The infamous Dreyfuss affair was a gross injustice, described in one of the greatest polemical pieces in history, Emile Zola’s J’accuse, which (eventually) brought down a government and had huge repercussions for the French army, even two decades later when the First World War broke out.
Robert Harris’s partly fictional take on the story of a Jewish officer wrongly convicted of spying for the Germans on trumped-up charges by an anti-Semitic military elite is told through the eyes of Georges Picquart, one of the officers who helped convict Dreyfuss. Promoted to run the army’s spy unit, he slowly realises that Dreyfuss was framed and, almost against his own will, takes on the establishment to clear Dreyfuss – a man whom he doesn’t even like – and finds that the army will do anything to keep the “traitor” on Devil’s Island.
Harris, as ever, is very strong on period detail and characterisation and skilfully weaves his story to keep your attention right to the final page – even though most of us will know the outcome.
