CÉLINE (Louis-Ferdinand). - Lot 707

CÉLINE (Louis-Ferdinand). The Church. Comedy in five acts. Paris : Denoël et Steele, [1933]. -In-12, 183 x 117: frontispiece, 242 pp. (6 ff. last 3 blank), illustrated cover. Dark blue half-maroquin, spine ribbed, gilt arms on last box, untrimmed, cover preserved (period binding). Dauphin & Fouché, 33A1. - Boudrot, Bibliographie des éditions Denoël et Steele, no. 75. First edition dedicated to Karen Marie Jensen, illustrated on the frontispiece with a cast of the face of "L'inconnue de la Seine", based on a photograph by Amsler and Ruthardt. This is the only play by the author of Voyage au bout de la nuit, which he wrote in 1927. "The action takes place in Africa, in a small French residence, then in the United States behind the scenes 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. Celinian themes appear at random: contempt for ambitious, mediocre colonialists, man's powerlessness in the face of suffering and death, the need for beauty and harmony, love of 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 puts it: "Bardamu is a boy of no collective importance. He's just an individual." Sartre would use this phrase as an epigraph to La Nausée. The great interest of L'Église lies in its being one of Céline's earliest works, and in the fact that it contains the seeds that will enable us to place its author alongside Faulkner and Joyce" (Gallimard editions). One of 2050 copies on Alfa paper, this being one of 1800 placed on the market (no. 1071), from the prestigious library of the Comtes de Ribes. A very well preserved copy. Provenance: Comtes de Ribes, with bookplate and gilded coat of arms at the tail of the spine.