Death on Credit - Softcover

Celine, Louis-Ferdinand

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0714541796 ISBN 13: 9780714541792

Publisher: Calder Publications Ltd, 1997

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

The most blackly humorous and disenchanted voice in all of French literature. * London Review of Books *

From the Back Cover:

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 now available for the first time in Britain in the Ralph Manheim translation. Both were a new kind of novel, frank about the author's thoughts and actions in a way that readers had never encountered, ultra-realistic, and full of incidents that could not possibly be true to life. Journey chronicled the author's experiences in 1914 at the outbreak of war, in the French colonies, in New York and Detroit, and as a Doctor in a working class district of Paris; its descriptions of army brutality, urban poverty, everyday stupidity and greed, and the power of obsession and hatred, were unrivalled and won him the 'Prix Goncourt'. In Death on Credit Ferdinand Bardamu, Celine's alter ego, is still 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.

Celine was born in Paris in 1894 of a lower middle class family and his life was close to the events he describes in his novels. He practised under his real name Doctor L F Destouches, but his right-wing and pro-German attitudes brought him disgrace, and he died in 1961, a broken, bitter man.

About this edition

• Publisher: Calder Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0714541796
• ISBN 13: 9780714541792
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 592