Author: Margot Metroland

Louis-Ferdinand Destouches (Céline), 1915. From the collection of executor François Gibault.

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The following is part of Counter-Currents’ commemoration of Céline’s 129th birthday on May 27.

Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Ed. by Pascal Fouché
Foreword by François Gibault
Guerre
Paris: Editions Gallimard, 2022

I must have been lying there for much of the next night. The whole ear on the left was glued to the ground with blood, the mouth too. Between the two there was an immense noise. I fell asleep in this noise and then it rained a heavy rain. (more…)

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On April 10, 1955 — Easter Sunday — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin collapsed and died of a heart attack in a friend’s Manhattan apartment. He was 74 and had done nothing more strenuous that day than take a stroll through Central Park. (more…)

Robert Brasillach

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Editor’s Note: Today marks the 114th birthday of Robert Brasillach, the French journalist, novelist,  film historian, and man of the Right who was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad for “intellectual crimes” he was alleged to have committed as a German collaborator during the Second World War.  The following translation is offered as a commemoration, and links to other resources regarding Brasillach’s life and work are at the end. (more…)

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Michael Malice
The White Pill: A Tale of Good and Evil
Independently Published, 2022

What a joy to open this book and find that whatever the author’s White Pill is supposed to be, it somehow involves Ayn Rand (AR). It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand (1971, by Jerome Tuccille) was the name of an actual book that came out when I was in my teens and going through my own brief Objectivist period. The book is a funny saga about the author’s time as a militant libertarian. (more…)

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Deborah Cohen
Last Call at the Hotel Imperial:
The Reporters who Took on a World at War
New York: Random House, 2022 (more…)

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Ian Kershaw
Personality and Power:­­­­ Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe
New York: Penguin Press, 2022

This book caught my eye when it came out a few months ago because its format reminded me of Standardbearers: British Roots of the New Right, which I reviewed here some seasons back. That is to say, a collection of short critical biographies of a dozen or so worthies, assembled together on a common theme. (more…)

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Three years ago I did a semi-humorous, shaggy-dog piece about Pinocchio and the Fascisti (“Pinocchio: The Face of Fascism“). Its jumping-off point was talking about several Pinocchio films in the works, particularly a long-awaited stop-motion animation feature directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson. (more…)

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Lisa Birnbach, Ed.
The Official Preppy Handbook
New York: Workman Publishing, 1980

The Official Preppy Handbook was originally published in late 1980. It spawned many imitators and at least one quasi-sequel (True Prep, 2010), as well as various updated and deluxe editions. It also helped to launch a genre of humor books that mixed faux sociology and sartorial fun. I touched on that trend a year ago in my supercilious takedown of 1984’s The Yuppie Handbook. (more…)

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Hannes Wessels
PK van der Byl, African Statesman
Johannesburg: 30º South Publishers, 2010

If you need a useful and practical hero in the field of race politics and statecraft, you might take a good look at a colorful and headstrong eccentric named Pieter Kenyon Fleming-Voltelyn van der Byl (1923-1999).

When it comes to the story of independent Rhodesia, most people only remember Prime Minister Ian Douglas Smith. (more…)

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Jessie Daniels
Nice White Ladies: The Truth about White Supremacy, Our Role in It, and How We Can Help Dismantle It
New York: Seal Press, 2021

Having cash flow problems? Trouble making ends meet? Perhaps you should try selling your children into prostitution. It’s easy, it’s profitable, and many Progressive people are doing it! As an added bonus, you will be helping to dismantle “White Supremacy.” (more…)

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Commander John Irving, Royal Navy
Royal Navalese: A Glossary of Fo’csle Language
London: Focal Point Publications, 2020 (originally published 1946)

Somebody recently gifted me with this trim, entertaining little book. Perhaps because of the season, I immediately identified it as one of that peculiar species of “Christmas books”: small volumes, usually elegantly designed, illustrated with line drawings, and often found stacked near the bookseller’s cash register in December. (more…)

Kdo zabil Orwella? Nejstudenější člověk, „Bába“ Gow?

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English original here

Jistá pověst tradovaná o smrti George Orwella se už posledních více než 20 let usilovně snaží prodrat na povrch hlavního proudu. Pokud vím, nebyla zatím nikde otištěna, což je poněkud zvláštní, protože všechny její hlavní součásti jsou už dlouho veřejně dostupné a známé: v životopisech, memoárech i novinových titulcích. Kdokoliv, tedy skoro kdokoliv, koho celá věc zajímá, si dávno mohl dát dvě a dvě dohromady. (more…)

Rolleiflex selfie of Philip Larkin and Monica Jones in Paignton, Devon, circa 1957. (From Andrew Motion’s Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life, 1993.)

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The writer Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was born on August 9, 1922, and this essay is part of a commemoration of his centenary. — Ed.

He’s been dead for 37 years, but the Philip Larkin literary industry keeps burbling along, fueled by a seemingly inexhaustible supply of titillating tales, spicy correspondence, and uncollected reviews, diary scraps, and photographs. (more…)