Louis-Ferdinand Céline - Bagatelles pour un massacre - 1938

Fascinating edition of this political and ideological pamphlet which occupies a particularly controversial place in the history of French literature due to its violently antisemitic character and its discourse of hatred -

The work presents itself as a long diatribe in which Céline abandons the narrative register that had made the success of Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan to adopt a polemical, satirical and pamphleteering tone, mixing invectives, provocations, digressions, personal anecdotes and political reflections -

The author develops a profoundly pessimistic vision of European society in the interwar period, branded according to him by moral decadence, international tensions, the economic crisis and the rise of totalitarian ideologies, while attributing in an unfounded and hateful manner a collective responsibility to Jews in these phenomena -

Through deliberately jerky writing, paced by a popular language, syntactic ruptures, ellipses and orality effects that are one of the hallmarks of his literary style, Céline builds a discourse mixing personal attacks, abusive generalizations, conspiratorial theories and calls for exclusion, without any historical or scientific basis -

Louis-Ferdinand Céline - Bagatelles for a Massacre - 1937 - Éditions Denoël -
317 pp

Good condition of the binding, paperback in its full original soft cover, binding under cellophane protection, wear from use, some minor defects on the cover (faded cover with creases), frayed edges, smooth red-titled spine, as well as the first cover plate -

Good interior condition, paper slightly browned, good copy -

Delivery service guaranteed within a few days -