[CELINE (Louis-Ferdinand)] DESTOUCHES (Louis).Livre Rare Book
Portrait de René Destouches oncle de Louis-Ferdinand Céline
1920760201920. Fine. circa 1930 12.50 x 17.80 cm Rare photographic portrait of René Destouches uncle of Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Photographic enlargement in a probably later printing. Inscription ""René Destouches"" on the back. René Destouches remained employed all his life in various menial jobs following a serious fall from the top of the cliff at Sainte-Adresse. Céline devoted passages to him in Mort à crédit under the features of uncle Rodolphe: ""Mais le plus cloche de la famille c'était sûrement l'oncle Rodolphe il était tout à fait sonné. Il se marrait doucement quand on lui parlait. Il se répondait à lui-même. Ça durait des heures. Il voulait vivre seulement qu'à l'air. Il a jamais voulu tâter d'un seul magasin ni des bureaux même comme gardien et même de nuit. Pour croûter il préférait rester dehors sur un banc. Il se méfiait des intérieurs. Quand vraiment il avait trop faim alors il venait à la maison. Il passait le soir. C'est qu'il avait eu trop d'échecs. La ""bagotte"" son casuel des gares c'était un métier d'entraînement. Il l'a fait pendant plus de vingt ans. Il tenait la ficelle des ""Urbaines"" il a couru comme un lapin après les fiacres et les bagages aussi longtemps qu'il a pu."" ""But the most cracked in the family was surely uncle Rodolphe he was completely punch-drunk. He would laugh quietly when you spoke to him. He would answer himself. It would go on for hours. He only wanted to live in the open air. He never wanted to try a single shop or offices even as a watchman and even at night. To get by he preferred to stay outside on a bench. He was wary of interiors. When he was really too hungry then he would come to the house. He would come by in the evening. It's because he had had too many failures. The 'bagotte' his casual work at the stations it was a training job. He did it for more than twenty years. He held the string of the 'Urbaines' he ran like a rabbit after the cabs and the luggage as long as he could."" unknown
