CÉLINE (Louis-Ferdinand). Voyage au bout de la nuit. Paris, Denoël & Steele, 1932. In-12, two-tone anthracite and black morocco divided at the height of the field by a green and midnight blue mosaic double listel, title on the first plate in silver and blue letters with a blue box mosaic inclusion in the initial, smooth mute spine, green box lining and endpapers, gilt edges, cover and spine, folder and slipcase sheathed in morocco in the same colours (D. Morcrette - J. Faki - Berthaux doreur). First edition of Céline's masterpiece. Céline's first novel, Le Voyage owes its success over the past 90 years to its exceptional character, which is as violent as it is delicious. Its innovative use of slang and acerbic virulence divided the critics when it was published; the novel missed out on the Prix Goncourt by two votes, but won the Prix Renaudot and was an immediate bestseller. Of the Voyage, Paul Nizan wrote: "this enormous novel is a considerable work, of a strength and breadth to which we are not accustomed by the well-curled dwarfs of bourgeois literature". A first-edition copy on publisher's paper, complete with the publisher's advertisements. Autograph signed letter to Pierre Mac Orlan: To Pierre Mac Orlan, the father of Elsa, the master of us all, these pages submitted! In good friendship, LF Céline. Céline is referring here to La Cavalière Elsa, a futuristic novel published in 1921 by Mac Orlan in which "the Bolshevik hordes, fanaticised by Jewish thinkers, were sweeping across France" (Éric Mazet, Bulletin célinien, no. 185). A magnificent copy in a very fine mosaic-lined binding, executed by Joachim Faki to a design by Daniel Morcrette. It is enriched by an autograph letter signed by Céline to Henri-Albert Mahé, the father of the painter Henri Mahé (n.d. 1 p. in-8): "[...] You see how pleased I am that all this drama has come down to a purge. May it be so with all our dramas! [...] I'm going to put Henri's mind at rest too. And everything will be for the best (if it can be).