Journey to the End of the Night
Céline began writing "Journey to the End of the Night", his first novel, in 1929 while he was working as a doctor in a public clinic in the working class Paris suburb of Clichy. The novel draws on his experience in the French cavalry during World War One, his time in colonial Africa as an employee of a French forestry company, his 1925 visit to the United States as a health officer with the League of Nations, and his experiences as a doctor in Paris. He completed the novel in late 1931 and submitted it to two small publishers and the major publisher Gallimard, before it was accepted by a fourth publisher, Denöel et Steele, which had recently had a success with Eugène Dabit’s "L’Hotel du Nord". "Journey to the End of the Night" was published in October 1932.