Theatre

Louis Celine was born in the Seine Department in Courbevoie. He was originally known as Louis Ferdinand Destouches. He came from a family where his mother was dealing with quality lace while his father was employed by one of the insurance companies in their home town. His mother set up a shop in the Passage Choiseul in Paris and therefore they had to relocate to Paris where he grew up. Just like any other ordinary or normal family, his parents had plans for him to have a career in business and this is the reason as to why they sent him abroad so that he can learn languages. Among the schools that he attended in his junior years was the one in Lower Saxony at Diepholz and then an English boarding school. Later on, he was to work in a number of commercial companies. (Knapp, 2006)

In his teenage years and specifically at the age of eighteen, he enlisted the Cuirassiers Twelfth Regiment in a cavalry unit. He was then to participate in the First World War in Ypres where he was seriously wounded. He was left with a ringing and buzzing headache that was to last his entire life. He also left the war with an injured arm. He presented some of his experiences at the war in his autobiography novel which was written in 1960 under the title North. (Gascoigne, 2008)

After this, he got a job in London where he was assigned to the office of the French Passport. During this time, he met Suzanne Nebout and married her. She happened to be a Frenchwoman who was working in London as a barmaid. However, the French consulate declined to register this marriage and therefore she had to marry Edith Follet in 1919.  As Ediths father was a director at a medical school, Celine was able to study medicine until he completed his degree in 1924 from the University of Paris. He was able to attain a doctorate after which he left his family and his practice so that he can work for the League of Nations. This was the end of his second marriage which took place in 1926. Previously, he had worked in the Cameroons for a lumber company when he was sent back to France after he got dysentery and malaria. (Gascoigne, 2008)

While he was still employed by the League of Nations, Celine was able to travel to the Cameroons, Switzerlands, Cuba, Canada and the United States of America. While he was in the United States, he had a chance to study some various problems of social medicine which were taking place at the Ford Factories. He then went back to France where he opened a private practice in Paris suburb in 1928. He was later employed by the municipal clinic located at Clichy in Paris in 1931. (Knapp, 2006)

Celine is said to have regained fame later on in life through his exiles trilogy telling in Nord, Rigodon and Dun chteau lautre which described Schloss Sigmaringen fall. He had by then settled in Meudon where he would receive visitations by artists and several friends. He is said to have suffered an aneurysm rupture on 1st June 1961 and was interred at Bas Meudon in a small cemetery. (Knipfel, 2001)

It was while he was working at Clichy that he wrote what can be termed as his first ballet which made his debut as a novelist. This novel was under the title Journey to the End of the Night which was published in 1932. He is considered as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century who developed a new writing style which modernized both the world literature and French. He however remains a very controversial figure due to some extreme anti-Semitic that were published during the Second World War and in 1937. (Browner, 2009)

This writing which is a translation from the original title Voyage au bout de la nuit happens to be his mostly known work. This work is said to violate majority of the literary conventions of that time using vocabulary of slang, rhythm and vulgar speech in somehow a more consistent and sometimes difficult way than the previous writers. This book was a public success but he did not receive any award despite having strong support. This was controversial enough that it becomes the subject of another book later on in 1999. (Gascoigne, 2008)
Four years later, he was to publish another book under the title Death on the Installment Plan which was a translation from the original version Mort  crdit. In this book, he gave an antiheroic, chaotic and innovative vision of human suffering. He extensively used ellipse in this book which are scattered throughout the text so as to emphasis on the style of speech and enhance the rhythm. Through these two books, he demonstrated his great inventions of styles and his masterful skills of storytelling. (Knipfel, 2001)

His pessimistic nature pervades his fiction because his characters sense anxiety, failure, inertia and nihilism. In most of his novels, there is the use of the narrative of exploitation and betrayal which happens to be both imagined and real. These styles are known to correspond to his real personal life. He mentions his two true loves that is the cat and his wife as nothing other than warmth and kindness. However there is a progressive personality disintegration that exists in the stylistic incoherence found in his books. This can be said to be based on his life during the time of war. (Gascoigne, 2008)

In conclusion, Celines writing can be termed as examples of black comedies where terrible and unfortunate things are described in a humorous manner. The polemic quality of his writing can also be described as starling and his writing is somehow hyper-real. However, the main strength in Celines writing lies in his profound ability to discredit everything that he comes across without any loss of enraged humanity.