Kessel, Joseph (1898-1979). French journalist and novelist whose active life is the basis for much of his fiction. His adventurer-heroes fight in air-battles (L'Équipage, 1923), participate in the Resistance struggle (L'Armée des ombres, 1946), and travel to exotic countries. Belle de jour (1928), later filmed by Buñuel, creates a woman whose desires conflict with her social role.

[Elizabeth Fallaize]

The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.