Guerre
“The first of the unpublished novels, rediscovered in 2021, by the author of ‘Journey to the End of the Night’, ‘War’ is a brief, lively, tragic, and salacious text, to be placed alongside the writer’s masterpieces. An event” (J. Dupuis).
First edition.
One of the numbered copies on Rivoli vellum, the only large-paper edition, in a remarkable binding by Joelle Bocel.
Octavo, 183 pages and (4) leaves. White calfskin tinted grey, blue, and purple with alcohol inks, a marbled effect achieved on an aquatint, then printed in black on the covers and spine, black title on the upper cover, sections mounted on guards, slipcase and folder titled, titling by Quarré de Boiry. Binding by Joëlle Bocel.
215 x 155 mm.
Céline, Louis-Ferdinand. War.
Paris, Gallimard, 2022.
First edition of Céline's previously unpublished novel rediscovered in 2021, this “event… to be placed alongside the writer’s masterworks.”
One of 270 numbered copies on Rivoli vellum (only large paper).
“I had divided my whole body into pieces. The wet part, the part that was drunk, the part of the arm that was atrocious, the part of the ear that was abominable, the part of friendship for the Englishman that was most comforting, the part of the knee that ran off at random, the part of the past that was already trying – I remember well – to cling to the present and couldn’t anymore – and then the future that scared me more than anything else, finally a strange part that, above all others, wanted to tell me a story. You couldn’t even call it unhappiness anymore, it was odd.”
Written two years after Journey to the End of the Night, War lifts the veil on the central experience of Céline’s existence: the physical and moral trauma of the front.
With this book of total violence, situated between autobiographical account and work of imagination, a pivotal piece of the writer’s oeuvre comes to light.
Splendid binding by Joëlle Bocel, who has perfectly conveyed, with a complex abstract composition crafted on marbling, the atmosphere of Céline’s novel and the tragic explosion of his language, which she interprets both literally and figuratively.
This work in marbling is quite unique in the field of contemporary bookbinding. The resulting effects are original and pertinent.
Awardee of the Orléans Bookbinding Prize, winner of the Rochegude Prize in Albi, first mention in the Blaizot Bookstore’s Plioir d’Or Prize in Paris, Joëlle Bocel has worked for famous institutions including the BNF, the Reims Library, Sainte Geneviève Library in Paris, and Harvard University Library.
