About this book

In September 1894 the French authorities intercepted a letter which they claimed emanated from a Jewish army captain, Alfred Dreyfus, and appeared to be proof of espionage on behalf of Germany. Dreyfus was subsequently court-martialed and imprisoned on Devil's Island, and the efforts of his family to have him released provoked an anti-Semitic controversy that split the French intellectual world down the centre. Most famous among the participants was France's greatest living novelist, Emile Zola. This book is the first to provide, in English translation, the full extent of Zola's writings on the Dreyfus Affair. It represents, in its polemical entirety, a classic defence of human rights and a searing denunciation of fanaticism and prejudice. . Zola's texts constitute a unique and outstandingly eloquent primary source that is essential for a complete understanding of the Dreyfus Affair. They shed brilliant new light on the official mind of France and were crucial in reversing public opinion, securing a retrial, and ensuring Dreyfus's rehabilitation. The significance of Zola's cause - and his scathing and passionate prose - resonate from his time to ours.