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Rigodon

Louis-Ferdinand Celine

1969273 pagesabout 4–6 hours
1969
first published
  • 1973Gallimard · 307 pages · ENG
  • 1974Delacorte Press · 273 pages · ENGISBN 9780440073642
  • 1975Penguin Books · 273 pages · ENG
  • 1997Dalkey Archive Press · 273 pages · ENGISBN 9781564781628
  • 1987Schoenhof Foreign Books Inc · ENGISBN 9780685577226
  • 1987Schoenhof Foreign Books · 307 pages · ENGISBN 9782070364817
  • 1987French & European PubnsISBN 9780828836265

Completed the day before his death in 1961, Rigadoon, the most compassionate of Celine's novels, explores the ravages of war and its aftermath. Often comic and always angry, the first-person autobiographical narrator, with his wife and their cat in tow, takes the reader with him on his flight from Paris to Denmark after finding himself on the losing side of World War II. The train rides that encompass the novel are filled with madness and mercy, as Celine, a physician, aids refugees while ignoring his own medical needs.

Worth knowing

ViolenceFrequent

When and where

ThemesWarClass

Content notes

  • Racismmoderateunreviewed
  • Warmoderateunreviewed

Quotesnone available

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