AN OFFICER AND A SPY
Reviewed by Connie Gittard PHOTOGRAPHY BY BONNIE BRANT
AN OFFICER AND A SPY
Reviewed by Connie Gittard
A whistleblower. A witch hunt. A cover-up. Perjury. While this sounds like a daily dose of current news and events, Robert Harris’ 2013 historical thriller “An Officer and A Spy” describes events in Paris in the late 1800s on the occasion of the very public court-martial of a French military officer. It would become known as the Dreyfus Affair.
Alfred Dreyfus has been serving his country as a captain in the French army, a rank he’s earned meritoriously rather than through the family connections and favoritism typically shown to the sons of French nobility or upper class at the time. He is also the first man of Jewish descent to ever be admitted to the upper ranks of his homeland’s military establishment. Still smarting from defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, France’s general staff is nervous and paranoid. When suspicions arise that suggest the Germans are receiving military intel, Dreyfus, despite apparent motive, is immediately suspected of treason.
Georges Picquart, a fellow officer, is promoted to captain of France’s secret intelligence division shortly following Dreyfus’ degradation. Surprised by the rapid deliberation, swift conviction, and harsh sentencing of a man he thinks is innocent, Picquart begins his own quiet investigation. First startled, then shocked, Picquart confirms there is a spy amidst the French military’s own top brass. He labors tirelessly to amass evidence to vindicate the banished Dreyfus, discovering forged documents, perjurious testimony, and secret files along the way, all of which implicate, with certainty, the uppermost levels of his government. He, too, becomes the victim of his conspiring commanders as he is exiled to outposts intended to deter him from his pursuits. But Picquart’s stoicism and rectitude prevail, and eventually, Dreyfus is exonerated. Corruption, conspiracy, and espionage are often the stuff of summer-reads, and this fictional version of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice recounts the historic scandal in the page-turning, best-selling style for which Robert Harris, a journalist-turned-author, is known and loved. The story is as mesmerizing today as it was over a century ago. I enjoyed this novel because, although I had been peripherally aware of the Dreyfus Affair, Harris brought it spellbindingly to life, educating and entertaining at the same time. Glimpses into a vibrant, historic Paris made it even better.
Francophile since second grade, Connie Gittard is a graduate of Wells College in the Finger Lakes region of New York. It was there her passion for reading and writing was manifested when she majored in English, and her fervor for all things French took her to Paris for a time. She has had a lifelong career in advertising. In addition to reading, her hobbies include downhill skiing, sailing, golf, entertaining, travel, and needlework.
She is an avid supporter of the arts and a dedicated volunteer with the
Panama City POPS Orchestra.