CÉLINE (Louis-Ferdinand). Voyage au bout de la nuit. Paris, Denoël & Steele, 1932. In-12, lemon morocco, irregular patches of tawny snake mosaic on the boards, smooth spine titled in cold, lining and endpapers of sand box, double endpapers, gilt edges, cover and spine, folder and slipcase sheathed in the same morocco (D. Morcrette - C. de Séguier - P. Prouteau). 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 from the author: À Mlle Keil, mon amitié et ma reconnaissance pour sa collaboration ancienne et précieuse. LF Destouches. A splendid copy. An autograph postcard in German signed by Albert Schweitzer to Fräulein Keil is enclosed.