London Bridge (French Literature Series) - Hardcover

Céline, Louis-Ferdinand

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1564780716 ISBN 13: 9781564780713

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 1995

Synopsis

In this widely acclaimed translation, Dominic DiBernardi expertly captures Céline's trademark style of prose which has served as inspiration to such American writers as Philip Roth, Kurt Vonnegut, William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller.

One of the last major untranslated works by France's most controversial author, London Bridge is a riotous novel about the London underworld during World War I. Picking up where Guignol's Band (1944; English translation 1954) left off, Céline's autobiographical narrator recounts his disastrous partnership with a mystical Frenchman (intent on financing a trip to Tibet by winning a gas-mask competition); his uneasy relationship with London's pimps and whores and their common nemesis, Inspector Matthew of Scotland Yard; and, most scandalously, his affair with a baronet's 14-year-old daughter, an English angel whose descent into vice is suspiciously smooth. He dreams of escaping with her to America to start a new life, but he, his mystical partner, and his under-aged mistress finally awake to reality crossing windswept London Bridge.

Written in his trademark style—a headlong rush of slang, brusque observation, and quirky lyricism, delivered in machine-gun bursts of prose and ellipses—Céline re-creates the dark days during the Great War with sordid verisimilitude and desperate hilarity, expertly captured in Dominic Di Bernardi's racy translation.

About this title

Review:

A hilarious novel about the dark and devilish London underworld during World War I, London Bridge follows Celine's autobiographical narrator through his tumultuous relationships with London's pimps and whores, a mystical Frenchman, and the narrator's lover: the daughter of an English baronet whose fall from grace is amazingly -- suspiciously -- swift. If you've read Celine, you'll again enjoy his trademark style of brusque observations and short bursts of prose and ellipses. If you haven't, you're in for a wild and wonderful ride.

About the Author:

Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961) was a French writer and doctor whose novels are antiheroic visions of human suffering. Accused of collaboration with the Nazis, Céline fled France in 1944 first to Germany and then to Denmark. Condemned by default (1950) in France to one year of imprisonment and declared a national disgrace, Céline returned to France after his pardon in 1951, where he continued to write until his death. His classic books include Journey to the End of the Night, Death on the Installment Plan, London Bridge, North, Rigadoon, Conversations with Professor Y, Castle to Castle, and Normance.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1564780716
• ISBN 13: 9781564780713
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 390