CÉLINE, Louis-Ferdinand

Lot 395
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Estimation :
300000 - 500000 EUR
CÉLINE, Louis-Ferdinand
Signed autograph manuscript. S. l., 1957-1959. 1,565 pages, numbered, abundantly corrected, blue ink on blue, white and cream papers. in 4 vol. in-4 (27 x 20.5 cm), green morocco, on the upper plates is gilt the sentence "Docteur Destouches, 4 rue Girardon, ne pas sembler à nous atteint d'aucune affection transmissible" in letters reproducing handwriting, smooth spine (Mercher). Complete autograph manuscript of the final version of Nord. The writing of Nord began in the spring of 1957 and was completed in 1959. In a letter to Roger Nimier, Céline discusses the progress of the novel and mentions a 2,600-page manuscript, presumably an earlier version. It is also known that unpublished fragments of the novel have been preserved by the novelist's widow. The typewritten version given to Gallimard on December 23, 1959, is the strict transcription of this manuscript. With this work, Céline continues her stylistic metamorphosis begun in Mort à Crédit, by destructuring the sentence and stretching it. 90 words for a common sentence in Nord versus respectively 11 and 16 words for Mort à Crédit and Voyage au bout de la nuit (François Richaudeau, "Les phrases de Céline ou la cohérence dans le délire", Communication & Langages, 1984, p. 53-75). Nord is the second book of the German Celine trilogy composed of Rigodon and D'un château l'autre. Nord's plot is set a few months after the liberation of Paris in 1944. Hitler decides to install the Vichyst government in exile in the German castle of Sigmaringen. Among the supporters of the regime are Lucien Rebatet, the actor Robert le Vigan and finally Celine who will use this historical episode to build her trilogy. Nord describes a Germany in ruins and decimated by bombing. From Baden Baden to Zornhof in the northwest of Berlin, the narrator tries to escape the Purification. Surrounded by Lili, Bébert and La Vigue, he recounts, not without black humour, his mano
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