CÉLINE (Louis-Ferdinand). The Church. A comedy... - Lot 76 - Ader

Lot 76
Go to lot
Estimation :
2000 - 3000 EUR
CÉLINE (Louis-Ferdinand). The Church. A comedy... - Lot 76 - Ader
CÉLINE (Louis-Ferdinand). The Church. A comedy in five acts. Paris: Denoël and Steele, [1933]. - In-12, 185 x 117: frontispiece, 242 pp., (6 ff. 3 last blanks), illustrated cover. Beige half-maroquin, ribbed back, golden head, untrimmed , cover and back preserved (M.-P. Tremois). Original edition dedicated to Karen Marie Jensen, illustrated with a frontispiece casting of the face of the "unknown of the Seine" from a photograph by Amsler and Ruthardt. This is the only play by the author of "Journey to the End of the Night , " which he wrote in 1926. " The action takes place in Africa, in a small French residence, then in the United States in the backstage of a New York music hall, then in Geneva at the headquarters of the League of Nations and finally in the Paris suburbs, in a bistro transformed into a clinic in the last act. Celine themes appear at random: contempt for ambitious and mediocre colonials, man's powerlessness in the face of suffering and death, the need for beauty and harmony, love for simple people and children. Ferdinand Bardamu appears as a being defeated in advance by fate and general cynicism, trying to survive in the shadows. As one of the characters says: "Bardamu is a boy of no collective importance. He's barely an individual." Sartre will epigraph this sentence in La Nausée. The great interest in The Church is to be one of the very first works of Celine and to contain in germ the elements that will allow us to situate its author next to Faulkner and Joyce " (Gallimard Editions). One of the 40 copies on pure yarn vellum, this one being one of the 15 not on sale. Precious copy, enriched by this sending of the author : To Jacques Deval // Beautiful and good // Health of others // triumphs in 1934 // LF Céline. Jacques Deval (1890-1972) was a French playwright and director, and a close friend of Celine. The latter said of him,
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue