Correspondence. Louis-Ferdinand Celine. Lettres de prison a Lucette Destouches et a Maitre Mikkelsen. Francois Gibault, ed.

Brown, John L.

Louis-Ferdinand Celine. Lettres de prison a Lucette Destouches et a Maitre Mikkelsen. Francois Gibault, ed. Paris. Gallimard. 1998. 405 pages. 150 F. ISBN 2-07-075711-X.

These two hundred letters, written during the period from May 1945 to June 1947 to his wife and to his Danish attorney when Louis-Ferdinand Celine was in prison in Denmark, reveal a tormented man quite different from the "brutal" and violent author of his prewar novels. At the end of the Nazi occupation in 1945 and the assumption of political power by the communists, Celine realized he would be in great danger if he remained in France. Many anticommunists had been executed, notably Pierre Laval, and others such as Paul Morand had fled abroad. Aragon, the leading communist intellectual and leader of the CNE (the National Committee of Writers), had launched a pitiless campaign of epuration designed to eliminate all literary figures who were not procommunist, even though they were not "collaborators." The many prominent victims included such writers as Robert Brasillach, who was executed in February 1945, and Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, who committed suicide in March.

Celine decided he had better get out of the country. He obtained Danish visas for his wife and himself, and (accompanied by their beloved cat, Bebert) they arrived in Copenhagen in March. On 8 May the Nazis were driven out of Denmark by the British, and by the end of the month Germany had surrendered. The French government immediately demanded that Celine be extradited as a traitor. This was not done, however, and Celine settled down to what he hoped would be a quiet life, writing and doing volunteer work in hospitals. But the French continued to demand extradition. The Danes compromised by putting both Celine and his wife in prison in December. His wife was released within a few days, but Celine remained incarcerated for seventeen months, until 24 June 1947. He returned to France, specifically to Nice; only in 1951 did he return to his home in Meudon, fearing attacks from his enemies, of whom he had many.

After years of persecution and humiliation, Celine rejoiced in the revival of his reputation as "one of the greatest writers of his generation" (Germaine Bree). Many of the early letters are addressed to his attorney ThorvaldMikkelsen; since he was forbidden to communicate directly with his wife, he devised an arrangement by which he inserted messages to her into letters addressed to his lawyer. Later, when these restrictions were relaxed, they wrote directly to each other and she was able to visit him in prison. However, his letters to Lucette do not give an accurate description of the pain of his life in solitary confinement, since he did not want her to worry. They do express, though, his deep need of affection, which he always concealed in his belligerent past, when he preferred to present himself as "a monster" who, without discrimination, hated the entire human race. Lucette was the only one on whom he could depend, his only comfort during the months of solitary confinement. She was his "Ophelie, dans la vie, Jeanne d'Arc dans l'epreuve."

Much of the correspondence quite understandably involves legal problems and the frustrations of trying to deal with French and Danish authorities. However, there are also numerous references (rarely complimentary!) to Celine's literary contemporaries. He constantly attacks Aragon, a "superhaineux," the sadistic chief of "a band of jackals," including Eluard and Cassou. He speaks very briefly of Gide, who, after his trip to Russia, treated the Soviets "comme du pourri." He deplores the fate of the literary man in France: "The persecution of the writer has been a national sport." Even Victor Hugo was forced to spend twenty years in exile. The existentialists, including Sartre, go completely unnoticed, and there is not a word about Queneau or Camus. Bebert, lovingly spoken of in some forty of the letters, evidently interests Celine more than do his fellow scribblers! Despite his acquaintance with the U.S., the only American author he mentions is Henry Miller, "who plagiarized my works." Miller is more generous. In a letter to Maurice Nadeau, he hails Celine as "not only a great writer but a great man."

These letters, covering only a brief, tormented period in Celine's life, nevertheless contribute significant details for an understanding of the complex, contradictory personality of a major literary figure who has often been judged harshly and inadequately but whose reputation has been enhanced in the years since his death (in 1951) by the publication of dozens of critical articles, eight numbers of the Cahiers NRF, two of L'Herne, and books such as the monumental three- volume study by Francois Gibault. The correspondence reveals that, in addition to his violent hatreds, Celine also had a deep need for affection and an often touching tenderness for others, as expressed in his moving letters to his wife Lucette. No easy formula can explain his troubling and troubled genius. Nolite iudicare.

John L Brown

Washington, D.C.