Journey to the End of the Night

Journey to the End of the Night is a modernist novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, first published in the French language in 1932 by Parisian publishing house Éditions Denoël et Steele. It is a semi-autobiographical work centered on the life and travels of cynical antihero Ferdinand Bardamu, set over several decades of Bardamu’s life, beginning at the outbreak of World War I. The novel became influential in the development of post–WWI literary modernism, but like many such touchstones, it was initially dismissed by much of the critical establishment. While there is no explicitly antisemitic material in Journey to the End of the Night, Céline’s later writings were often virulently antisemitic, and he aligned himself with the collaborationist Vichy regime in Nazi-occupied France. As a result, the author’s legacy has become controversial.

This guide uses the 1988 John Calder edition, translated into English by Ralph Manheim.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss racism, pregnancy termination, mental illness, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

When the novel opens, Ferdinand Bardamu is a student of medicine in Paris. Despite his political leanings, he is moved by the pageantry of a military parade and decides to enlist in the French army. At the front, Ferdinand assumes the post of a runner, and the seemingly pointless brutality of the war quickly disabuses him of his momentary nationalism. During one of his missions, he meets a fellow soldier and coward named Léon Robinson. With Robinson, he plots an unsuccessful desertion. Bardamu is wounded (for which he receives a medal) and returns to Paris to receive medical treatment. In Paris, he meets an American volunteer nurse named Lola, with whom he has an affair. When Lola realizes that Bardamu is attempting to avoid returning to active duty, her passion for him wanes, and she abandons their affair.

The loss of Lola precipitates Bardamu’s mental health crisis. His world begins to fall apart, and he is transferred to a series of mental health hospitals. Bardamu is eventually pronounced in good health but unfit for duty. This is enough to secure his release. He begins another affair with a dancer and violinist named Musyne. She breaks things off after a few months, so Bardamu travels to French West Africa, where he takes up a rubber trading post in the interior. The trading post turns out to be little more than a hut. Having been sent to this remote location, he takes the place of a mysterious trader whom he later realizes is none other than his old comrade, Robinson.

Bardamu falls ill with a fever and becomes delirious. In his delirium, he sets fire to the hut. Bardamu abandons the ruined hut, still in the throes of delirium, with nothing on his person but canned stew and three hundred francs from Robinson. Out on his own, Bardamu sets out for the coast. His money is stolen by fellow travelers, but he manages to continue his journey. Eventually, he finds himself at the coast with a Spanish priest, who arranges for him to serve as an oarsman on a ship making its way to America.

Landing in New York City, Ferdinand is detained by immigration authorities. Despite his difficult situation, Ferdinand cons his way into a job at the port. In this post, Bardamu is eventually tasked with delivering a report to an office in the city, enabling his escape. Now in New York, Bardamu manages to find Lola, who sends him away with $100. He then leaves for Detroit and is employed on the assembly line at Ford Motor Company. Bardamu falls into a relationship with a sex worker named Molly, who is in love with him and offers to help him settle down in Detroit. He also crosses paths once again with Robinson, but he struggles with the demands of speaking English, so Bardamu wishes to return to France. Although he loves Molly, he desires freedom and decides to leave the United States.

Back in Paris, Bardamu completes his medical studies and becomes a doctor. He sets up a practice in Rancy, a poor suburb of Paris. Working in this neighborhood exposes him to poverty and the dark, wretched side of humanity. He does not make much money and mainly performs abortions. Bardamu becomes involved with the Henrouilles, a man and woman beset by the expense of caring for their relative, an old woman who lives in a shack behind their house. They offer Bardamu a bribe to certify that the old woman is mentally impaired and should be institutionalized, but he turns them down.

The couple turns instead to Robinson, whom they pay to murder her. Robinson sets a bomb near her shack, but botches the job, blinding himself. The Henrouilles propose to get rid of Robinson and the old woman at the same time so as to prevent her from revealing their plot to the police. The two are to flee to Toulouse and work side by side at an Egyptian mummy exhibit. The Henrouilles successfully bribe Bardamu to persuade Robinson to go along with their plan, and the duo is sent away.

Struggling with the medical practice, Bardamu relocates to Montmartre and works for a while as an extra in a music hall. He is then sent by an associate of the Henrouilles to check on Robinson in Toulouse. He finds that Robinson is regaining his sight and that the old woman is proving well-suited to her job at the mummy exhibit. Robinson is engaged to a woman named Madelon, with whom Bardamu has a brief affair. When the old woman dies falling down the stairs, Robinson is clearly implicated. To escape this situation, Bardamu flees Toulouse.

Back once again in Paris, Bardamu finds a job on the staff of a psychiatric hospital run by a Dr. Baryton. Bardamu teaches him what little he knows of English, but this does not have the desired effect. Dr. Baryton becomes so enthralled by tales of England that he runs off on a journey, leaving Bardamu to run the facility by himself. Soon, Robinson shows up, penniless and on the run from Madelon, who is threatening to turn him in to the authorities if he does not marry her. Bardamu gives him a job while he hides out, but Madelon catches up with him. At the suggestion of his favorite nurse, Sophie, Bardamu arranges a carnival outing for the four of them, hoping to quell all tensions. They take a taxi ride home, during which Robinson continues to reject Madelon, and she shoots him. Robinson dies, leaving Bardamu to ponder life’s troubles and the meaninglessness of it all.