The book begins by reminding us quite how many books have already been written on this subject. What is needed then is a clear, readable account of what actually happened. Personal knowledge was probably limited to Devil's Island, antisemitism and 'J'Accuse!', so I was looking forward to adding to flesh to those bones.
One problem with the affair is the dizzying amount of people involved with outlandish double or triple-barreled names. The old houses of Europe are all involved as are the inner echelons of the French armed forces and government. Luckily this book successfully guides us through these complications admirably while keeping the narrative moving at an impressive pace. The lengthy dramatis personnae at the end of the book is a highly useful addition though.
We learn much about Dreyfus himself, in many ways a thoroughly unlikely and inconsequential figure thrust into an event with international repercussions. A career military man who cheated on his wife and spoke in a turgid monotone is an unlikely hero. What makes him that is the jaw-dropping treatment that he received when first accused and then convicted of treason.
After the conviction. his treatment is purely vindictive. Dreyfus is not only deported to be incarcerated on a prison island complex from which he couldn't possibly escape, he is exiled to a tiny island to serve out his sentence on his own. Things could be worse one thinks, exiled on a desert island is not the end of the world. Except that it was, imagine the exquisite mental torture of being confined to a stockade where you could hear the waves breaking on the shore, but couldn't see them? This was life for Dreyfus for almost four years. The reason? A panic that his supporters would turn up and help him to freedom.
The book leads us neatly through the affair and to the eventual pardon for Dreyfus. It should also make us think about situations where people are convicted and imprisoned partly due to perceptions about their religious beliefs. Dreyfus was not necessarily a good man, but was certainly Jewish. When it came to trying him, the military authorities took far more attention of his Jewishness than whether the evidence they had before them was credible.
A thought-provoking and nicely written read. Just the sort of secondary source that the amateur historian needs to get their head around a subject in double-quick time.
