The Man on Devil's Island: Alfred Dreyfus and the Affair that Divided France

by Ruth Harris

Winner of the Wolfson History Prize 2010 and the 2010 National Jewish Book Award for Biography

Ruth Harris writes beautifully and engagingly on a moment in French history that polarized society and undermined the French state; the repercussions of which were felt up to the outbreak of the Second World War.

At the end of September 1894 a charlady stole an undated and unsigned letter from the wastepaper bin of the German military attache in Paris. Torn to pieces but stuck back together by French intelligence, this document contained French military secrets. By the middle of October a Jewish captain in the army called Alfred Dreyfus was accused of being its author. As it turned out, he was entirely innocent, but at the time few questioned the verdict of the subsequent court martial, nor the unanimous decision to sentence him to a life of penal servitude. Public opinion was outraged, and the War Minister, General Auguste Mercier, asked for the reintroduction of the death penalty so Dreyfus could be guillotined. Although the request was turned down, Dreyfus was still subjected to special conditions: rather than going to New Caledonia like other transported convicts, he was sent to the much harsher Devil's Island off the coast of French Guiana, and condemned to solitary confinement in murderous conditions. The French authorities did not expect - and probably did not want - him to survive.

So undisputed was Dreyfus' conviction that no one had any inkling it would be queried, let alone that the case would become the scandal that nearly brought down the French state. It changed the political course of the nation and transformed the way the country viewed itself and was viewed by others.

• ISBN10: 0141014776
• ISBN13: 9780141014777
• Publish Date: 7 April 2011 (first published 3 June 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 10 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 560
• Language: English

Reviews

[brokentune]

Review first posted on BookLikes: http://brokentune.booklikes.com/post/837292/the-man-on-devil-s-island

"The campaign for Dreyfus's final exoneration gathered pace in 1903 because it became linked to a partisan and bitter crusade against religious congregations, and not because there was a groundswell of support for his case. And even this campaign succeeded only because the Cour de cassation, the high court, used an obscure prerogative to take the case away from the system of military justice, which did not admit its error. The end of the Affair produced no clear conclusion and no real justice, merely a political truce."

The Dreyfus Affair is a fascinating and complicated subject, and this book does the story justice by approaching the events leading up to Dreyfus' conviction, imprisonment, and final release from a lot of different angles.

It's not the most entertaining read - and some parts are quite dry and academic - but it is quite a satisfying read - because Harris does not leave many stones unturned and as a result I have gained a much better understanding of fin de siecle France.