Joseph Kessel’s Testimony on the Catalan Revolt of October 1934

Abstract

Joseph Kessel wrote several testimonies on the Catalonian uprising of 1934. We first analyse the articles on the journal Le Matin in which he tells about what was happening in Barcelona. We then comment on Kessels’ reportage Orage sur Barcelone published in Marianne, where he enlarges what he had exposed in Le Matin. We also analyse Une balle perdue (1935), a novel dealing with the ideological growth of a man named Alejandro. Through this character, Kessel explains the behaviour of several young men who, facing the defeat of the «Catalan state», decided to honourably show their insurrection by becoming snipers in order to end up their lives shooting the Spanish soldiers from the roofs of Barcelona