The Dreyfus Affair: "J`Accuse" and Other Writings [Paperback]

Emile Zola (Author), Alain Pages (Editor), Ms. Eleanor Levieux (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300073674 | ISBN-13: 978-0300073676 | Publication Date: February 17, 1998

In September 1894 the French authorities intercepted a letter which they claimed emanated from a Jewish army captain, Alfred Dreyfus, which they claimed 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 center. 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 defense of human rights and a searing denunciation of fanaticism and prejudice. The book opens with the complete text of "J'Accuse," Zola's public letter to the French authorities. It also includes impassioned "open letters" to leading French newspapers, interviews with Zola at his home, intimate letters to his wife and friends written during his year-long exile in England (a direct result of three trials and a prison sentence for his part in the defense of Dreyfus), and his final articles, written when Dreyfus was close to being pardoned. 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Written in defense of the court-martialed French soldier Alfred Dreyfus, Zola's essay "J'accuse!" is one of the most famous pieces of rhetorical journalism ever published. This volume collects, for the first time in English, all of Zola's writings on the Dreyfus Affair. Zola's many essays and open letters balance a seething fury at injustice with unrelenting, fiercely logical assaults on Dreyfus's accusers. Balancing these polemics are Zola's poignant, sadly domestic letters home during the year he spent exiled in England after his 1898 libel conviction. Levieux's readable translation lets Zola's forceful, somewhat bombastic tone shine through. The volume is not really a history of the affair, and the notes by Pages (editor of the French edition of Zola's letters) are sparse. (A more comprehensive treatment is available in Jean-Denis Bredin's The Affair, Braziller, 1986.) Instead, the Yale volume is documentation of one man's extraordinary public efforts to clear another's name. Recommended for academic collections.?Robert Persing, Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib., Philadelphia
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (February 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300073674
• ISBN-13: 978-0300073676
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #147,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > French

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars COMPLETE COLLECTION OF ZOLA'S LETTERS DURING DREYFUS AFFAIR, March 27, 2005

By 

Denis Benchimol Minev "Amazonia" (Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Dreyfus Affair: "J`Accuse" and Other Writings (Paperback)

Emile Zola is today the most well known "fighter" in the war to clear Alfred Dreyfus' name in what became known as the Dreyfus Affair in 1890s France. This book compiles Zola's letters (public and not) during this period, with the most famous being J'Accuse, one that earned him a conviction along with stiff fines that eroded his fortune.

Zola is very passionate in Dreyfus' defense, though his passion never leaves behind a devastating logic that made it so difficult to ignore. This is an amazing defense of religious freedom and justice, against prejudice and hatred. Zola manages to weaken, in time, two of the most powerful institution in France at the time: the military and the church. Ten years later the military would no longer play as significant a role in French life, and by 1905 France would pass the law separating Church and State.

After reading the letters, one is filled with Zola's enthusiasm and idealism. Makes one want to go fight injustice and make this a better world. There are very few books about which this can be said.

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars HISTORY, August 31, 2002

By 

Boris Zubry "Boris Zubry" (Princeton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dreyfus Affair: "J`Accuse" and Other Writings (Paperback)

This is an excellent presentation of historical events by a contemporary.