Feerie pour une autre fois

“Feerie pour une autre fois ” – a novel that Louis-Ferdinand Céline wrote during his imprisonment in 1946-1947 for collaborationism – can to some extent be considered a key stage in his work. Using his unique style and writer’s perspective on events that shook the very foundations of the 20th century, Céline, in his characteristic polemical manner, once again poses eternal literary and moral problems to readers. This book can be considered a kind of confession of Céline the collaborator, Céline the traitor, Céline the writer and Céline the citizen, who, as always, is in confrontation with society, and, at the same time, this novel is the quintessence of Céline’s work.

In June 1940, France was occupied by Germany, and in the spring of 1944, on the eve of its liberation, the Allies bombed strategic sites in the occupied territory, including the Paris railway marshalling yard near Montmartre, where Céline was then living. Two years later, imprisoned in Copenhagen awaiting Denmark's decision to extradite him to France, Céline decided to make this event the subject of his novel. In creating the story of the night of the bombing, Céline used his imagination and unique writing style to the fullest extent, becoming the only novelist of his time capable of recreating this event in literature.