fnac. In it, there are also books such as Abroad (1942) and One Hundred Years of Solitude (1867). In addition to this award, Céline's novel was awarded the Prix Renaudot prize the same year it was released.
Synopsis of Journey to the end of the night
The dialectic of pain and death
Like any great work that claims to be so — thanks to which critics and professors have debated over the years, some against and others in favor — Journey to the end of the night presents the dialectic of several forceful ideas.
At the time, the volume was widely censored for presenting the human being in a pessimistic light. On the other hand, the author's defenders argued that his prose was a breath of fresh air for the literature of the time, since Céline's pen moves between jargon and neologisms.
Louis Ferdinand Céline was not afraid to portray the time of the First World War as the entrance to a cemetery. There, humans break down to be able to pass, because they think that suffering, old age and death are the only constant in life, which is eternally repeated. This applies above all to the poorest peoples, who, in general, are the most exposed to misfortune.
The start of a journey
The plot of this story begins with making a momentous decision. Ferdinand Bardamu, the narrator, is a young French medical student who, on a whim and a sense of adventure, decides to enlist voluntarily in the army of his country to fight in the World War I.
Soon after—after having an initial battle with an enemy—, realizes that the battles are not right to be for him, so he desists from participating in them. Later, she runs into Léon Robinson, a French reservist whose wish is to be captured by the Germans to take refuge in his cells.
Bardamu decides to accompany him, but they never find a German to surrender to, so they go their separate ways. The main character suffers a combat wound, and this leads him to receive the military medal —decoration awarded to the French military thanks to their courage. Later, during his recovery, meet a nurse called Lola, with whom he has an affair for a while.
The rejection of war
Many movies and books set in war tend to romanticize the concept of the fight, the one that is carried out for the country, the one that is done for love, the one that is done for honor... In Journey to the End of the Night, the protagonist is a man who yearns for a nihilistic life. He finds no sense in any of the aforementioned precepts. This is something that he makes known to Lola during a walk, a fact for which the woman leaves him, calling him a coward.
Ferdinand Bardamu does not feel like fighting or taking responsibility for any situation. Consequently, the man is sent to a mental institution specializing in electrotherapy and patriotic psychology. There he is declared as a person unfit for military life, so the high command discharges him. Later, Bardamu moves to some French colonies in Africa, where he is given a position as a merchant.
The mirage of progress
Bardamu arrives in Africa as Robinson's replacement. However, the place they sent him to is nothing more than a shack in very poor condition. Apparently, the company lives by swindling locals and their employees, so Lèon doesn't pay much attention to his work. In the midst of this context, Ferdinand suffers from a very strong fever, and burns down his workplace in a delirium. To avoid being punished, he escapes. Later, he is bought by a shipowner who takes him to the United States.
Coming Soon llegan to New York, where the protagonist is quarantined until he recovers from his illness. He is later sent on errands to Manhattan, where he meets a prostitute named Molly. She wants the main character to stay by her side. However, he confesses to her that she doesn't have the ability to settle into any long-term commitment. After this, he meets his friend Léon Robinson.
Seeing him and talking to him, he is surprised that he has never been able to achieve anything important in his life. After, Ferdinand Bardamu decides to return to his native Paris and finish his medical degree. This converts to Journey to the end of the night in a cyclical novel, where all progress is nothing more than a simple change, the mirage of a benefit.
About the author, Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches
Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches
Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches —better known as Louis-Ferdinand Céline— was born in 1894, in Paris, France. There are many current critics who consider him one of the most respected authors of the last century. Su prose influenced the way we understand beauty in the pen of an author, because his narrative style in his first novel —Journey to the end of the night— determined the aesthetic sense of many later works.
In their titles, Céline breaks away from poetic prose and gives life to a new way of writing. This includes the slang of poor people, doctors, the military, and criminals of his day. The writer was part of the French troops in the First World War. As a hero, it is natural that his view of existence and homeland have expressed a lot of darkness. Likewise, his racist and anti-Semitic stance make his figure a broad focus of social diatribe.
It is not easy for modern eyes to admire the life and work of a man with such a thought. Nevertheless, It is necessary to remember that it is not convenient to censor the works of the past under the concepts of the present., nor change the stories written in art, because, if we modify literature, we transform the past of the human being. Céline was a result of her generation, and her titles prove it.
Other books by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Narrative
- Death on credit (1936);
- Guignol's Band (1943);
- casse-pipe (1952);
- Fantasy for another occasion (1952);
- Normance — Fantasy for Another Time II (1954);
- Conversations with Professor Y (1955);
- From one castle to another (1957);
- North (1960);
- London Bridge: Guignol's band II (1964)
posthumous works
- rigodon (1969);
- War (2022);
- London (2023)