Journey to the End of the Night Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine Future historians, charting the disintegration of social forms in our age, will find paramount expression of this revolt in the novels of Louis-Ferdinand Celine. In 1932 Journey to the End of the Night, his first novel, exploded on a complacent France like a bombshell. Translated soon afterward into English, it became a... more » best-seller among American readers who were at once shocked and fascinated. Today Celine's works, epics of adamant pessimism, are making a fresh appeal to a generation even more puzzled about life than their predecessors.
The first of two autobiographical novels, Journey to the End of the Night (published by New Directions in 1949) is the story of Ferdinand Bardamu and his search for personal fulfillment in World War I, in the lower depths of Paris, through African jungles, and finally in the slums of the United States and factories of Detroit. It is a journey of violence and excitement, told with unforgettable vividness and remarkable sensitivity.« less