Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline — Book Review

A man tries all he can to escape its absurd fate — World War I

[French Version below]

👉 Find this review in episode #17 of our KULT podcast (in French) on the theme of Night.

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Voyage au bout de la nuit is Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s first novel, published on 15 October 1932. With this book, the author won the Prix Renaudot, missing out on the Prix Goncourt by two votes. It became a classic of the 20th century.

The book is famous for its style, imitating spoken language and steeped in slang, which has influenced contemporary French literature. Céline draws on his own experience and conveys it to us through the main character Ferdinand Bardamu, a literary double of the author. Céline fought in the First World War, an experience that revealed to him the absurdity of the world. He described the war as an “international slaughterhouse of madness” and set out what he saw as the only reasonable way to resist such madness: cowardice.

He rejects all forms of heroism, particularly those associated with violence and war. In his view, war highlights the decay of the world, a recurring theme in the novel.