Read Death on the Installment Plan Online
Authors: Louis-Ferdinand Celine
We took the bed out of the closet … The folding contraption that squeaked all over … It had shrunk something awful … When I tried to stretch out, I got tangled up in the bars … I preferred the mattress on the floor … He gave me another off his own bed … I was still shaking like a leaf … He gave me more blankets … My teeth were still chattering … He covered me all up, he buried me under a pile of overcoats … I had all his bearskins on top of me … There was a whole selection in the closet … I kept on shivering all the same … I looked at the walls of the room … They’d got smaller too … It was the middle room, the one with the
Angelus
in it …
“I can’t put on anymore … What do you think, you old crocodile? … you wouldn’t want me to smother you … Imagine! … suppose I couldn’t find you again … Wouldn’t that be a fine kettle of fish! … My oh my! … Some soldier boy you’d be! … Squashed under a pile of blankets … I can hear the hue and cry! … Wouldn’t I be sitting pretty! … Think what they’d say in the Passage! … My goodness! … The dear child! … The little treasure! … And me trying to explain … Squashed in his own juice, the little devil! Squish! Absolutely! My oh my! … What a mess! … Stop it, emperor, I’ve had enough …”I spasmed, trying to laugh with him … He went to his room … He called out from far away …
“Listen, I’m leaving my door open … If you need anything, don’t be afraid to sing out … It’s no disgrace to be sick … I’ll come right away … If you get the runs, do you know where the can is? … The little hallway on the left … Don’t take the stairs by mistake … The lamp is on the table … You needn’t blow it out … And in case you need to throw up … wouldn’t you like a chamberpot? …”
“Oh, no, Uncle … I’ll go out there …”
“Good. But if you get up, put on an overcoat … Just reach into the pile, it doesn’t matter which … You’d catch your death out in the hall … There’s no shortage of coats …”
“No, Uncle.”
Glossary
1
p. 20 ”Yid.” French
“Zizi.”
The translation here is uncertain. The “normal”
meanings of the word are the male sex organ and “wise guy.”’ The word recurs
on p. 168. In search of a meaning that would make sense in both passages,
I came to the conclusion that this may have been a private word with Céline.
2
p. 20 The Zone
(la Zone [militaire de Paris])
. 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.
3
p. 35 Federates’ Day
(le jour des Fédérés)
. Fédérés 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 MacMahon’s troops after the fall
of the Commune.
Le jour des Fédérés
(May 27) is a day devoted to their memory by left-wing parties and organizations.
4
p. 49 Lustucru. An old-time clown. The name was manufactured from
“L’eûsses-tu cru?”
—”Would you have believed it?”
5
p. 55 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.
6
p. 68 Théâtre Robert Houdin. Theater founded by Robert Houdin, the famous
magician, specializing in magic and prestidigitation. Georges Méliès, the film
pioneer, was for many years its director.
7
p. 68
The Trip to the Moon
, film by Georges Méliès (1902) after Jules Verne’s
novel
De la Terre à la Lune
(1865). It lasted fifteen minutes and was an
enormous success both in France and the United States.
8
p. 93 Statue of Bordeaux. The east side of the Place de la Concorde is bordered
by eight statues symbolizing French cities. Bordeaux and Nantes are the work
of Callouet.
9
p. 138 Wigs à la Mayol. Mayol was a popular cabaret singer (1872-1941),
famous in part for the large tuft of hair over his forehead. This feature was
imitated in the wigs bearing his name.
10
p. 290 Wallace fountain. After Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890),
an English philanthropist who in 1872 donated one hundred drinking
fountains to the city of Paris.
11
p. 322 Paulhan. Early aviator. Already famous in 1910. Henri Rougier.
Holder of the eleventh airplane pilot’s license. Lucien Petit-Breton.
Famous bicycle racer. Winner of the Tour de France in 1907 and 1908.
Henri Farman (1874-1958) and his brother Maurice (1877-1964).
Aviators and airplane builders. Also engaged in tandem, motorcycle,
and automobile racing, winning numerous prizes. Henri won the
Grand Prix de l’Aviation. In 1908, first flight with passengers. Founded
one of the earliest passenger lines in 1919. Maurice was French bicycle
champion in 1895. Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932). Brazilian aviator.
Constructed several types of aircraft. In 1906 made the first world record in
aviation, a flight of 220 meters, covered in 21 seconds.
Vicomte Lambert. Aviator. Created an enormous sensation by flying over
the Eiffel Tower in 1909. Hubert Latham (1883-1912). French aviator.
Established altitude records. Made two unsuccessful attempts to fly
across the English channel.
12
p. 331 Camille Flammarion (1842-1925).
Astronomer and author of popular works on astronomy.
13
p. 337 Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914). Devised the system of
identifying criminals by anthropometric measurements and fingerprints.
14
p. 345 Matchiche. Popular dance of Spanish origin.
Introduced to France from Brazil about 1904, it was all the rage for a few years.
15
Equine Race. Society for the Improvement of the Equine Race
(Société pour l’amélioration de la race chevaline)
:
One of several organizations that supervise the French race tracks.
16
p. 351 Camille Desmoulins (1760-1794).
Leader in the French Revolution, executed with Danton on April 5, 1794.
Old Vick = Victor Hugo.
17
p. 354 Mongolfier. The Mongolfier brothers, paper manufacturers,
pioneers in lighter-than-air aircraft.
18
p. 359 pea soup = absinthe
19
p. 394 François-Eugène Vidocq (1775-1857). Adventurer, convict, spy, and detective,
who became chief of the Paris Security Police. He inspired Balzac”s character Vautrin.
20
p. 403 Jules-Emile Péan (1830-1898). Eminent surgeon.
21
p. 424 Wash barge. The
bateaux lavoirs
were floating laundries,
formerly common in France.
22
p. 453 Bonnot gang
(Bande à Bonnot)
. A group of anarchists
led by Joseph Bonnot (1876-1912). Specialized in bank robberies
for the benefit of the cause. Bonnot and three others were killed at
the time of their arrest in 1912.
23
p. 460 Pierre-Victurnien Vergniaud (1753-1793). Girondist deputy who voted
for the death of Louis XVI. Arrested with other leaders of the Gironde party,
he was executed in 1793. The basis of Courtial’s reflections is obscure.
24
p. 569 Jean-Bart hat. A hat with a wide turned-up brim, formerly worn by children.
In his best-known portraits Jean Bart (1651-1702), the famous privateer, is
not wearing anything of the kind. “Hefty”
(Gros-Frère)
, slang for cuirassier.
25
p. 577 The final shindig = “The final conquest” in
l’Internationale
,
the Socialist—later Communist— hymn.
26
p. 578 The Luxembourg. Quite a stroll. The reader is advised to locate the
Luxembourg Gardens and the rue de la Convention on a map of Paris.
27
p. 585 “Mountain boys.” The French word
“mataf”
is argot for “sailor.”
But the following song belongs to the mountain troops. Possibly “mataf” was a
misunderstanding for Bat d’Af, Bataillon d’Afrique. Or possibly, as Celine’s
then-secretary suggests, he chose it for the sound.
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