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Louis-Ferdinand Céline

French writer (1894-1961) · France · Writers · Died at 67

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He tore apart French prose with a style that made Joyce look timid - then spent the war years writing screeds for Nazi alliance and fled to Denmark one step ahead of a firing squad.

WritersWriter / AuthorFictionLiteratureMedicineFranceEurope20th Century

A life in dates

1961Died1 July 19611960“Experience is a dim lamp, which only lights the one who bears it.”In their wordsFebruary 1960Des pays où personne ne va jamais. Interview of February 1960 with Jean Guenot und Jacques d'Arribehaude.

1948“I clearly see you a tapeworm, but not a cobra, not a cobra at all...no good at the flute!”In their wordsin Albert Paraz, Le Gala des Vaches, Éditions de l’Élan, Paris, 1948 ; À l'agité du bocal, et autres textes de L.-F. Céline, l'Herne /

1947“I should be able to get the alligators to dance to the tune of the pan pipe.”In their words30 March 1947(March 30, 1947)

1932“You can be a virgin in horror the same as in sex.”In their wordsChapter 2

“The one thing any of us really cared about was living for one more hour, one more hour is a big deal in a world where everything has reduced itself to murder.”In their wordsChapter 4

“I don't think about anything," he says, "No thoughts at all! I think about not getting killed... that keeps me busy... One more day is one more day-That's what I think!”In their wordsChapter 4

Prix RenaudotAward1894Born27 May 1894

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

L.-F. CélineL.-F. Céline4, rue Girardon4, rue Girardon64, passage Choiseul étages64, passage Choiseul étages64, passage Choiseul64, passage Choiseul98, rue Lepic98, rue LepicBouffer du Juif par Louis-Ferdinand CélineBouffer du Juif par Louis-Ferdinand CélineCorneLivreCorneLivreCouverture Nord Céline édition originaleCouverture Nord Céline édition originale

In their own words 10

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Louis-Ferdinand Céline
,
10 statements, newest first

  1. Experience is a dim lamp, which only lights the one who bears it.

    Feb 1960, Des pays où personne ne va jamais. Interview of February 1960 with Jean Guenot und Jacques d'Arribehaude., Own words

  2. Hate gave birth to the slang; Slang (‘argot’) exists not anymore.

    Feb 1957, ( « L'argot est né de la haine, il n'existe plus» Arts, 6. February 1957. in À l’agité du bocal et autres textes, (op. cit.) p. 55., Own words

  3. I clearly see you a tapeworm, but not a cobra, not a cobra at all...no good at the flute!

    1948, in Albert Paraz, Le Gala des Vaches, Éditions de l’Élan, Paris, 1948 ; À l'agité du bocal, et autres textes de L.-F. Céline, l'Herne /, Own words

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Awards

Prix Renaudot1932
Croix de guerre 1914-1918
Médaille militaire

Family

Louis-Ferdinand Céline

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About this person

Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches, writing as Louis-Ferdinand Céline, published Journey to the End of the Night in 1932, a novel whose working-class rhythms and bleak view of humanity won the Prix Renaudot and split French letters down the middle. He pushed further in Death on the Installment Plan (1936), Guignol's Band (1944), and Castle to Castle (1957), building what Maurice Nadeau called the French equivalent of Joyce's reinvention of English. From 1937 he published antisemitic polemics calling for military alliance with Nazi Germany, continued espousing those views under occupation, and in 1944 fled to Germany and then Denmark. A French court convicted him of collaboration in 1951; a military tribunal pardoned him soon after. He returned to France, resumed work as a physician and author, and died in 1961 - his novels canonical, his name still a live wire.

Country
France
Category
Writers
Type
Writer / Author
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1894 to 1961 · aged 67

In common with Louis-Ferdinand

Louis PauwelsAlso in En français dans le texte - Entretien avec Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1961)

Writers from France 5

Charles Perrault69.0Roger Martin du Gard68.9Annie Ernaux69.1Alphonse de Lamartine68.6Alexandre Astier69.4

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