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emmagreen1220-blog · 6 years

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Allusion

Allusion Definition

Allusion can be defined as a casual reference to a person or a thing which adds extra meaning to the neighboring context. In other words, merely saying “The Good Samaritan is a character in a parable told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke” is not an allusion—it is merely a straightforward reference. However, it is an allusion when, for example, Julia says to Edward in T.S Eliot’s comedy The Cocktail Party (I.2.49-50): “Don’t you realise how lucky you are/ To have two Good Samaritans?”

Allusions are, by definition, indirect. That means that they are never explicitly clarified by the author and that they work pretty much like riddles: it is left to the reader to both identify them and make the connection to a previous text. However, sometimes this process can prove especially tricky.

For example, Alexander Pope’s verses are densely allusive, filled with both classical and topical references that can’t be understood without some proper help from a specialized scholar. Moreover, modernist poets such as T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound consciously strove to enrich their writings with obscure, esoteric and personal allusions, the understanding of which is frequently essential to understanding the meaning of the works as a whole.

In some cases, allusions may even have a structural significance: James Joyce’s novel Ulysses, for example, is modeled after Homer’s epic Odyssey and can’t be sufficiently made sense of without it.

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Allusion Examples

Allusion in a Sentence

Example #1: Achilles’ Heel

Divorce is the Achilles’ heel of marriage.

– George Bernard Shaw, Letters (July 2, 1965)

According to a story in Greek mythology, in an attempt to make her son immortal, the sea nymph Thetis washed the baby Achilles in the waters of the infernal river Styx. However, as she was doing this, she held him by his heel, which remained the only vulnerable place on her son’s body. This would prove a fatal mistake, since, late in the Trojan War, an arrow fired by the Trojan prince Paris and guided by Apollo, pierced through the heel of Achilles, killing the great Achaean hero on the spot. In the 19th century, the phrase “Achilles’ heel” was first used to mean a weak spot in spite of overall strength—and George Bernard Shaw wittily plays with this meaning in his clever remark above.

Example #2: Janus

A friend is Janus-faced: he looks to the past and the future. He is the child of all my foregoing hours, the prophet of those to come.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Friendship” (1841)

Janus was an ancient Roman deity, worshipped as a guardian of doors and gates, and as a god of transitions, beginnings and endings. He was depicted as having two faces—one looking back and another forward—and this is what Ralph Waldo Emerson alludes to in the sentences above, describing a friend as someone who is both an indelible part of one’s past and an architect of his or her future.

Example #3: Panglossian

Many searchers for life beyond Earth seem to be possessed of an almost Panglossian optimism, and since their speculations include the entire universe, their optimism might seem justified.

– Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books, November 2, 2000

Dr. Pangloss is a character in Voltaire’s 1759 satirical masterpiece Candide. A professor of “metaphysico-theologo-cosmoronology” he is a self-proclaimed optimist who firmly believes that we are living in “the best of all possible worlds” and that “all is for the best.” He remains convinced in the veracity of his beliefs even after countless misfortunes, which cost him an eye and an ear due to syphilis, and, at one point, even his freedom. Because of this, when someone is Panglossian, he or she is overly—and naively—optimistic.

(Further Reading: Top 10 Examples of Allusion in a Sentence)

Allusion in Poetry

Example #1: Dead Sea Fruits

May Life’s unblessed cup for him Be drugg’d with treacheries to the brim, With hopes that but allure to fly, With joys that vanish while he sips, Like Dead-Sea fruits, that tempt the eye, But turn to ashes on the lips!

– Thomas Moore, Lalla Rookh (1817)

A Dead Sea fruit—sometimes also called a Sodom apple—is, according to the legend, a tempting fruit which dissolves into smoke and ashes once touched. Thomas Moore must have considered the allusion somewhat obscure when he wrote the above stanza in 1817 because he decided to annotate it himself, quoting a sentence by French explorer Jean de Thévenot as an explanation: “They say that there are apple-trees upon the sides of this sea, which bear very lovely fruit, but within are full of ashes.” A Dead Sea fruit is now used as an allusion to anything which may look promising at first but ultimately brings disappointment and discontent.

Example #2: Gehenna

Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne, He travels the fastest who travels alone.

– Rudyard Kipling, “The Winners” (1890)

Gehenna—or, literally translated, the “Valley of (the Son of) Hinnom”—is a place in Jerusalem, where, according to the Old Testament, worshippers of the pagan gods Baal and Moloch sacrificed their children by fire: “They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal” (Jeremiah 19:5). In time, the term came to symbolize Hell itself, so much so that the name given to Hell in the Quran, Jahannam, is a direct derivation of Gehenna. Additionally, the phrase “go to Gehenna” can be used as a more esoteric alternative to the everyday expression “go to hell.”

Example #3: The Mad Hatter

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter, It isn’t just one of your holiday games; You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

– T. S. Eliot, “The Naming of Cats” 1-4 (1939)

As almost everybody knows, the Mad Hatter is a character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and the eccentric host of one of the craziest tea parties you can ever imagine, also attended by the March Hare and the Dormouse. However, the phrases “mad as a hatter” and “mad as a (March) hare” predate Carroll’s book. According to OED, the first of these two expressions may refer to “the effects of mercury poisoning formerly suffered by hat-makers as a result of the use of mercurous nitrate in the manufacture of felt hats.” Ultimately, however, it’s irrelevant which of these sources is alluded to by T.S. Eliot in the stanza above—the meaning is immediately clear either way.

Example #4: Paris · Menelaus · Troy

I will be Paris and, for love of thee, Instead of Troy shall Wittenberg be sacked; And I will combat with weak Menelaus And wear thy colours on my plumed crest.

– Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus V.1.98-101 (1592)

This is what Doctor Faustus says to a summoned infernal spirit who has assumed the shape of Helen in the fifth act of Christopher Marlowe’s tragedy. The wife of Menelaus, Helen was a Spartan princess who was abducted by the Trojan prince, Paris—an event which triggered the Trojan War. Doctor Faustus reimagines himself as Helen’s lover and, in a trance, rewrites parts of the original story: in Homer’s Iliad, it is Paris who is unskilled and cowardly, and Menelaus an epitome of bravery. A few verses above this passage, Marlowe describes Helen’s face as one “that launch’d a thousand ships,/ And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?,” a phrase which has been alluded to numerous times ever since.

Example #5: The Trojan War · Helen and Clytemnestra

A shudder in the loins engenders there The broken wall, the burning roof and tower And Agamemnon dead.

– William Butler Yeats, “Leda and the Swan” 9-11 (1923)

As you can read in the example above, Yeats finds an even more implicit way to allude to some of the people and events Christopher Marlowe calls into mind in Doctor Faustus. His sonnet “Leda and the Swan” vividly describes how Zeus, disguised as a swan, rapes Leda, the Queen of Sparta. From this union, Helen and Clytemnestra were subsequently born, the former responsible for the Trojan War (“the broken wall, the burning roof and tower”) and the latter the murderer of the Achaean leader (“And Agamemnon dead”). Thus, the three verses above hide allusions within allusions: by referring to the consequences (the Trojan War and the death of Agamemnon), Yeats actually alludes to the causes (Helen and Clytemnestra) without even using their names.

(Further Reading: Top 10 Examples of Allusion in Poetry)

Allusion in Literature

Example #1: Gargantua

You must borrow me Gargantua’s mouth first. ‘Tis a word too great for any mouth of this age’s size.

– William Shakespeare, As You Like It III.2.221 (1599)

This is what Celia replies to Rosalind in Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy, As You Like It, after the latter asks to answer her “in one word” a host of Orlando-related questions. (“What did he when thou saw’st him? What said he? How looked he? Wherein went he? What makes him here? Did he ask for me? Where remains he? How parted he with thee? And when shalt thou see him again?”) The meaning of the sentence is clear as it is, but it becomes even more palpable once you learn that Gargantua is a giant, the title protagonist in François Rabelais’ satirical pentalogy of novels, The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel.

Example #2: Methuselah

Now, you are my witness, Miss Summerson, I say I don’t care—but if he was to come to our house with his great, shining, lumpy forehead night after night till he was as old as Methuselah, I wouldn’t have anything to say to him.

– Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1853)

The son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah, Methuselah is the oldest man mentioned in the Bible; Genesis 5:27 claims that he lived to be 969 years. Consequently, the word Methuselah is now almost synonymous with longevity, and is often used to mean “extremely aged” or “ancient.” The phrase “as old as Methuselah” is also regularly used.

Example #3: Procrustean Bed

‘The measures, then,’ he continued, ‘were good in their kind, and well executed; their defect lay in their being inapplicable to the case, and to the man. A certain set of highly ingenious resources are, with the Prefect, a sort of Procrustean bed, to which he forcibly adapts his designs. But he perpetually errs by being too deep or too shallow, for the matter in hand; and many a schoolboy is a better reasoner than he.

– Edgar Allan Poe, “The Purloined Letter” (1845)

Procrustes—literally, “The Stretcher”—was a street bandit in Greek mythology famous for the eccentricity of his modus operandi. Namely, he first invited travelers to lie on an iron bed he held in his possession, and, then, in an attempt to force them to fit the length of the bed, he either stretched them (if they were short) or cut off their legs (if they were longer than his bed). The adjective “procrustean” refers to this act, and means enforcing conformity through ruthless measures which disregard individual differences.

(Further Reading: Top 10 Allusion Examples in Literature)

Songs with Assonance

Example #1: The Cure, Killing an Arab (1979)

Standing on the beach With a gun in my hand Staring at the sea Staring at the sand Staring down the barrel At the Arab on the ground I can see his open mouth But I hear no sound

I’m alive I’m dead I’m the stranger Killing an Arab

Released a few days before the end of 1978, Killing an Arab was the controversial debut single of The Cure. As Robert Smith explains in a 1991 interview, the song “is a short poetic attempt at condensing [his] impression of the key moments in The Stranger by Albert Camus”—explicitly referenced in the chorus quoted above. However, the allusion was lost to many, leading to many accusations that Killing an Arab is a racist song which promotes violence against Arabs. As a result of the hostile response, The Cure rarely play the song even today; and when they do, they modify the last verse of the chorus to either “Killing another” or “Killing an Ahab.” And yes—the latter is another example of literary allusion!

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Example #2: Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah (1984)

Well, your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya She tied you to the kitchen chair She broke your throne and she cut your hair And from your lips, she drew the Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah

The second stanza of Leonard Cohen’s most covered song, Hallelujah, skillfully merges two biblical accounts. In the first three verses, it alludes to the story of David and Bathsheba, and the moment the Jewish king falls in love with the wife of Uriah the Hittite: “One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful” (2 Samuel 11:2). Furthermore, the second three verses refer to the story of Samson, an Israelite of enormous strength, who lost all of it after his lover Delilah betrayed him and cut his hair (Judges 13-16). However, Cohen subverts the climax of this story, portraying the emasculated Samson/David not as a bitter man, but one ready to greet his defeat with a “Hallelujah.”

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Example #3: Frank Turner, 1933 (2018)

The first time it was a tragedy The second time is a farce Outside it’s 1933 so I’m hitting the bar.

Written—by his own admission—during the U.S. election campaign of 2016, 1933 refers, both in the title and in the last verse of the pre-chorus excerpted above, to the year when the Nazis came to power in Germany. In Turner’s opinion, something similar is happening around us at the moment. (The chorus states this explicitly: “I don’t know what’s going on anymore/ The world outside is burning with a brand-new light/ But it isn’t one that makes me feel warm.”) To point out how farcical this all seems, he alludes to a famous Karl Marx observation in the first two verses above. It can be found in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon and, originally, it goes something like this: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.”

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(Further Reading: Top 5 Songs with Allusion)

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talesofpassingtime · 6 years

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He actually knew someone who had had syphilis—which, to Henry, was like knowing Nana or Doctor Pangloss: fantastical.

Ethan Mordden, How Long Has This Been Going On

#literature #Ethan Mordden #How Long Has This Been Going On

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perelka-l · 6 years

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Made a list of designs I did for wiki because I’m curious how much of all that stuff I designed. Answer is - well, I don’t know.

There ya go, in random-ish order.

SCP-105 – Drawn few times, short and short-haired. Nothing special, tbh.

SCP-166 – Also nothing special… Though horns are a thing.

Elijah from SCP-1730 – Here is the deal. I like him a lot. He’s a sweet innocent boy that happened to be in a wrong universe at a wrong time. I like to focus on this aspect in particular. You’ll see.

SCP-1895 – Yee. Dang, I should redraw that.

Blackwood/SCP-1867 – Somehow I never saw that guy drawn as human. Ngl, I like my idea of neons.

Ephialtes of SCP-2173 – idk man that was random. But author liked it, so it counts a lot.

Cactusman – also nothing special.

Black Queen – Something of a gothic vibe. Maybe. I like the goth-ish skirt and a bandana.

Robert Bumaro – zoo wee mamma. Ngl, I’m extremely happy with this, considering how popular Bumaro became after I created that. At first I just wanted to create a counter for my first picture of Ion (look below) and this happened. Then we had some minor modifications and now he looks like this or this. There is also design of younger Bumaro, if you go by “the guy is reealllyy old”. If you feel like it.

Hedwig and Trunnion – we had 1, we had 2, I still prefer this portrayal the most. Ngl, I still don’t know how to incorporate the fact that Hedwig is Hedy Lamarr, but I found out about this only recently…

The Hexagon – those designs exist in paper form outside shitty cheebs, pinky promise.

Sarkic Squad – So Ion, Lovataar, Saarn, Nadox and Orok – Ion was designed first, then I threw more human-ish form (younger Ion and Nadox here) and that’s how we roll. Well, all of folks of sarkic squad have human and less human form, really, but I prefer to draw humans. There is young Ion, young Lova, less-human Nadox… we roll.

Little Misters: Once I drew all of them, but now some of the designs are outdated, as articles appeared (like Sweetie or Lie), got updated (Laugh had photo changed), or I modified my design. The best ones, I think, are Redd, Lie, Stripes, Life and Death and Lost, but I am fond of those that are not outdated as well, even if I don’t draw them. Note that there are few designs that appeared only in tales as well (Feather, Purple). Idk why you should note that. It’s just a note.

Wondertainment – hoo boy. We have old Wondertainment which I like to divide into image he projects onto the world and what he is in reality. When it comes to Isabel, she’s just herself (if anyone’s curious, she’s a bit based on entire decora aesthetic. Guess here it’s more visible). Also, I’m still giddy Djoric liked it.

Marshal, Carter and Dark – Marshal was heavily influenced by Acquisitions, Carter… erm, I’m sure there is a tale about that out there. Anyway. Yeah. But I don’t think they are entirely human anyway. Less is said about Dark, the better.

Pangloss – He had a grand total of three designs before I settled on one. Kind of. I still can’t design. There is unearthly design, first lazy human design and more fun human design. I like the orange / green thing going on. He’s still an alien though.

Librarians – doing their thing

Agent Andrea Adams – dunno, I think she was also described but I am fond of dark red + turquoise combo

Researcher James Talloran – I tried to hit “nothing special”. Hit it so hard, that I shipped and things happened. (And no, I can’t in any way say I did anything for Kondraki Junior’s design. it’s just an example over here.)

Doctor Jeremiah Cimmerian – since guy had no description, the guy was basically an occasion to do whatever I want. That’s what I did. Author liked it and after a bit of talk, I ended up with this. Proudest moment ever ngl.

Agent Green – is green.

Agents Kenneth Spencer and Robin Thorne – first I did a comic and now we have this.

Snipper / Pico Wilson – snippy. You can see his roots though.

MEKHANE – yeehaw, yeehaw. yeehaw.

Saturn Deer – at first I had him confused with 2845, but after talks with Dmatix I had stuff sorted out and we have this false prophet and troll supreme. More to come.

I drew a lot of other designs but most of times they were described in bigger or smaller detail or have photos (SCP-040 or SCP-993, for example) or have a popular design that influenced mine (SCP-076-2 or Clef or Iceberg) and I feel that I shouldn’t list them here.

Also, no designs of my characters..... At least…. Not yet.

#scp #nyeeehehheheh #i think i'm good at designing #maybe #probably #some of those make me so so so proud seriously #watch me and my fail art #wee

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gongdaseulgi · 6 years

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Voltaire was one sassy bastard :D :D :D

"One day Cunegonde, while walking near the castle, in a little wood which they called a park, saw between the bushes, Dr. Pangloss giving a lesson in experimental natural philosophy to her mother's chamber-maid, a little brown wench, very pretty and very docile. As Miss Cunegonde had a great disposition for the sciences, she breathlessly observed the repeated experiments of which she was a witness; she clearly perceived the force of the Doctor's reasons, the effects, and the causes; she turned back greatly flurried, quite pensive, and filled with the desire to be learned; dreaming that she might well be a sufficient reason for young Candide, and he for her." - Voltaire: Candide

#voltaire #candide #theatre #research #acting #markravenhill #reading #books #classic literature #philosophy

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biblioncollection · 4 years

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Candide | Voltaire | Fantastic Fiction | Audiobook full unabridged | English | 1/3 Content of the video and Sections beginning time (clickable) - Chapters of the audiobook: please see First comments under this video. Candide, ou l’Optimisme, (“Candide, or Optimism”) (1759) is a picaresque novel by the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire. Voltaire never openly admitted to having written the controversial Candide; the work is signed with a pseudonym: “Monsieur le docteur Ralph”, literally “Mister Doctor Ralph.”Sardonic in outlook, it follows the naïve protagonist Candide from his first exposure to the precept that “all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds,” and on through a series of adventures that dramatically disprove that precept even as the protagonist clings to it.The novel satirizes naïve interpretations of the philosophy of Gottfried Leibniz and is a showcase of the horrors of the 18th century world. In Candide, Leibniz is represented by the philosopher Pangloss, the tutor of the title character. Despite a series of misfortunes and misadventures, which include being present at the Lisbon Earthquake, Pangloss continually asserts that “Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles” (“All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”). The novel ends with Candide finally rejecting the optimism espoused by Pangloss, saying, “Il faut cultiver notre jardin” (“It is necessary to cultivate our garden”). Summary from Wikipedia This is a Librivox recording. If you want to volunteer please visit https://librivox.org/ by Priceless Audiobooks

#best audiobooks #audio book best #audiobook free online #free audiobooks #audio books online free #a

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eloiseyat-blog · 7 years

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Candide - 1694-1778 Voltaire | Fiction & Literature |492363942

Candide 1694-1778 Voltaire Genre: Fiction & Literature Price: Get Publish Date: January 1, 1778 Candide begins in the German town of Westphalia, where Candide, a young man, lives in the castle of Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh. A noted philosopher, Doctor Pangloss, tutors the baron on philosophical optimism, the idea that "all is for the best . . . in this best of all worlds." Candide, a simple man, first accepts this philosophy, but as he experiences the horrors of war, poverty, the maliciousness of man, and the hypocrisy of the church, he begins to doubt the voracity of Pangloss's theory. Thus, philosophical optimism is the focus of Votaire's satire; anti-war and anti-church refrains also run throughout the novel.

#Fiction & Literature

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mahendra-singh · 7 years

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“Exercise freaks are stressing out our health care system,” added Doctor Pangloss. “It’s always me-me-me with these self-absorbed fitness nuts. Sure, we need affordable health care for all Freedonians, but does it really make sense to care for the healthy? That, my dear Candide, is what they call an oxymoron.”

If you’re going to die of medical neglect, why not die laughing? American Candide, the novelistic equivalent of giving your Congressman a very forcible prostrate exam instead of a vote.

#Rosarium Publishing #rosariumpub #american candide #trumpcare #obamacare #political satire #novel

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berthare-blog · 6 years

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Candide - 1694-1778 Voltaire | Fiction & Literature |492363942

#Fiction & Literature

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elizabethsta-blog · 7 years

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Candide - 1694-1778 Voltaire | Fiction & Literature |492363942

#Fiction & Literature

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yourstudentblogworld-blog · 7 years

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French Novel’s

“Poor, plain spinster Bette is compelled to survive on the condescending patronage of her socially superior relatives in Paris: her beautiful, saintly cousin Adeline, the philandering Baron Hulot and their daughter Hortense. Already deeply resentful of their wealth, when Bette learns that the man she is in love with plans to marry Hortense, she becomes consumed by the desire to exact her revenge and dedicates herself to the destruction of the Hulot family, plotting their ruin with patient, silent malice.” (Good Reads)

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

“Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Data's is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration.” (Good Reads)

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

“When Emma Rouault marries Charles Bovary she imagines she will pass into the life of luxury and passion that she reads about in sentimental novels and women's magazines. But Charles is a dull country doctor, and provincial life is very different from the romantic excitement for which she yearns. In her quest to realize her dreams she takes a lover, and begins a devastating spiral into deceit and despair.” (Good Reads)

The Stranger by Albert Camus

“Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." First published in English in 1946; now in a new translation by Matthew Ward.” (Good Read)

Candide by Voltaire

“Brought up in the household of a powerful Baron, Candide is an open-minded young man, whose tutor, Pangloss, has instilled in him the belief that 'all is for the best'. But when his love for the Baron's rosy-cheeked daughter is discovered, Candide is cast out to make his own way in the world.“ (Good Reads)

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

“This extraordinary historical novel, set in Medieval Paris under the twin towers of its greatest structure and supreme symbol, the cathedral of Notre-Dame, is the haunting drama of Quasimodo, the hunchback; Esmeralda, the gypsy dancer; and Claude Frollo, the priest tortured by the specter of his own damnation. Shaped by a profound sense of tragic irony, it is a work that gives full play to Victor Hugo's brilliant historical imagination and his remarkable powers of description.” (Good Reads)

Les Miserable by Victor Hugo

“Introducing one of the most famous characters in literature, Jean Valeant ”the noble peasant imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread” Les Miserable ranks among the greatest novels of all time. In it, Victor Hugo takes readers deep into the Parisian underworld, immerses them in a battle between good and evil, and carries them to the barricades during the uprising of 1832 with a breathtaking realism that is unsurpassed in modern prose. Within his dramatic story are themes that capture the intellect and the emotions: crime and punishment, the relentless persecution of Valjean by Inspector Javert, the desperation of the prostitute Fantine, the amorality of the rogue Thanardier, and the universal desire to escape the prisons of our own minds. Les Miserable gave Victor Hugo a canvas upon which he portrayed his criticism of the French political and judicial systems, but the portrait that resulted is larger than life, epic in scope ”an extravagant spectacle that dazzles the senses even as it touches the heart.” (Good Reads)

Sarah’s Key By Tatiana de Rosney

“Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel d’Hiv roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.“ (Good Reads)

The Princesse de Calves by Madame de La Fayette

“This new translation of The Princesse de Calves also includes two shorter works also attributed to Madme de Lafayette, The Princesse de Montpensier and The Comtesse de Tende.”(Good Read)

Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

“Published in rapid succession in the middle 1930s, Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan shocked European literature and world consciousness. Nominally fiction but more rightly called "creative confessions," they told of the author's childhood in excoriating Paris slums, of service in the mud wastes of World War I and African jungles. Mixing unmitigated despair with Gargantuan comedy, they also created a new style, in which invective and obscenity were laced with phrases of unforgettable poetry. Celine's influence revolutionized the contemporary approach to fiction. Under a cloud for a period, his work is now acknowledged as the forerunner of today's "black comedy."” (Good Reads)

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