Death on Credit by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Author:Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781847496348
Publisher: Alma Books
Published: 2017-05-25T09:34:05+00:00

Notes

p. 7, the Zone: Originally the strip of land between the Paris fortifications and the suburbs, where for military reasons construction was prohibited. In later popular usage, the more depressing suburbs on the periphery of Paris.

p. 20, Federates’ Day: “Federates” was the name given to the Paris members of the National Guard at the time of the Commune. Many thousands of them were executed by Mac-Mahon’s troops after the fall of the Commune. Federates’ Day (27th May) is a day devoted to their memory by left-wing parties and organizations.

p. 32, Lustucru: An old-time clown. The name was manufactured from the French “L’eûsses-tu cru?” – “Would you have believed it?”

p. 37, Raspail method: François-Vincent Raspail (1794–1878) was a chemist and an ardent republican. He wrote books popularizing the principles of medicine and devised a simple, inexpensive method of therapy, intended chiefly for the working class and based principally on camphor and aloes. He was prosecuted (1846) for the illegal practice of medicine.

p. 49, Robert Houdin: Theatre founded by the famous magician Robert Houdin (1805–71), specializing in magic and prestidigitation. Georges Méliès (1861–1938), the film pioneer, was for many years its director.

p. 49, The Trip to the Moon: Film by Georges Méliès (1902) after Jules Verne’s novel From the Earth to the Moon (1865). Fifteen minutes long, it was an enormous success internationally.

p. 59, The last one in ’82: The World Fair was held in Paris in 1878 and 1889, but not 1882.

p. 72, the statue of Bordeaux: The east side of the Place de la Concorde is bordered by eight statues symbolizing French cities.

p. 85, Lucia di Lammermoor… Moonlight Sonata… Werther… Chalet and Fortunio’s song: Werther (1835) is an opera by Gaetano Donizetti (1797–48), based on a Walter Scott novel. “Moonlight Sonata” is the name traditionally given to Beethoven’s most famous sonata (No. 14 in C-sharp minor). Werther (1892) is an opera by Jules Massenet (1842–1912), based on Goethe’s novel. Le Chalet (1834) is a comic opera by Adolphe Adam (1803–56). “Fortunio” may be a reference to either La Chanson de Fortunio (1861), an operetta by Jacques Offenbach (1819–80) or Fortunio (1907) a lyrical comedy by André Messager (1853–1929).

p. 85, Glory and fame to the men of old!: The opening line of Act 4 of the 1859 opera Faust by Charles Gounod(1818–93).

p. 91, A poet once told me: The beginning chorus of ‘L’Étoile d’amour’, a song by C. Fallot and P. Delmet.

p. 110, wigs à la Mayol: Félix Mayol (1872–1941) was a popular cabaret singer, famous in part for the large tuft of hair over his forehead. This feature was imitated in the wigs bearing his name.

p. 132, Camille Desmoulins: Camille Desmoulins (1760–1794) was a leader in the French Revolution, executed with Danton on 5th April 1794.

p. 134, ‘Maxixe’: The tune for a popular dance of Spanish origin, which was introduced to France from Brazil around 1904 and was all the rage for a few years.

p. 241, the Ambigu… Wallace fountain: The Ambigu-Comique was a large theatre specializing in dramatic and melodramatic pieces. The Wallace fountain was named after Sir Richard Wallace (1818–1890), an English philanthropist who in 1872 donated one hundred drinking fountains to the city of Paris.

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