The Dreyfus Affair: The Scandal That Tore France in Two

The wrongful 1895 conviction of French-Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus as a German spy was based on fabricated evidence. But though innocent, according to Read, a British writer known for Catholic-themed novels who sees the Dreyfus affair as a defining moment in the history of the Catholic Church, Dreyfus was a less than admirable figure: arrogant, very intelligent, but awkward and abrupt, with no friends at work and several questionable extramarital relationships. Read writes that even Theodor Herzl, who founded modern Zionism reportedly on account of the Dreyfus case, initially believed the evidence showing Dreyfus was guilty. It’s unclear what bearing these facts have on the question of Dreyfus’s innocence or guilt or on the fracture that emerged in France between Dreyfus’s supporters (including Emile Zola and his famous “J’accuse” statement) and his enemies. While absorbing and perceptive in parts, Read’s (The Death of a Pope) effort often feels disjointed and lacks the nuance of Ruth Harris’s and Frederick Brown’s recent books on the Dreyfus affair. Moreover, for unexplained reasons, Read emphasizes the work of some recent historians who dispute the accepted view that anti-Semitism was at the heart of Dreyfus’s conviction. In the end, Read adds little to our understanding of this critical event in French and Jewish history. Photos. Agent: Gillon Aitken (U.K.) (Mar.)