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

Harris, Ruth

 
9780141014777: The Man on Devil's Island: Alfred Dreyfus and the Affair that Divided France
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 0141014776 ISBN 13 : 9780141014777
Editeur : Penguin, 2011

Synopsis

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 attaché 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.

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À propos de l'auteur

Ruth Harris is a Fellow and tutor in Modern History at New College, Oxford and is the author of the highly acclaimed Lourdes.

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Éditeur
Penguin
Date d'édition
2011
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0141014776
ISBN 13 
9780141014777
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
560
Coordonnées du fabricant
Penguin
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/

CL MODESTO LAFUENTE 41
Madrid
Madrid
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