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Condolence books are thought to represent a difficult primary source for the researcher. The formalism and repetitiveness of the messages they contain, along with their sheer number, seem to make any exhaustive reading impossible, and any attempt at content analysis vain. This article first goes through the various strategies used to get round this difficulty, before examining to what degree Alceste, a software designed for textual analysis by Max Reinert, can be relevant in this particular type of corpus. Our considerations are tested in an analysis using Alceste of a collection of almost 60,000 electronic condolence messages written in the aftermath of the Madrid terrorist attacks of 11 March 2004. To conclude, the main results of this analysis are given.