Louis Ferdinand Céline, écrits polémiques (book)

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Louis Ferdinand Céline, polemical writings (book) Critical edition presented and annotated by Régis Tettamanzi. 988 pages. Very good condition. French language.

“In the literary history of the 20th century, and in history in general, the publication of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s pamphlets was an unprecedented event. It was from them that the image of the writer changed, irreversibly. The racist violence they contain, directed particularly against Jews, caused the author of Journey to the End of the Night to shift towards a vision of man and the world that we condemn. While we can only condemn the ideology underlying these texts, it was essential to provide a scientific edition. Céline is a novelist whose importance in the 20th century is such that we cannot simply dismiss the pamphlets out of hand. Faced with texts of this nature, critical discourse is, on the contrary, required, even necessary. It was important to put them in context, to show where they come from, what they aim at, not if only to dispel the legends surrounding these writings, and to allow all aspects of them to be shown.

Under the title Écrits polémiques, this volume is the first critical edition of Céline’s three main pamphleteering texts: Bagatelles pour un massacre (1937), L’École des cadavres (1938), Les Beaux draps (1941), logically preceded by Mea culpa (1936), and completed by three shorter texts: Hommage à Zola (1933), À l’agité du bocal (1948) and Vive l’amnistie, Monsieur! (1957). In addition to the establishment of the text and the annotation itself, important appendices allow one to find one’s way through this collection. The pamphlets are still texts that are not easy to obtain; and, when they are available, it is in a literal version, without the explanatory notes necessary for a better informed reading. It is now time to finally be able to judge Céline’s pamphlets on their merits.”–Page 4 of the cover.