I Have Killed
Cendrars's short account of the same war, published in 1918. This book expands it.
Read our take
The Bloody Hand
Blaise Cendrars's memoir of the Foreign Legion squad he led in the First World War, written thirty years after he lost his right arm in it.
- 1946
About Blaise Cendrars
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeIn 1946, thirty years after the First World War, Blaise Cendrars published this memoir of his time as a corporal in the French Foreign Legion. Each chapter is a portrait of one man from his squad, using the man's real name. Cendrars lost his right arm in the war, and the title refers to that hand. The book was published in French as La Main coupée and in English as Lice. (It's a book of portraits — nothing to spoil.)
The story, in more detail
Cendrars joined the French Foreign Legion in 1914 and led a squad of foreign volunteers — men from Poland, Italy, and elsewhere who had chosen to fight for France. The book describes them one at a time: what they did before the war, how they talked, and what happened to them. It is not a book about battles. Most of it is the daily life of the trenches: mud, rats, wine, and patrols.[1]
In September 1915 Cendrars was wounded at Navarin and his right arm was amputated. It was his writing hand, and he later said that losing it made him the writer he became. He wrote this book thirty years later; Denoël published it in Paris in 1946, and Nina Rootes translated it into English as Lice. It is the second book of his four-volume memoir, and it expands the short account of the war he had published in 1918 as I Have Killed.[1]
What's inside
Each chapter is a portrait of one man from the squad: who he was before the war, how he behaved in it, and how he died or survived. Between the portraits are chapters about daily life at the front — patrols, rumors, food. Cendrars's own wound appears several times: Navarin, the amputation, and the phantom pain that followed him afterward.[1]
The chapters stand on their own, so the book can be read a portrait at a time.[1]
Themes and analysis
News from another world
Vieil's postcards do not simply comfort the men at the front. Their saturated blue scenery makes his distance from trench life almost painfully visible, and the chapter ends with the recipients feeling dispirited. Meanwhile, a second traffic runs in the opposite direction: soldiers send worked shell fragments and other objects to the doctor's collection that keeps Vieil occupied. War becomes something to arrange behind glass elsewhere. The affectionate account of this resourceful shirker therefore carries an uneasy contrast between the men enduring danger and the man finding a comfortable place beyond it.
The kindness that feeds him
The Coquoz portrait briefly becomes a story about the narrator's own dependence. He helps the young soldier compose letters to a bakery worker; later, after leaving hospital, that woman feeds him. The connection carries the narrative beyond the trenches without leaving its network of relationships behind. A plentiful list of pastries gains urgency beside his account of hunger and difficulty using his surviving hand. Men offer him drinks, but Sophie supplies food. The distinction makes care something practical and sustaining, measured by what a person needs rather than by a convivial gesture.
Why we recommend it
One man per chapter
The book remembers Cendrars's squad by name, one portrait at a time.
It is funny as well as sad
The men's jokes and habits get as much space as their deaths. Cendrars does not write about the war with reverence.
A firsthand account
Cendrars was there: he led these men as a corporal and lost his arm in the same war he describes.
What this book explores
Timeline
1914–1915
Cendrars leads a squad of foreign volunteers in the French Foreign Legion in the trenches.
1915
He is wounded at Navarin in September, and his right arm is amputated.
1946
Denoël publishes La Main coupée in Paris. Nina Rootes's English translation later appears as Lice.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Denoël
- 1946
Paperback
- Paperback
- Peter Owen
- Hardcover
- Peter Owen
- 1973
- 9780720602326
- Nina Rootes
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The Bloody Hand: frequently asked questions
Who wrote The Bloody Hand?
Blaise Cendrars. Published in 1946 as La Main coupée, it is the second panel of his memoir tetralogy, and appeared in English as Lice.
What is The Bloody Hand about?
His squad in the First World War. Cendrars led foreign volunteers of the French Foreign Legion in the trenches, and each chapter remembers one of the men by name. He wrote it thirty years after the war.
What does the title refer to?
Cendrars's right hand. His arm was amputated after he was wounded at Navarin in 1915, and the loss runs through the book.
What is its tone?
Funny and sad at the same time. Cendrars records the men's jokes as carefully as their deaths, and he avoids heroics.
Is it fiction or memoir?
Autobiographical memoir of Cendrars's service as a corporal in the French Foreign Legion.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document The Bloody Hand, its publication, and its place in literary history.
2La Main coupée — French text
WebsiteEbooks libres et gratuits, 2023Used forSelected French Ce loustic de Vieil and Coquoz chapters in the December 2023 Ebooks libres et gratuits transcription. Literary readings of the narrated exchanges and care, not independent biography or a full-volume/first-edition collation.
3Blaise Cendrars — translations bibliography
Official recordSwiss National Library / Constellation Cendrars, 2019Used forThe Swiss National Library bibliography verifies Nina Rootes as the translator of Lice.
4Rencontres de Chaminadour — Blaise Cendrars chronology (prepared with thanks to Claude Leroy)
WebsiteUsed forUsed to verify The Bloody Hand's bibliographic context and its place within Blaise Cendrars's published work.
5Bibliothèque de la Ville de La Chaux-de-Fonds — dossier Blaise Cendrars : « Tout ça, c'est digne d'être vécu »
WebsiteUsed forUsed for independent archival, institutional, or historical context surrounding Blaise Cendrars and The Bloody Hand.
6Meet Blaise Cendrars: the one-armed poet who worked with Sonia Delaunay, Fernand Léger and Robert Doisneau
PeriodicalThe Art Newspaper, 2022Used forUsed to cross-check chronology, publication history, and the circumstances in which The Bloody Hand appeared.
7The Paris Review — The Art of Fiction No. 38: Blaise Cendrars
PeriodicalUsed forUsed for an additional scholarly or biographical perspective on The Bloody Hand and Blaise Cendrars's wider career.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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