journey to the end of the night by louis ferdinand céline

Despite his political leanings, he is moved by the theater of a military parade and decides to enlist in the French army. When the novel opens, Ferdinand is a student of medicine in Paris. More recently, as Celine’s reputation as an anti-Semite and Axis sympathizer has come to the fore, the book’s legacy has become more controversial. The novel became influential in avant-garde prose movements but was (like many such touchstones) originally disliked by the critical establishment. It is a semi-autobiographical work centered on the life and travels of cynical antihero Ferdinand Bardamu, set over several decades of Bardamu’s life, beginning at the outbreak of the First World War. The motivation is to share and pay tribute, to both Reve and Lieshout.Journey to the End of the Night is a modernist novel by Louis-Ferdinand Celine, first published in the French language in 1932 by Parisian publishing house Éditions Denoël et Steele. This site is a translation and subtitling project by Folkert Gorter it is unauthorized and not affiliated with Erik Lieshout or the nos. To me Reve, here and in all his art, remains a significant and profound elegist of what is often called the human condition - particularly of the staid and provincial Dutch version. Céline’s work I have never actually read I can appreciate and somewhat understand Reve’s admiration from a distance - but Céline’s clear and serious misanthropy does not interest me. My desire to translate the piece comes from a deep love of Reve. The work of Gerard Reve and Lous Ferdinand Céline was fraught with controversy - Céline’s more so and rightly. (Lieshout is to be lauded for his precocious steadiness.)

It is also quite touching as it is a genuine document of one writer addressing the work of a now dead influence subsequently a feeling of mortality and artistic longing pervades. Throughout Reve reads his Dutch translations of Céline whilst adding commentary and connected thoughts. Lieshout followed Reve loosely tracing Céline’s biography visiting the various residences, clinics and haunts of his life in Paris. In melancholic black and white, 25 year old filmmaker, Erik Lieshout, filmed Dutch writer Gerard Reve as he discussed Lous Ferdinand Céline and his novel Journey to the End of the Night.

Journey to the end of the night by louis ferdinand céline