L'AFFAIRE DREYFUS

An instructive clarification of the “affair”, which has been distorted by false allegations since the beginning. A vital reflection at this time, when we are talking about the rise of a “new anti-Semitism”. An introduction to Roman Polanski's film, which is scheduled for release in December 2019.

The Dreyfus affair in its entirety, through a series of questions that describe its main episodes, evoking the personalities who played an important role – Dreyfus, Esterhazy, Zola, Picquart, Clemenceau, Péguy, etc.

The book brilliantly describes the legal aspects of the case, the circumstances that surrounded the writing of Emile Zola's “I accuse!”, the role of expert opinions, the effects of anti-Semitism. It also explores the impact of the Dreyfus case on the collective imagination – it was experienced as a vast novel or soap opera with multiple twists and turns. Finally, the book reviews how the case has been turned into literature or adapted for cinema -- just when a new screen version by Roman Polanski, starring Jean Dujardin as Colonel Picquart and Louis Garrel as Dreyfus, is about to be released.

ALAIN PAGÈS is professor emeritus at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University and a specialist in the work of Emile Zola. With Perrin, he has published Une journée dans l'affaire Dreyfus (A day in the Dreyfus affair) (2011) and Zola et le groupe de Médan (Zola and the Medan group, 2014). Editor of Emile Zola's private correspondence for Gallimard (Letters to Jeanne Rozerot, 2004; Letters to Alexandrine, 2014, Sévigné Prize 2015), he is also the author of Émile Zola, de J'accuse au Panthéon (Emile Zola, from J'accuse to the Pantheon, 2008) published at Lucien Souny.

Facts and Faleshoods series