Journey to the End of the Night

Journey to the End of the Night is a modernist novel by Louis-Ferdinand Celine, first published in the French language in 1932 by Parisian publishing house Éditions Denoël et Steele. It is a semi-autobiographical work centered on the life and travels of cynical antihero Ferdinand Bardamu, set over several decades of Bardamu’s life, beginning at the outbreak of the First World War. The novel became influential in avant-garde prose movements but was (like many such touchstones) originally disliked by the critical establishment. More recently, as Celine’s reputation as an anti-Semite and Axis sympathizer has come to the fore, the book’s legacy has become more controversial.

When the novel opens, Ferdinand is a student of medicine in Paris. Despite his political leanings, he is moved by the theater of a military parade and decides to enlist in the French army. At the front, Ferdinand assumes the post of a runner, and the seemingly pointless brutality of the war quickly disabuses him of his momentary nationalism. During one of his missions, he meets a fellow soldier and coward Leon Robinson, with whom he plots an unsuccessful desertion. Ferdinand is wounded (for which he receives a medal) and goes on leave to Paris to receive medical treatment. There, he meets an American volunteer nurse named Lola with whom he has an affair. When Lola realizes that Ferdinand is attempting to avoid returning to active duty, her passion for him wanes and she abandons their affair.

The loss of Lola precipitates Ferdinand’s mental breakdown, and he is transferred to a series of mental hospitals. He is eventually pronounced in good health but unfit for duty, and secures his release. He begins another affair with a dancer and violinist named Musyne. She breaks things off after a few months, and Ferdinand travels to French West Africa. He takes up a rubber trading post in the interior, which turns out to be a hut. There, he takes the place of a mysterious trader whom he later realizes is his old comrade Robinson. Ferdinand falls ill with a fever and becomes delirious, causing him to set fire to the hut. He abandons it, still in the throes of delirium, with nothing on his person but canned stew and three hundred francs from Robinson, and sets out for the coast. His money is stolen by fellow travelers, and he finds himself at the coast with a Spanish priest, who arranges for him to serve as an oarsman on a ship making its way to America.



Landing in New York City, Ferdinand is detained by immigration authorities, but cons his way into working at the port, and is eventually tasked with delivering a report to an office in the city, enabling his escape. He manages to find Lola, who sends him away with one hundred dollars. He then leaves for Detroit and is employed on the assembly line at Ford Motor Company. He falls in love with a prostitute named Molly, who offers to help him settle down there. He also crosses paths once again with Robinson, who is struggling with English, unable to get along in America, and wishes to return to France. Although he loves Molly, he desires freedom and decides to leave the United States.

Back in Paris, Ferdinand completes his medical studies and becomes a doctor. He sets up a practice in Rancy, a poor suburb of Paris, exposing him to poverty and the dark, wretched side of humanity. He does not make much money and mainly performs abortions. He becomes involved with the Henrouilles, a man and woman beset by the expense of caring for their relative, an old woman who lives in a shack behind their house. They offer Ferdinand a bribe to certify that the old woman is insane, but he turns them down. They turn instead to Robinson, whom they pay to murder her. Robinson sets a bomb near her shack, but botches the job, blinding himself. The Henrouilles propose to get rid of Robinson and the old woman at the same time while preventing her from revealing their plot to the police. The two of them are to flee to Toulouse and work side by side at a mummy exhibit. The Henrouilles successfully bribe Ferdinand to persuade Robinson to go along with their plan, and the strange duo is sent away.

Struggling with the medical practice, Ferdinand relocates to Montmartre and works for a while as an extra in a music hall. He is then sent by an associate of the Henrouilles to check on Robinson in Toulouse. He finds that Robinson is regaining his sight and that the old woman is proving well-suited to her job at the mummy exhibit. Robinson is engaged to a woman named Madelon, with whom Ferdinand has a brief affair. When the old woman dies falling down the stairs, Robinson is clearly implicated, and Ferdinand flees Toulouse.



Back once again in Paris, Ferdinand finds a job on the staff of a psychiatric hospital run by a Dr. Baryton. Ferdinand teaches him English, and Dr. Baryton becomes so enthralled by tales of England that he runs off on a journey, leaving Ferdinand to run the madhouse. Soon, Robinson shows up, penniless and on the run from Madelon, who is threatening to turn him in to the authorities if he does not marry her. Ferdinand gives him a job while he hides out, but Madelon catches up with him. At the suggestion of his favorite nurse, Sophie, Ferdinand arranges a carnival outing for the four of them, hoping to quell all tensions. They take a taxi ride home, during which Robinson continues to reject Madelon, and she shoots him. Robinson dies, leaving Ferdinand to ponder life’s troubles and the meaninglessness of it all.