Both works by member of the French Academy Joseph Kessel (1898–1975), translated into Russian for the first time, are about the tragedy of love and the strangeness of human relationships. The novel “Beauty of the Day” received a second life thanks to the film of the same name directed by Luis Buñuel, starring starring French film actress Catherine Deneuve. The novel “The Java Rose” has the same theme of tragic love and destructive passion.