Tuesday, May 20, 2014
JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT BY L.F. CELINE
Louis-Ferdinand Celine's revulsion and anger at what he considered the idiocy and hypocrisy of society explodes from nearly every page of this novel. Filled with slang and obscenities and written in raw, colloquial language, Journey to the End of the Night is a literary symphony of violence, cruelty and obscene nihilism. This book shocked most critics when it was first published in France in 1932, but quickly became a success with the reading public in Europe, and later in America where it was first published by New Directions in 1952. The story of the improbable yet convincingly described travels of the petit-bourgeois (and largely autobiographical) antihero, Bardamu, from the trenches of World War I, to the African jungle, to New York and Detroit, and finally to life as a failed doctor in Paris, takes the readers by the scruff and hurtles them toward the novel's inevitable, sad conclusion.
JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT BY L.F. CELINE
| Journey to the End of Night | |
|---|---|
L.-F. Céline in 1932, Renaudot prize winner
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| Author | Louis-Ferdinand Céline |
| Original title | Voyage au bout de la nuit |
| Translator | John H. P. Marks (1934), Ralph Manheim (1988) |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Publication date
| 1932 |
| ISBN | 978-0-8112-1654-8 |
Journey to the End of Night (Voyage au bout de la nuit, 1932) is the first novel of Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work describes antihero Ferdinand Bardamu.
Bardamu is involved with World War I, colonial Africa, and post–World War I America (where he works for the Ford Motor Company), returning in the second half of the work to France, where he becomes a medical doctor and establishes a practice in a poor Paris suburb, the fictional La Garenne-Rancy. The novel also satirizes the medical profession and the vocation of scientific research. The disparate elements of the work are linked together by recurrent encounters with Léon Robinson, a hapless character whose experiences parallel, to some extent, those of Bardamu.
Voyage au bout de la nuit is a nihilistic novel of savage, exultant misanthropy, combined, however, with cynical humour. Céline expresses an almost unrelieved pessimism with regard to human nature, human institutions, society, and life in general. Towards the end of the book, the narrator Bardamu, who is working at an insane asylum, remarks:
…I cannot refrain from doubting that there exist any genuine realizations of our deepest character except war and illness, those two infinities of nightmare,
(…je ne peux m'empêcher de mettre en doute qu'il existe d'autres véritables réalisations de nos profonds tempéraments que la guerre et la maladie, ces deux infinis du cauchemar,)
A clue to understanding Celine's Voyage is the trauma he suffered during his experience of the Great War 1914–1918. This is revealed by a study of biographical and literary research on Celine, histories of the war, diaries of his cavalry regiment, and literature on the trauma of war.[1] Celine's experience of the war leads to "…the obsession, the recurrent anguish, the refusal, the delirium, the violence, the pacifism, the anti-Semitic aberration of the 30’s, [and] his philosophy of life …."[2]
Contents
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Thursday, May 15, 2014
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES by SIR ATHUR CONAN DOYLE
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By the time they go to the hotel, Sir Henry has had another boot stolen, an old one now. When the first missing boot is discovered before the meeting is over, Holmes begins to privately realize they must be dealing with a real hound (hence the emphasis on the scent of the item). When conversation turns to the man in the cab, Dr. Mortimer says that Barrymore, the servant at Baskerville Hall, has a beard, and a telegram is sent to check on his whereabouts. The inheritance is also discussed-while it is a sizable amount, the next in line is James Desmond, an older man with few interests in wealth.
At the end of the meeting, it is decided that, Holmes being tied up in London with other cases, Watson will accompany Sir Henry to the Hall and report back in detail. Later that evening, telegrams from Cartwright (who was unable to find the newspaper) and Baskerville Hall (where Barrymore apparently is) bring an end to those leads. Also, a visit from John Clayton, who was driving the cab with the black-bearded man, is of little help. He does say that the man told him that he was the detective Holmes, much to the shock and amusement of the actual Holmes.
Dr. Mortimer, Watson, and Sir Henry set off for Baskerville Hall the next day. The baronet is excited to see it and his connection with the land is clear, but the mood is soon dampened. Soldiers are about the area, on the lookout for the escaped convict Selden, Barrymore and his wife want to depart from the area as soon as convenient, and the Hall is in general a somber place. Watson has trouble sleeping that night, and hears a woman crying, though the next morning Barrymore denies that this could be so.
Watson checks with the postmaster and learns that the telegram was not actually delivered into the hands of Barrymore, so it is no longer certain that he was at the Hall, and not in London. On his way back, Watson meets Stapleton, a naturalist familiar with the moor even though he has only been in the area for two years. They hear a moan that the peasants attribute to the hound, but Stapleton attributes it to the cry of a bittern, or possibly the bog settling. He then runs off after a specimen, but Watson is not alone for long before Miss Stapleton approaches him. Mistaking him for Sir Henry, she urgently warns him to leave the area, but drops the subject when her brother returns. The three walk to Merripit House (the Stapleton’s home), and during the discussion, Watson learns that Stapleton used to run a school. Though he is offered lunch and a look at Stapleton’s collections, Watson departs for the Hall. Before he gets far along the path, Miss Stapleton overtakes him and plays off her warning.
Sir Henry soon meets her and becomes romantically interested, despite her brother’s intrusions. Watson meets another neighbor, Mr. Frankland, a harmless man whose primary focus is on lawsuits. Barrymore draws increasing suspicion, as Watson sees him walk with a candle into an empty room, hold it up to the window, and then leave. Realizing that the room’s only advantage is its view out on the moor, Watson and Sir Henry are determined to figure out what is going on.
Meanwhile, during the day, Sir Henry continues to pursue Miss Stapleton until her brother runs up on them and yells angrily. He later explains to the disappointed baronet that it was not personal, he was just afraid of losing his only companion so quickly. To show there are no hard feelings, he invites Sir Henry to dine with him and his sister on Friday.
Sir Henry then becomes the person doing the surprising, when he walks in with Watson on Barrymore, catching him at night in the room with the candle. He refuses to answer their questions, since it is not his secret to tell, but Mrs. Barrymore’s. She tells them that Selden is her brother and the candle is a signal to allow him to get food. When the couple returns to their room, Sir Henry and Watson go off to find the convict, despite the poor weather and frightening sound of the hound. They see Selden by another candle, but are unable to catch him. Watson notices the figure of another man, but he likewise gets away.
Barrymore is upset when he finds out that they tried to capture Selden, but when an agreement is reached to allow Selden to escape out of the country, he is willing to repay the favor. He tells them about a mostly-burned letter asking Sir Charles to be at the gate at the time of his death. It was signed with the initials L.L. Dr. Mortimer tells Watson the next day that it could be Laura Lyons, Frankland’s daughter who lives in Coombe Tracey. When Watson goes to talk to her, she admits to writing the letter after Stapleton told her Sir Charles would be willing to help her, but says she never kept the appointment.
Frankland has just won two cases and invites Watson in, as his carriage passes by, to help him celebrate. Barrymore had previously told Watson that another man lived out on the moor besides Selden, and Frankland unwittingly confirms this, when he shows Watson through his telescope the figure of a boy carrying food off. Watson departs the house and goes off in that direction. He finds the dwelling where the unknown man has been staying, goes in, sees a message reporting on his own activities, and waits.
Holmes turns out to be the unknown man, keeping his location a secret so that Watson would not be tempted to come out and so he would be able to appear on the scene of action at the critical moment. Watson’s reports have been of much help to him, and he then tells his friend some of the information he’s uncovered-Stapleton is actually married to the woman passing as Miss Stapleton, and was also promising marriage to Laura Lyons to get her cooperation. As they bring their conversation to an end, they hear a scream, the sounds of a man being pursued by the hound.
They take off running and when they see the figure, they mistake it for Sir Henry. As their misery and regret grow, they realize it is actually Selden, dressed in the baronet’s old clothes (which had been given to Barrymore by way of further apology for distrusting him). Then Stapleton appears, and while he makes excuses for his presence, Holmes pretends to be returning to London.
Holmes and Watson return to Baskerville Hall, where over dinner, the detective realizes the similarity between Hugo Baskerville’s portrait and Stapleton. This provides the motive in the crime-with Sir Henry gone, Stapleton, the son of Rodger, could claim the Baskerville fortune. When they return to Mrs. Lyons’s place, they get her to admit to Stapleton’s role in the letter setup, and then they go to meet Lestrade.
Under the threat of advancing fog, Watson, Holmes, and Lestrade lie in wait outside the Merripit House, where Sir Henry has been dining. When the baronet leaves and sets off across the moor, the hound is soon let loose. It really is a terrible beast, but Holmes and Watson manage to shoot it before it can hurt Sir Henry. They discover Mrs. Stapleton imprisoned in the bedroom, and when she is freed, she tells them of Stapleton’s hideout deep in Grimpen Mire. When they head out the next day to look for him, they are not able to find him, and he is presumed dead.
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Thursday, May 8, 2014
EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS BY DAVID GUTERSON
Synopsis[edit]
Dr. Ben Givens is a 73 year old retired Cardiothoracic surgeon and a widower, recently diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. Still haunted by his experiences as a soldier in thewar, and in mourning for Rachel, his late wife of some 50 years, Dr. Givens's current life consists primarily of his family (a daughter and grandson), and occasional hunting trips. Although he hunted as a boy with his father and brother, he abandoned it after the war, only taking it up again upon Rachel's death (he still uses his Father's old Winchester shotgun). Aware that he is nearing the end of his life, he decides to set off from his home in Seattle for one last hunting trip, along with his two Brittany hunting dogs, Tristan and Rex, heading east across the mountains of Washington State back towards the orchard areas where he was born. His family does not, however, know of his cancer, and his intention during the trip is to commit suicide, shooting himself with his Father's gun, staging it to look like an unfortunate accident which occurred whilst he was climbing over a fence; thus saving both himself and his family from the pain of a long, drawn-out death from cancer.
En route, however, Dr. Givens accidentally crashes his car, and although his only real injury is a swollen black eye, he is left without his planned mode of transportation. Deciding to continue with his trip, he is forced to make his way east by alternative means. Through a combination of hitchhiking, a long walk through the desert, a lift bought from a lorry driver, a Greyhound bus, and a rental car, he finally approaches his destination; but will the combined effect of the people he has met, the experiences he has undergone, the gains he has made, and the losses he has sustained during this journey be enough to make him reject his climactic plan?
Themes[edit]
The overarching theme of the novel is evidently the cycle of life and death, the interplay between the two, and the choice the individual can make to embrace one or the other. This is of course primarily highlighted in the main story of Ben's intent to commit suicide; although death is inevitable (as his cancer makes clear), Ben is still faced with the question as to whether life is precious enough to be worth maintaining for as long as possible, or whether a quick death to avoid the inevitable hardships of life is preferable.
This theme is also explored in the two extended flashbacks found within the narrative. In the first, the life element of Ben's birth and childhood in an orchard environment (i.e. a place of new life) is contrasted with the death of his mother, and the killings performed by his Father whilst hunting. Similarly, in the second flashback (set during the war), the choice of Ben's wife-to-be Rachel to become a nurse contrasts with Ben's choice to enter the war as an active soldier. It is significant that the flashbacks culminate with Ben's horror of killing a man in battle, and his admiration for the surgeon who saves his friend - an event which leads to his decision to follow Rachel's advice and become a doctor.
As the flashbacks demonstrate, Rachel (and before her his mother) represent the force of life for Ben: it is only after Rachel's death that he returns to hunting. During his journey, he meets several people with an optimistically positive outlook on life, and once again learns to appreciate its value. This is demonstrated by the lengths he goes to save his dog Rex, to provide medical care for an illegal Mexican immigrant, and finally to safely deliver a baby in an orchard (returning to the life affirmation which marked his own genesis). These steps he takes to save and preserve the lives of others will eventually lead him to a more positive realisation of the value of his own life.
On the opposite side, the choice of death could perhaps be represented by the figure of William Harden - a somewhat sadistic hunter who takes Ben's gun after a fatal scuffle between their dogs. Harden arguably represents the extreme of what Ben, as a hunter, could become. Notably, the contempt in which Harden as a hunter, a figure of death, is held by those around him (including his own family) contrasts sharply with the esteem in which those same people hold Ben as a doctor, a figure of life. Ultimately, Ben chooses life, symbolised by his telling Harden that he can keep the gun:
- "'My call is this,' said Ben. 'That gun was in my family sixty years. My father used it before I did, hunting birds. He killed a lot of birds with it. After him, I killed my share, too. But you know something about that gun? It was never anything but bad, really. A bad thing, that gun.
- 'Harden didn't answer. He wiped his mouth instead.
- 'That gun is cursed,' Ben said. 'All guns are cursed.'"[1]
Reviews[edit]
"East of the Mountains remains a beautifully imagined work, in which the landscape reflects both Ben's desperation and his intermittent delight. And Guterson knows from the start what his protagonist learns in painful increments: that "a neat, uncomplicated end" doesn't exist on either side of the mountains." - James Marcus, Amazon.com[2]
References[edit]
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