116-584: Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( / s eɪ ˈ l iː n / say- LEEN ; French: [lwi fɛʁdinɑ̃ selin] ), was a French novelist, polemicist , and physician. His first novel Journey to the End of the Night (1932) won the Prix Renaudot but divided critics due to the author's pessimistic depiction of
232-457: A "French literary hero [who] needs to be forgotten". The lost manuscripts of Céline have been described as "one of the greatest literary discoveries of the past century, but also one of the most troubling". In May 2022, Céline's Guerre (War) was published by Gallimard, and Londres (London) followed in October 2022. The latter novel was probably written in 1934 and includes a key character who
348-416: A German diplomat and former lover as reimbursement for belongings taken from her by German authorities. Bouchardon claimed that this was, in fact, payment to her for spying for Germany. In the meantime, Ladoux had been preparing a case against his former agent by casting all of her activities in the worst possible light, going so far as to engage in evidence tampering. In 1917, France had been badly shaken by
464-409: A carefree provocative style to the stage in her act, which garnered wide acclaim. The most celebrated segment of her act was her progressive shedding of clothing until she wore just a jeweled breastplate and some ornaments upon her arms and head. She was never seen bare-chested as she was self-conscious about having small breasts. Early in her career, she wore a bodystocking for her performances that
580-472: A chronicle of his time in Sigmaringen, attracted considerable media and critical interest and revived the controversy over his wartime activities. The novel was a modest commercial success, selling close to 30,000 copies in its first year. A sequel, Nord , was published in 1960 to generally favourable reviews. Céline completed a second draft of his final novel, Rigodon , on 30 June 1961. He died at home of
696-559: A dancer, nothing else .... Because I really did not spy, it is terrible that I cannot defend myself." The most terrible and heartbreaking moment for Mata Hari during the trial occurred when her lover Maslov—by now deeply embittered as a result of losing his eye in combat—declined to testify for her and told her that he did not care whether she was convicted. When Zelle learned that Maslov had abandoned her, she fainted. Her defense counsel, veteran international lawyer Édouard Clunet [ Wikidata ] , faced impossible odds; he
812-771: A dozen Hitlers to one all-powerful Blum." While Céline claimed he was not a fascist and never joined any fascist organisation, in December 1941 he publicly supported the formation of a single party to unite the French far right. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, he expressed his support for Jacques Doriot 's Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (LVF). However, according to Merlin Thomas, Céline didn't "subscribe to any recognisable fascist ideology other than
928-470: A firing squad consisting of 12 French soldiers just before dawn on 15 October 1917. She was 41. According to an eyewitness account by British reporter Henry Wales, she was not bound and refused a blindfold. She defiantly blew a kiss to the firing squad. A 1934 New Yorker article reported that at her execution, she wore "a neat Amazonian tailored suit, especially made for the occasion, and a pair of new white gloves", though another account indicates she wore
1044-484: A major influence on the nouveau-roman and Günter Grass also shows a debt to Céline's writing style. Patrick Modiano admires Céline as a stylist, and produced a parody of his style in his debut novel La place de l'étoile. McCarthy and O'Connell include Henry Miller , William S. Burroughs , Kurt Vonnegut and others as American writers influenced by Céline. Céline remains a controversial figure in France. In 2011,
1160-482: A man without courage or nobility." A critic for Les Nouvelles littéraires praised the author's use of spoken, colloquial French as an "extraordinary language, the height of the natural and the artificial" while the critic for Le Populaire de Paris condemned it as mere vulgarity and obscenity. The novel was the favourite for the Prix Goncourt of 1932. When the prize was awarded to Mazeline 's Les Loups ,
1276-461: A month and on his return quickly wrote, and had published, an essay, Mea Culpa , in which he denounced communism and the Soviet Union. In December the following year Bagatelles pour un massacre ( Trifles for a Massacre ) was published, a book-length racist and antisemitic polemic in which Céline advocated a military alliance with Hitler's Germany in order to save France from war and Jewish hegemony. The book won qualified support from some sections of
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#17327723642981392-565: A polemic against Eugen Dühring , and Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme against Ferdinand Lasalle . Vladimir Lenin published polemics against political opponents. The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky was notably directed against Karl Kautsky , and other works such as The State and Revolution attacked figures including Eduard Bernstein . In the 20th century, George Orwell 's Animal Farm
1508-466: A position as a doctor in a public clinic in Sartrouville , north-west of Paris. On the evacuation of Paris in June, Céline and Lucette commandeered an ambulance and evacuated an elderly woman and two newborn infants to La Rochelle . "I did the retreat myself, like many another, I chased the French army all the way from Bezons to La Rochelle, but I could never catch up." Returning to Paris, Céline
1624-503: A ruptured aneurysm the following day. While Céline's first two novels contained no overt antisemitism, his polemical books Bagatelles pour un massacre (Trifles for a Massacre) (1937) and L'École des cadavres (The School of Corpses) (1938) are virulently antisemitic. Céline's antisemitism was generally welcomed by the French far Right, but some, such as Brasillach , were concerned that its crudity might be counterproductive. Nevertheless, biographer Frédéric Vitoux concludes that: "through
1740-593: A total of 1,275 pages, were declassified by the French Army in 2017, one hundred years after her execution. The Frisian museum (Dutch: Fries Museum ) in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, contains a "Mata Hari Room". Included in the exhibit are two of her personal scrapbooks and an oriental rug embroidered with the footsteps of her fan dance. Located in Mata Hari's native town, the museum is well known for researching
1856-491: A traitoress, never! Zelle's principal interrogator, who grilled her relentlessly, was Captain Pierre Bouchardon; he later prosecuted her at trial. Bouchardon established that much of the Mata Hari persona was invented. Far from being a Javanese princess, Zelle was Dutch, which he used as evidence of her dubious and dishonest character at her trial. Zelle admitted to Bouchardon that she had accepted 20,000 francs from
1972-408: A unique language based on the spoken French of the working class, medical and nautical jargon, neologisms, obscenities, and the specialised slang of soldiers, sailors and the criminal underworld. He also developed an idiosyncratic system of punctuation based on extensive use of ellipses and exclamation marks. Thomas sees Céline's three dots as: "almost comparable to the pointing of a psalm: they divide
2088-572: A vast scale." From 1937 Céline wrote a series of antisemitic polemical works in which he advocated a military alliance with Nazi Germany. He continued to publicly espouse antisemitic views during the German occupation of France , and after the Allied landing in Normandy in 1944, he fled to Germany and then Denmark where he lived in exile. He was convicted of collaboration by a French court in 1951 but
2204-482: A villa in Meudon , on the southwestern outskirts of Paris, where Céline was to live for the remainder of his life. He registered as a doctor in 1953 and set up a practice in his Meudon home, while Lucette established a dance school on the top floor. Céline's first post-war novels, Féerie pour une autre fois and Normance , received little critical attention and sold poorly. However, his 1957 novel D'un château l'autre ,
2320-469: A world where there is no moral order and where the rich and powerful will always oppress the poor and weak. According to Céline's biographer Patrick McCarthy, Célinian man suffers from an original sin of malicious hatred, but there is no God to redeem him. "The characteristic trait of Célinian hatred is that it is gratuitous: one does not dislike because the object of dislike has harmed one; one hates because one has to." Literary critic Merlin Thomas notes that
2436-432: A year in each country in order to acquire foreign languages for future employment. From the time he left school until the age of eighteen Céline worked in various jobs, leaving or losing them after only short periods of time. He worked for silk sellers and jewellers, first, at eleven, as an errand boy, and later as a salesperson for a local goldsmith. Although he was no longer being formally educated, he bought schoolbooks with
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#17327723642982552-459: Is a Jewish doctor. Polemic Polemic ( / p ə ˈ l ɛ m ɪ k / pə- LEHM -ick , US also /- ˈ l i m ɪ k / -LEEM-ick ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics , which are seen in arguments on controversial topics. A person who writes polemics, or speaks polemically,
2668-1088: Is called a polemicist . The word derives from Ancient Greek πολεμικός ( polemikos ) 'warlike, hostile', from πόλεμος ( polemos ) 'war'. Polemics often concern questions in religion or politics. A polemical style of writing was common in Ancient Greece , as in the writings of the historian Polybius . Polemic again became common in medieval and early modern times. Since then, famous polemicists have included satirist Jonathan Swift , Italian physicist and mathematician Galileo , French theologian Jean Calvin , French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher Voltaire , Russian author Leo Tolstoy , socialist philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , novelist George Orwell , playwright George Bernard Shaw , communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin , linguist Noam Chomsky , social critics H.L.Mencken Christopher Hitchens and Peter Hitchens , and existential philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche . Polemical journalism
2784-502: The Eurovision Song Contest : In 1931 Mata Hari , an American thoroughbred racehorse, was foaled. She twice won championship honors as the top filly in the sport. In 1943, when in foal to fellow champion Balladier, she produced Spy Song . In 1977, Bally Manufacturing released an electromechanical pinball machine named after Mata Hari, and a solid-state version in 1978. In the 1982 release of Birds & Bees by
2900-529: The Great Mutinies of the French Army in the spring of 1917 following the failure of the Nivelle Offensive and massive strikes. France might have collapsed from war exhaustion. Having one German spy on whom everything that went wrong with the war could be blamed was convenient for the French government. Mata Hari seemed the perfect scapegoat. The case against her received maximum publicity in
3016-702: The Musée Guimet on 13 March 1905. She became the long-time mistress of the millionaire industrialist Émile Étienne Guimet , who had founded the Musée. Entertainers of her era commonly invented colourful stories about their origins, and she posed as a Javanese princess of priestly Hindu birth, pretending to have been immersed in the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood. She was photographed numerous times during this period, nude or nearly so. Some of these pictures were obtained by MacLeod and strengthened his case in keeping custody of their daughter. Mata Hari brought
3132-602: The 18th century include Jonathan Swift , with pamphlets such as his A Modest Proposal , Alexander Hamilton , with pieces such as A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress and A Farmer Refuted , and Edmund Burke , with his attack on the Duke of Bedford . In the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels 's 1848 Communist Manifesto was extremely polemical. Both Marx and Engels would publish further polemical works, with Engels's work Anti-Dühring serving as
3248-616: The Allies and declared her passionate love of France, her adopted homeland. In October 2001, documents released from the archives of MI5 (British counter-intelligence) were used by a Dutch group, the Mata Hari Foundation, to ask the French government to exonerate Zelle as they argued that the MI5 files proved she was not guilty of the charges she was convicted of. A spokesperson from the Mata Hari Foundation argued that at most, Zelle
3364-738: The Allies landed in France in June 1944, Céline and Lucette fled to Germany, eventually staying in Sigmaringen where the Germans had created an enclave accommodating the Vichy government in exile and collaborationist militia. Using his connections with the German occupying forces, in particular with SS officer Hermann Bickler [ de ] who was often his guest in the apartment on Rue Girardon, Céline obtained visas for German-occupied Denmark where he arrived in late March 1945. These events formed
3480-653: The Belgian band Telex (band) , the tenth track on the album is dedicated to Mata Hari. In 1995, Israeli singer Ofra Haza released a single titled "Mata Hari". In February 2016, the Dutch National Ballet premiered a two-act ballet entitled Mata Hari , with Anna Tsygankova dancing the role of Mata Hari, choreography by Ted Brandsen and music by Tarik O'Regan . In 2017, the opera Mata Hari by librettist Peter Peers and composer Matt Marks premiered at New York's Prototype Festival. In August 2018, it
3596-566: The Crown Prince as a great warrior, the worthy successor to the Hohenzollern monarchs who had made Prussia strong and powerful. They wanted to avoid publicizing that the man expected to be the next Kaiser was a playboy noted for womanizing, partying, and indulging in alcohol, who spent another portion of his time associating with far right-wing politicians, with the intent to have his father declared insane and deposed. Unaware that
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3712-472: The Crown Prince did not have much to do with the running of Army Group Crown Prince or the 5th Army , the Deuxième Bureau offered Zelle 1 million francs if she could seduce him and provide France with good intelligence about German plans. The fact that the Crown Prince had, before 1914, never commanded a unit larger than a regiment, and was now supposedly commanding both an army and an army group at
3828-477: The Célinian anti-hero also typically chooses defiance. "If you are weak, then you will derive strength from stripping those you fear of all the prestige they pretend to possess (…) [T]he attitude of defiance just outlined is an element of hope and personal salvation." Thomas notes that the Célinian narrator finds some consolation in beauty and creativity. The narrator is "always touched by human physical beauty, by
3944-753: The End of the Night ), were handed over by a Libération journalist, Jean-Pierre Thibaudat, to the Nanterre police in March 2020, and revealed in August 2021. The manuscripts had been missing since Céline fled Paris in 1944. French writer and Céline expert David Alliot maintains that it will take many years for these writings to be completely appreciated and published. Writing in The Jewish Chronicle in September 2021, Oliver Kamm described Céline as
4060-509: The End of the Night ), which was dedicated to Elizabeth, completing it in late 1931. Voyage au bout de la nuit was published in October 1932 to widespread critical attention. Although Destouches sought anonymity under the pen name Céline, his identity was soon revealed by the press. The novel attracted admirers and detractors across the political spectrum, with some praising its anarchist, anticolonialist and antimilitarist themes while one critic condemned it as "the cynical, jeering confessions of
4176-577: The Forestry Company of Sangha-Oubangui. He worked as an overseer on a plantation and a trading post, and ran a pharmacy for the local inhabitants, procuring essential medical supplies from his parents in France. He left Africa in April 1917 due to ill health. His experiences in Africa left him with a distaste for colonialism and an increasing passion for medicine as a vocation. In March 1918, Céline
4292-504: The French Army needed a scapegoat , and that the files used to secure her conviction contained falsifications. Some have even stated that Mata Hari could not have been a spy and was innocent. Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born 7 August 1876 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands to Antje van der Meulen (1842–1891) and her husband, Adam Zelle (1840–1910). She had three younger brothers; Johannes Hendriks, Arie Anne, and Cornelis Coenraad. She
4408-404: The French far-Right and sold 75,000 copies up to the end of the war. Céline followed Bagatelles with Ecole des cadavres ( School for Corpses ) (November 1938) in which he developed the themes of antisemitism and a Franco-German alliance. Céline was now living with Lucette Almansor , a French dancer whom he had met in 1935. They were to marry in 1943 and remain together until Céline's death. On
4524-537: The French government and Jewish leaders expressed concern over plans by the publisher Gallimard to republish Céline's antisemitic books. In January 2018 Gallimard announced that it was suspending publication. In March Gallimard clarified that it still intended to publish a critical edition of the books with scholarly introductions. A collection of Céline's unpublished manuscripts including La Volonté du roi Krogold , Londres , and 6,000 unpublished pages of already published works ( Casse-pipe , Mort à crédit , Journey to
4640-550: The French military. In October 1942, Céline's antisemitic books Bagatelles pour une massacre and L'école des cadavres were republished in new editions, only months after the round-up of French Jews at the Vélodrome d'Hiver . Céline devoted most of his time during the occupation years to his medical work and writing a new novel, Guignol's Band , a hallucinatory reworking of his experiences in London during World War I. The novel
4756-456: The French press and led to her importance being greatly exaggerated. The Canadian historian Wesley Wark stated in a 2014 interview that Mata Hari was never an important spy but a scapegoat for French military failures that had nothing to do with her. Wark stated: "They needed a scapegoat, and she was a notable target for scapegoating." The British historian Julie Wheelwright stated: "She really did not pass on anything that you couldn't find in
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4872-463: The French. General Walter Nicolai , the chief IC (intelligence officer) of the German Army, had grown very annoyed that Mata Hari had provided him with no intelligence worthy of the name, instead selling the Germans mere Paris gossip about the sex lives of French politicians and generals, and decided to terminate her employment by exposing her as a German spy to the French. In December 1916,
4988-588: The German ambassador, let alone the Gestapo or the Central Jewish Office ." Nevertheless: "Céline's writings had permanently marked French ideology, furthered and supported its antisemitism and consequently its complacency toward the Germans. That cannot be denied." Céline's novels reflect a pessimistic view of the human condition in which human suffering is inevitable, death is final, and hopes for human progress and happiness are illusory. He depicts
5104-413: The German military attaché Major Arnold Kalle and asked if he could arrange a meeting with the Crown Prince. During this period, Zelle apparently offered to share French secrets with Germany in exchange for money, though whether this was because of greed or an attempt to set up a meeting with Crown Prince Wilhelm remains unclear. In January 1917, Major Kalle transmitted radio messages to Berlin describing
5220-637: The League of Nations in late 1927 and set up a medical practice in the working-class Paris suburb of Clichy . The practice wasn't profitable and he supplemented his income working for the nearby public clinic and a pharmaceutical company. In 1929 he gave up his private practice and moved to Montmartre with Elizabeth. However, he continued to practice at the public clinic in Clichy as well as other clinics and pharmaceutical companies. In his spare time he worked on his first novel, Voyage au bout de la nuit ( Journey to
5336-975: The Medical Faculty at Rennes in April 1920 and in June Édith gave birth to a daughter, Collette Destouches. In 1923 he transferred to the University of Paris and in May 1924 defended his dissertation The Life and Work of Philippe-Ignace Semmelweis (1818–1865) , which has been called, "a Célinian novel in miniature". In June 1924 Céline joined the Health Department of the League of Nations in Geneva, leaving his wife and daughter in Rennes. His duties involved extensive travel in Europe and to Africa, Canada,
5452-475: The Netherlands recall her writing to them around this time to say that she had taken the name Mata Hari, the word for "sun" in the local Indonesian language (literally, "eye of the day" ). At Rudolf's urging, Margaretha returned to him, but his behavior did not change. In 1899, their children fell violently ill from complications relating to the treatment of syphilis contracted from their parents, though
5568-565: The Second Bureau of the French War Ministry let Mata Hari obtain the names of six Belgian agents. Five were suspected of submitting fake material and working for the Germans, while the sixth was suspected of being a double agent for Germany and France. Two weeks after Mata Hari had left Paris for a trip to Madrid, the Germans executed the double agent while the five others continued their operations. This development proved to
5684-675: The Second Bureau that Mata Hari had communicated the names of the six spies to the Germans. On 13 February 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Elysée Palace on the Champs Elysées in Paris. She was tried on 24 July, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. Although the French and British intelligence suspected her of spying for Germany, neither could produce definite evidence against her. A harlot? Yes, but
5800-506: The United States and Cuba. He drew on his time with the League for his play L'Église (The Church , written in 1927, but first published in 1933). Édith divorced him in June 1926 and a few months later he met Elizabeth Craig, an American dancer studying in Geneva. They were to remain together for the six years in which he established himself as a major author. He later wrote: "I wouldn't have amounted to anything without her." He left
5916-604: The age of 13. Soon after Margaretha's father went bankrupt in 1889, her parents divorced, and her mother died in 1891. Her father remarried in Amsterdam on 9 February 1893 to Susanna Catharina ten Hoove (1844–1913). The family fell apart, and Margaretha was sent to live with her godfather, Mr. Visser, in Sneek. She studied to be a kindergarten teacher in Leiden, but when the headmaster began to flirt with her conspicuously, she
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#17327723642986032-602: The ancient historian Polybius practiced "quite bitter self-righteous polemic" against some twenty philosophers, orators, and historians. Polemical writings were common in medieval and early modern times. During the Middle Ages, polemic had a religious dimension, as in Jewish texts written to protect and dissuade Jewish communities from converting to other religions . Medieval Christian writings were also often polemical; for example in their disagreements on Islam or in
6148-418: The attack on Jewry." Following the war, Céline was found guilty of activities potentially harmful to national defence, due to his membership of the collaborationist Cercle Européen (which Céline denied) and his letters to collaborationist journals. According to Vitoux: "Céline became a member of no committee and no administration (…). He never provided any assistance, either by report, advice, or information, to
6264-454: The basis for his post-war trilogy of novels D'un chateau l'autre (1957, tr Castle to Castle) , Nord (1960, tr North ) and Rigodon (1969, tr Rigadoon ). In November 1945 the new French government applied for Céline's extradition for collaboration, and the following month he was arrested and imprisoned at Vestre Prison by the Danish authorities pending the outcome of the application. He
6380-718: The collaborationist press, including many antisemitic statements. The German officer and writer Ernst Jünger stated in his Paris war diaries that Céline told him on 7 December 1941 "of his consternation, his astonishment" that the Germans did not "exterminate" the French Jews. Some Nazis thought Céline's antisemitic pronouncements were so extreme as to be counter-productive. Bernhard Payr , the German superintendent of propaganda in France, considered that Céline "started from correct racial notions" but his "savage, filthy slang" and "brutal obscenities" spoiled his "good intentions" with "hysterical wailing". Céline's attitude towards fascism
6496-531: The commies too." Nevertheless, in 1935, British critic William Empson had written that Céline appeared to be "a man ripe for fascism". Mort à credit was published in May 1936, with numerous blank spaces where passages had been removed by the publisher for fear of prosecution for obscenity. The critical response was sharply divided, with the majority of reviewers criticising it for gutter language, pessimism and contempt for humanity. The novel sold 35,000 copies up to late 1938. In August Céline visited Leningrad for
6612-431: The contemplation of a splendidly formed human body which moves with grace." For Céline ballet and the ballerina are exemplars of artistic and human beauty. McCarthy points out that Céline habitually depicts the movement of people and objects as a dance and attempts to capture the rhythms of dance and music in language. "Yet the dance is always the danse macabre and things disintegrate because death strikes them." Céline
6728-474: The day ' ), was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I . She was executed by firing squad in France . The idea of a beautiful exotic dancer using her powers of seduction as a spy made her name synonymous with the femme fatale . Her story has inspired books, films, and other works. It has been said that she was convicted and condemned because
6844-471: The experience of war marked Céline for life and it is a theme in all his novels except Death on the Installment Plan . In Journey to the End of the Night , Céline presents the horror and stupidity of war as an implacable force which "turns the ordinary individual into an animal intent only on survival". McCarthy contends that for Céline war is "the most striking manifestation of the evil present in
6960-527: The family claimed an irate servant poisoned them. Jeanne survived, but Norman died. Some sources maintain that one of Rudolf's enemies may have poisoned their supper to kill both of their children. After moving back to the Netherlands, the couple officially separated on 30 August 1902. The divorce became final in 1906, and Margaretha was awarded custody of Jeanne. Rudolf was legally required to pay child support but never did. Once when Jeanne visited Rudolf, he did not return her to her mother. Margaretha did not have
7076-527: The father of Mata Hari, had a hat shop there. In 2016, an information centre ( belevingscentrum ) was created in the building displaying mementos of Mata Hari. The idea of an exotic dancer working as a lethal double agent using her powers of seduction to extract military secrets from her many lovers made Mata Hari an enduring archetype of the femme fatale . Her life inspired several films, including: Mata Hari's life also inspired at least five stage musicals: Two songs named after Mata Hari have appeared at
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#17327723642987192-459: The ferocity of his voice and the respect in which it was held, Céline had made himself the most popular and most resounding spokesman of pre-war antisemitism." Céline's public antisemitism continued after the defeat of France in June 1940. In 1941 he published Les beaux draps (A Fine Mess) in which he lamented that: "France is Jewish and Masonic, once and for all." He also contributed over thirty letters, interviews and responses to questionnaires to
7308-407: The fiftieth anniversary of Céline's death, the writer had initially appeared on an official list of 500 people and events associated with French culture which were to be celebrated nationally that year. Following protests, Frédéric Mitterrand , then French Minister of Culture and Communication, announced that Céline would be removed from the list because of his antisemitic writings. In December 2017,
7424-401: The following year but failed to persuade her to return. Céline initially refused to take a public stance on the rise of Nazism and the increasing extreme-right political agitation in France, explaining to a friend in 1933: "I am and have always been an anarchist, I have never voted…I will never vote for anything or anybody…I don't believe in men….The Nazis loathe me as much as the socialists and
7540-445: The fraction of a second it seemed she tottered there, on her knees, gazing directly at those who had taken her life. Then she fell backward, bending at the waist, with her legs doubled up beneath her." A non-commissioned officer then walked up to her body, pulled out his revolver, and shot her in the head to make sure she was dead. Mata Hari's body was not claimed by any family members and was accordingly used for medical study. Her head
7656-545: The haunts of the London underworld, and claimed to have met Mata Hari . He later drew on his experiences in the city for his novel Guignol's Band (1944). In September, he was declared unfit for military duty and was discharged from the army. Before returning to France, he married Suzanne Nebout, a French dancer, but the marriage wasn't registered with the French Consulate and they soon separated. In 1916, Céline went to French-administered Cameroon as an employee of
7772-448: The helpful activities of a German spy code-named H-21, whose biography so closely matched Zelle's that it was obvious that Agent H-21 could only be Mata Hari. The Deuxième Bureau intercepted the messages and, from the information they contained, identified H-21 as Mata Hari. The messages were in a code that German intelligence knew had already been broken by the French, suggesting that the messages were contrived to have Zelle arrested by
7888-495: The human condition and his writing style based on working-class speech. In subsequent novels such as Death on the Installment Plan (1936), Guignol's Band (1944) and Castle to Castle (1957), Céline further developed an innovative and distinctive literary style. Maurice Nadeau wrote: "What Joyce did for the English language...what the surrealists attempted to do for the French language, Céline achieved effortlessly and on
8004-488: The human condition." The individual's struggle for survival in a hostile world is a recurring theme in Céline's novels. Although Célinian man can't escape his fate, according to McCarthy: "he has some control over his death. He need not be arbitrarily slaughtered in battle and he need not blind himself with divertissements . He can choose to face death, a more painful but more dignified process." Merlin Thomas points out that
8120-563: The idiom and sensibility of twentieth-century narrative: that of Céline and that of Proust ." Although many writers have admired and have been influenced by Céline's fiction, McCarthy argues that he holds a unique place in modern writing due to his pessimistic vision of the human condition and idiosyncratic writing style. Writers of the absurd , such as Sartre and Camus , were influenced by Céline, but didn't share his extreme pessimism or politics. Alain Robbe-Grillet cites Céline as
8236-455: The intimacy of things, into the fibre, the nerves, the feelings of things, the flesh, and going straight on to the end, to its end, in intimacy, in maintained poetic tension, in inner life, like the métro through an inner city, straight to the end...[.]" Céline was a major innovator in French literary language. In his first two novels , Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan , Céline shocked many critics by his use of
8352-514: The life and career of Leeuwarden's world-famous citizen. The largest-ever Mata Hari exhibition was opened in the Museum of Friesland on 14 October 2017, one hundred years after her death. Mata Hari's birthplace is located in the building at Kelders 33. The building suffered smoke and water damage during a fire in 2013 but was later restored. Architect Silvester Adema studied old drawings of the storefront to reconstruct it as it appeared when Adam Zelle,
8468-579: The local newspapers in Spain." Wheelwright described Zelle as "an independent woman, a divorcée, a citizen of a neutral country, a courtesan, and a dancer, which made her a perfect scapegoat for the French, who were then losing the war. She was ... held up as an example of what might happen if your morals were too loose." Claiming her innocence, Zelle wrote letters to the Dutch Ambassador in Paris. "My international connections are due [to] my work as
8584-504: The money he earned, and studied by himself. It was around this time that Céline vaguely thought of becoming a doctor. In 1912, Céline volunteered for the French army (in what he described as an act of rebellion against his parents) and began a three-year enlistment in the 12th Cuirassier Regiment stationed in Rambouillet . At first he was unhappy with military life, and considered deserting. However, he adapted, and eventually attained
8700-478: The national defence. He was found guilty in February 1951 and sentenced to one year in jail, a fine of 50,000 francs and confiscation of half his property. In April a French military tribunal granted him an amnesty based on his status as a disabled war veteran. In July he returned to France. Back in France, Céline signed a contract with the publisher Gallimard to republish all his novels. Céline and Lucette bought
8816-556: The polemic tradition. In 2008 the humanist philosopher A. C. Grayling published a book, Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness . Mata Hari Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod ( née Zelle , Dutch: [mɑrɣaːˈreːtaː ɣeːrˈtrœydaː ˈzɛlə] ; 7 August 1876 – 15 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari ( / ˈ m ɑː t ə ˈ h ɑːr i / MAH -tə HAR -ee , Dutch: [ˈmaːtaː ˈɦaːri] ; Indonesian for 'sun', lit. ' eye of
8932-515: The publication of Bagatelles , Céline quit his jobs at the Clichy clinic and the pharmaceutical laboratory and devoted himself to his writing. At the outbreak of war in September 1939, the draft board declared Céline 70 per cent disabled and unfit for military service. Céline gained employment as a ship's doctor on a troop transport and in January 1940 the ship accidentally rammed a British torpedo boat killing twenty British crew. In February he found
9048-482: The rank of sergeant. The beginning of the First World War brought action to Céline's unit. On 25 October 1914, he volunteered to deliver a message, when others were reluctant to do so because of heavy German fire. Near Ypres , during his attempt to deliver the message, he was wounded in his right arm. (Although he was not wounded in the head, as he later claimed, he did suffer severe headaches and tinnitus for
9164-575: The resources to fight the situation and accepted it, believing that while Rudolf had been an abusive husband, he had been a good father. Jeanne later died at the age of 21, possibly from complications related to syphilis. In 1903, Zelle moved to Paris, where she performed as a circus horse rider using the name Lady MacLeod, much to the disapproval of the Dutch MacLeods. Struggling to earn a living, she also posed as an artist's model. By 1904, Mata Hari rose to prominence as an exotic dancer . She
9280-459: The rest of his life.) For his bravery, he was awarded the médaille militaire in November, and appeared one year later in the weekly l'Illustré National (November 1915). He later wrote that his wartime experience left him with "a profound disgust for all that is bellicose." In March 1915, he was sent to London to work in the French passport office. He spent his nights visiting music halls and
9396-572: The resulting scandal increased publicity for Céline's novel which sold 50,000 copies in the following two months. Despite the success of Voyage , Céline saw his vocation as medicine and continued his work at the Clichy clinic and private pharmaceutical laboratories. He also began working on a novel about his childhood and youth which was to become Mort à Credit (1936) (tr Death on the Installment Plan ). In June 1933 Elizabeth Craig returned permanently to America. Céline visited her in Los Angeles
9512-450: The same suit, low-cut blouse, and tricorn hat ensemble which had been picked out by her accusers for her to wear at trial, and which was still the only full, clean outfit which she had in prison. Neither description matches photographic evidence. Wales recorded her death, saying that after the volley of shots rang out, "Slowly, inertly, she settled to her knees, her head up always, and without the slightest change of expression on her face. For
9628-529: The same time should have been a clue that his role in German decision-making was mostly nominal. Zelle's contact with the Deuxième Bureau was Captain Georges Ladoux , who later emerged as one of her principal accusers. In November 1916 she was traveling from Spain aboard the steamship Zeelandia . When the ship called at the British port of Falmouth she was arrested and taken to London, where she
9744-516: The text into rhythmical rather than syntactical units, permit extreme variations of pace and make possible to a great extent the hallucinatory lyricism of his style." Céline called his increasingly rhythmic, syncopated writing style his "little music." McCarthy writes that in Fables for Another Time : "Celine's fury drives him beyond prose and into a new tongue – part poetry and part music – to express what he has to say." Céline's style evolved to reflect
9860-420: The themes of his novels. According to McCarthy, in Céline's final war trilogy, Castle to Castle , North and Rigadoon : "all worlds disappear into an eternal nothingness (…) the trilogy is written in short, bare phrases: language dissolves as reality does." Céline is widely considered to be one of the major French novelists of the twentieth century. According to George Steiner : "[T]wo bodies of work lead into
9976-548: The time were unfamiliar with the Dutch East Indies, Mata Hari was thought of as exotic, and her claims were accepted as genuine. One enthusiastic French journalist wrote in a Paris newspaper that Mata Hari was "so feline, extremely feminine, majestically tragic, the thousand curves and movements of her body trembling in a thousand rhythms." One journalist in Vienna wrote after seeing one of her performances that Mata Hari
10092-690: The vast corpus aimed at converting the Jews. Martin Luther 's 95 Theses was a polemic launched against the Catholic Church. Robert Carliell 's 1619 defence of the new Church of England and diatribe against the Roman Catholic Church – Britaine's glorie, or An allegoricall dreame with the exposition thereof: containing The Heathens infidelitie in religion ... – took the form of a 250-line poem. Major political polemicists of
10208-534: The war, Zelle had performed as Mata Hari several times before the Crown Prince Wilhelm , eldest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II and nominally a senior German general on the Western Front. The Deuxième Bureau believed she could obtain information by seducing the Crown Prince for military secrets. In fact, his involvement was minimal, and it was German government propaganda that promoted the image of
10324-462: The war, Zelle was involved in what was described as a very intense romantic-sexual relationship with Captain Vadim Maslov, a 23-year-old Russian Staff Captain of the 1st Special Infantry Regiment serving with the French, whom she called the love of her life. Maslov was part of the 50,000-strong Russian Expeditionary Force sent to the Western Front in the spring of 1916. In April 1916, Maslov
10440-475: The words of the American historians Norman Polmer and Thomas Allen she was "naïve and easily duped", a victim of men rather than a victimizer. Although news reports following her execution claimed she had admitted to spying for Germany, Mata Hari made no such admission. She maintained throughout her ordeal that she had never been a German spy. At her trial, Zelle vehemently insisted that her sympathies were with
10556-420: Was "slender and tall with the flexible grace of a wild animal, and with blue-black hair" and that her face "makes a strange foreign impression." By about 1910, myriad imitators had arisen. Critics began to opine that the success and dazzling features of the popular Mata Hari were due to cheap exhibitionism and lacked artistic merit. Although she continued to schedule important social events throughout Europe, she
10672-413: Was a contemporary of dancers Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis , leaders in the early modern dance movement, which around the turn of the 20th century, looked to Asia and Egypt for artistic inspiration. Gabriel Astruc became her personal booking agent. Promiscuous, flirtatious, and openly flaunting her body, Mata Hari captivated her audiences and was an overnight success from the debut of her act at
10788-402: Was a low-level spy who provided no secrets to either side, stating: "We believe that there are sufficient doubts concerning the dossier of information that was used to convict her to warrant re-opening the case. Maybe she wasn't entirely innocent, but it seems clear she wasn't the master-spy whose information sent thousands of soldiers to their deaths, as has been claimed." Zelle was executed by
10904-514: Was a polemic against totalitarianism , in particular of Stalinism in the Soviet Union . According to McClinton, other prominent polemicists of the same century include such diverse figures as Herbert Marcuse , Noam Chomsky , John Pilger , and Michael Moore . In 2007 Brian McClinton argued in Humani that anti-religious books such as Richard Dawkins 's The God Delusion are part of
11020-457: Was affectionately called "M'greet" by her family. Despite traditional assertions that Mata Hari was partly of Jewish, Malaysian, or Javanese, i.e., Indonesian descent, scholars conclude she had no Jewish or Asian ancestry, and both of her parents were Dutch. Her father owned a hat shop, made investments in the oil industry, and became affluent enough to give Margaretha and her siblings a lavish early childhood that included exclusive schools until
11136-501: Was also produced by West Edge Opera, with Tina Mitchell reprising her starring role. In 2018, French nu-disco band L'Impératrice released their album titled 'Matahari' containing a song of the same name. In 2019, English singer-songwriter Frank Turner released a song about Mata Hari entitled "Eye of the Day" on his album No Man's Land . In 2020, the Dutch singer Kovacs released
11252-530: Was ambiguous. In 1937 and 1938 he advocated a Franco-German military alliance to save France from war and Jewish hegemony. However, Vitoux argues that Céline's main motive was a desire for peace at any cost, rather than enthusiasm for Hitler. Following the election victory of the French Popular Front in May 1936, Céline saw the socialist leader Léon Blum and the communists led by Maurice Thorez as greater threats to France than Hitler: "…I'd prefer
11368-505: Was appointed head doctor of the Bezons public clinic and accredited physician to the département of Seine-et-Oise . He moved back to Montmartre and in February 1941 published a third polemical book Les beaux draps (A Fine Mess) in which he denounced Jews, Freemasons, the Catholic Church, the educational system and the French army. The book was later banned by the Vichy government for defaming
11484-609: Was born Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches in 1894 at Courbevoie , just outside Paris in the Seine département (now Hauts-de-Seine ). The family came originally from Normandy on his father's side and Brittany on his mother's side. His father was a middle manager in an insurance company and his mother owned a boutique where she sold antique lace. In 1905, he was awarded his Certificat d'études , after which he worked as an apprentice and messenger boy in various trades. Between 1908 and 1910, his parents sent him to Germany and England for
11600-403: Was broadcast, with Mata Hari played by Eleanor Bron , on the independent station LBC in 1980. It is unclear if she lied on this occasion, believing the story made her sound more intriguing, or if French authorities were using her in such a way but would not acknowledge her due to the embarrassment and international backlash it could cause. In late 1916, Zelle traveled to Madrid, where she met
11716-559: Was common in continental Europe when libel laws were not as stringent as they are now. To support study of 17th to 19th century controversies, a British research project has placed online thousands of polemical pamphlets from that period. Discussions of atheism, humanism, and Christianity have remained open to polemic into the 21st century. In Ancient Greece , writing was characterised by what Geoffrey Lloyd and Nathan Sivin called "strident adversariality" and "rationalistic aggressiveness", summed up by McClinton as polemic. For example,
11832-430: Was critical of the French "academic" literary style which privileged elegance, clarity and exactitude. He advocated a new style aimed at directly conveying emotional intensity: "It seemed to me that there were two ways of telling stories. The classic, normal, academic way which consists of creeping along from one incident to the next...the way cars go along in the street...and then, the other way, which means descending into
11948-463: Was denied permission to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses or to examine his witnesses directly. Bouchardon used the fact that Zelle was a woman as evidence of her guilt, saying: "Without scruples, accustomed to making use of men, she is the type of woman who is born to be a spy." Zelle has often been portrayed as a femme fatale, the dangerous, seductive woman who uses her sexuality to manipulate men effortlessly, but others view her differently: in
12064-685: Was disdained by serious cultural institutions as a dancer who did not know how to dance. Mata Hari's career went into decline after 1912. On 13 March 1915, she performed in the last show of her career. She had begun her career relatively late as a dancer and had started putting on weight. However, by this time, she had become a successful courtesan , known more for her sensuality and eroticism than for her classical beauty. She had relationships with high-ranking military officers, politicians, and others in influential positions in many countries. Her relationships and liaisons with powerful men frequently took her across international borders. Before World War I , she
12180-421: Was embalmed and kept in the Museum of Anatomy in Paris. In 2000, archivists discovered that it had disappeared, possibly as early as 1954, according to curator Roger Saban, during the museum's relocation. Her head remains missing. Records dated 1918 show that the museum also received the rest of the body, but none of the remains could later be accounted for. Mata Hari's sealed trial and other related documents,
12296-589: Was employed by the Rockefeller Foundation as part of a team travelling around Brittany delivering information sessions on tuberculosis and hygiene. He met Dr Athanase Follet of the Medical Faculty of the University of Rennes , and soon became close to Follet's daughter Édith. Dr Follet encouraged him to pursue medicine and Céline studied for his baccalaureate part-time, passing his examinations in July 1919. He married Édith in August. Céline enrolled in
12412-474: Was generally viewed as an artist and a free-spirited bohemian , but as war approached, she began to be seen by some as a wanton and promiscuous woman, and perhaps a dangerous seductress. During World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral. As a Dutch subject, Zelle was thus able to cross national borders freely. To avoid the battlefields, she traveled between France and the Netherlands via Spain and Britain, and her movements inevitably attracted attention. During
12528-609: Was interrogated at length by Sir Basil Thomson , assistant commissioner at New Scotland Yard in charge of counter-espionage. He gave an account of this in his 1922 book Queer People , saying that she eventually admitted to working for the Deuxième Bureau. Initially detained in Canon Row police station, she was then released and stayed at the Savoy Hotel . A full transcript of the interview is in Britain's National Archives and
12644-457: Was overall a disappointment. Rudolf was an alcoholic, physically abused Margaretha, and blamed her for his lack of promotion. He openly kept a concubine , a socially accepted practice in the Dutch East Indies at the time. When Rudolf was posted to Medan , Margaretha and the children remained in Toempoeng with the family of Mr. van Rheede, the government comptroller. Friends of Margaretha's in
12760-550: Was pardoned by a military tribunal soon after. He returned to France where he resumed his careers as a doctor and author. Céline is widely considered to be one of the greatest French novelists of the 20th century and his novels have had an enduring influence on later authors. However, he remains a controversial figure in France due to his antisemitism and activities during the Second World War. The only child of Fernand Destouches and Marguerite-Louise-Céline Guilloux, he
12876-410: Was published in March 1944 to poor sales. The French were expecting an Allied landing at any time and Céline was receiving anonymous death threats almost daily. Although he had not officially joined any collaborationist organisations, he had frequently allowed himself to be quoted in the collaborationist press expressing antisemitic views. The BBC had also named him as a collaborationist writer. When
12992-657: Was released from prison in June 1947 on the condition that he would not leave Denmark. Céline's books had been withdrawn from sale in France, and he was living off a hoard of gold coins which he had hidden in Denmark before the war. In 1948 he moved to a farmhouse on the coast of the Great Belt owned by his Danish lawyer where he worked on the novels which were to become Féerie pour une autre fois (1952, tr Fable for Another Time ) and Normance (1954). The French authorities tried Céline in absentia for activities harmful to
13108-598: Was removed from the institution by her godfather. A few months later, she fled to her uncle's home in The Hague. At 18, Margaretha answered an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper placed by Dutch colonial army captain Rudolf MacLeod (1856–1928), who was living in what was then the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and was looking for a wife. Margaretha married MacLeod in Amsterdam on 11 July 1895. He
13224-446: Was similar in color to her skin, but that was later omitted. Her act was successful because it elevated erotic dance to a more respectable status and broke new ground in a style of entertainment for which Paris was later world-famous. Her style and free-willed attitude made her popular, as did her eagerness to perform in exotic and revealing clothing. She posed for provocative photos and mingled in wealthy circles. Since most Europeans at
13340-765: Was the son of Captain John Brienen MacLeod (a descendant of the Gesto branch of the MacLeods of Skye , hence his Scottish surname) and Dina Louisa, Baroness Sweerts de Landas. The marriage enabled Zelle to move into the Dutch upper class and placed her finances on a sound footing. She moved with her husband to Malang on the east side of the island of Java, travelling out on the SS ; Prinses Amalia in May 1897. They had two children, Norman-John MacLeod (1897–1899) and Louise Jeanne MacLeod (1898–1919). The marriage
13456-574: Was wounded fighting in the ill-fated Nivelles Offensive to capture the German controlled fortified Brimont mountain range, losing his sight in his left eye, which led Zelle to ask for permission to visit her wounded lover at the hospital where he was staying near the front. As a citizen of a neutral country, Zelle would not normally be allowed near the front. Zelle was met by agents from the Deuxième Bureau who told her that she would be allowed to see Maslov if she agreed to spy for France. Before
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