'After this last masterpiece, if no one dared to doubt his status as a writer, he himself had the greatest difficulty writing, wondering how he could do better', notes Serge Linkès, master conference at the University of La Rochelle and specialist in Kessel's work. Volume 2 (1,808 pages, 67 euros) ends with the novel which definitively dedicated it, 'Les cavaliers' (1967).

Volume 1 (1,968 pages, 68 euros) opens with one of Kessel's first texts, 'L'Équipage' (1923), the writer's first commercial success. In addition to the release of these two volumes, a richly illustrated album devoted to the author of the 'Lion' will be offered to buyers of three volumes of the Pléiade. Of the 80 or so novels and stories written by Joseph Kessel, the prestigious Gallimard collection has retained around 20, presented in two volumes, in which 'the very essence of the novel is found in Kessel: adventure', underlines Serge Linkès who edited this edition. Joseph 'Jef' Kessel, the journalist-novelist, committed witness to the march of the world, backpacker and member of the French Academy, joins his friend Romain Gary at the Pantheon of Literature a few months apart. It is through films and other archives that we will tell the story of Kessel and browse his astonishing biography.He is not a writer but a legend who enters the Pléiade on Thursday. He did it all with panache, with no fear of death, and survived everything: war, drugs, alcohol… If many reporters have made him their reference, it is because Joseph Kessel is the bearer of universal values and a personal talent, making for great men and great stories. Through all those years Kessel had worked, had fun and loved, in a whirlwind of wild passions. At the age of 60 he became the author of one of the greatest best-sellers of the 20th century, 'The Lion'. With an innate sense of drama, the one they called 'Jef' created his life as an adventure film, a life where fantasy and reality intermingled, a haunting waltz around characters that resembled him, like a film with himself as the hero. He doesn’t go on stage, but turns his life into a novel. Special correspondent, writer, resistant, Joseph Kessel has known both wealth and glory.Īt the age of 17 he dreamt of being an actor, but the suicide of his brother made him give up that dream.

The Lion by Joseph Kessel