French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Derval, ed., Voyage au bout de la nuit. Reviews 1932-1935
Novel and Narrative Prose

André Derval, ed., Voyage au bout de la nuit by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Reviews 1932-1935, 10/18 edition, "Domaine français" collection, 2005, 364 p., 8.50 euros.

This volume presents seventy articles published between 1932 and 1935, dedicated in whole or in part to Louis-Ferdinand Céline's first novel. Among the contributors: Georges Altman, André Maurois, Ramon Fernandez, Armand Guibert, André Chamson, Paul Nizan, Edmond Jaloux, Eugène Montfort, Georges Bernanos, Lucien Descaves, François Mauriac, Marcel Arland, Maxim Gorky, Eugène Dabit, Léon Daudet, Georges Bataille, Claude Lévi-Strauss, André Billy, Henry de Régnier, Élie Faure, Leon Trotsky... This collection, exceptional both for the quality of its criticism and for the sensational twists of the 1932 Prix Goncourt controversy, also has the unique feature of shattering the aesthetic and ideological divisions of the literary press of the period—to the point that several publications successively hosted conflicting analyses of this text in their columns, a work now considered one of the major novels of the century.

This volume gathers seventy critical articles published between 1932 and 1935 concerning Louis-Ferdinand Céline's groundbreaking first novel, Voyage au bout de la nuit. Edited by André Derval, the collection captures the immediate intellectual shockwave generated by the book across the French literary landscape. It features contributions from prominent writers, critics, and thinkers of the era, including Georges Bernanos, Paul Nizan, François Mauriac, and Leon Trotsky. By tracing this diverse commentary, the book documents how contemporaries grappled with a work that redefined modern narrative prose and challenged the stylistic norms of its time.

Beyond individual reactions, the anthology illuminates the turbulent literary politics of the interwar period, notably the sensational controversy surrounding the 1932 Prix Goncourt. The texts reveal how Céline's novel transcended conventional aesthetic and ideological boundaries, drawing praise and fierce debate from figures across the political and cultural spectrum, from Georges Bataille to Claude Lévi-Strauss. This resource is especially valuable for scholars of twentieth-century French literature, researchers studying the sociology of reception, and readers interested in the mechanics of literary controversy and the enduring legacy of a major modernist text.