An Officer and a Spy

An Oficer and a Spy by Robert Harris 

Robert Harris is famous for a number of historical novels, the only one of which I have read is the bestselling Fatherland - a detective story that takes place in an alternate historical setting in which Nazi Germany has won the Second World War. Fatherland is an exciting, well-written novel that I immensely enjoyed reading but I have to say that An Officer and a Spy is even better as it gives Harris the opportunity to fully utilise his amazing ability to create fascinating characters and illustrate complex historical events in an interesting but at the same time informative way. 

An Officer and a Spy is told through the viewpoint of Marie-Georges Picquart, a French officer who is involved with the investigation of the Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artilery officer of the French Army from the region of Alsace who was convicted on charges of treason in 1894. Early on in the novel Harris deploys his ability to use metaphor and crisp prose to create an excellent sense of place, which I believe the following passage clearly demonstrates:

"The police line bulged, tautened and then burst apart, releasing a flood of protesters, who poured across the pavement and spread along the railings. Dreyfus stopped, turned and faced them, raised him arms and said something. But he had his back tomorrow and I couldn't hear his words, only the familiar taunts of "Judas!", "Traitor!" and "Death to the Jew" that were thrown back in his face.
.........
An instant later the order was given for the parade to march past. The stamp of boots seemed to shake the ground. Bugles were blown. Drums beat time. As the band struck up "Sambre-et-Meuse" it started to snow. I felt a great sense of release. I believe we all did. Spontaneously we turned to one another and shook hands. It was as if a healthy body had purged itself of something foul and pestilential, and now life could begin anew." (1)

Picquart is an apt choice for a character through which to tell the story as, just like Dreyfus, he was an exile of the French region of Alsace that was taken over by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, which redefined the balance of power in Europe and caused great suffering to many refugees who were forced to leave their homes and move elsewhere in France:

"I was sixteen when the Germans shelled Strasbourg, thus kindly enabling me to witness at first hand an event that we teach at the Écoles Supérieure de Guerre as 'the first full-scale use of modern artillery specifically to reduce a civilian population.' I watched the city's art gallery and library burn to the ground, saw neighbourhoods blown to pieces, knelt beside friends as they died, helped dig strangers out of the rubble. After nine weeks the garrison surrended. We were offered a choice between staying put and becoming German or giving up everything and moving to France. We arrived in Paris destitute and shorn of all of illusions about the security of our civilised life." (2)

The novel successfully illustrates the horrific impact that the Franco-Prussian War had on the French people. This conflict resulted in the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, the fall of Napoleon III and the establishment of the Third French Republic. The establishment of the German Empire, which became the most powerful state in central Europe, led to the development of an almost pathological fear of potential German aggression in France, which was strongly linked to the ease with which the Germans had defeated the French Army, as well as the significant numerical advantage that the new unified German state had over France. This fear was accompannied by French revanchism, rooted in the desire of nationalists to reclaim what Alsace-Lorraine, which they believed was naturally French territory. These circumstances partly explain why the French establishment decided to punish Dreyfus severely by exiling him to the penal colony of Devil's Island and placing him in dreadful living conditions:

"The exchange with Blanche unsettles me very slightly. The tiniest speck of - no, I shall not call it doubt, exactly - let us say curiosity lodges in my mind, and not so much Dreyfus's guilt as his punishment. Why, I ask myself, do we persist in this absurd and expensive rigmarole of imprisonment, which requires four or five guards to be stranded with him in silence on his tiny island? What is our policy? How many ours of bureaucratic time - including mine - are to be tied up in the endless administration, surveillance and censorship his punishment entails?
.....
Gradually over the winter I discern that we do in fact have a policy with regard to Dreyfus, it has simply never been explained to me in so many words, either verbally or on paper. We are waiting for him to die." (3)
 
Picquart is rewarded for his involvement in the Dreyfus case by a promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel and the position of head of the Statistical Section, France's top secret military intelligence department. During his tenure at the department, Picquart comes across evidence that there may be another mole in the French Army and that Dreyfus may not have been guilty of espionage. Yet his attempts to share his suspicions with the other officers involved in the case are fruitless, as the exchange underneath demonstrates:

"'Personally I suspected that brother of his, Mathieu. So did Sandherr, as a matter of fact.'
'But Mathieu wasn't in the army at the time.'
'But Mathieu wasn't in the army at the time. He wasn't even in Paris.'
'No,' replies du Paty with great signifiance, 'but he was in Germany. And he's a Jew.'"(4)

This exchange reveals another important issue in the affair - Dreyfus's ethnicity. It may seem shocking today but in the late 19th century there was a strong current of anti-Semitism in France. In fact, even the novel's narrator, Picquart, is anti-Semitic to some degree but this issue is skirted over as there are only a number of occasions on which this issue is mentioned and it is not explored in-depth.

Harris's novel also seems to make points particularly pertinent to life in the contemporary age of mostly digital communication, which allows almost everything that we send to be traced and recorded. He makes a good point that even just over 100 years, secrecy had already become something difficult to protect:

“There is no such thing as a secret—not really, not in the modern world, not with photography and telegraphy and railways and newspaper presses. The old days of an inner circle of like-minded souls communicating with parchment and quill pens is gone. Sooner or later most things will be revealed. That is what I have been attempting to make Gonse understand.”  (5) 

As Picquart acquires more and more evidence that Dreyfus may not be guilty, he decides to report to his superiors in the hope that they will take action. However, he is given to understand that reopening this issue would have a catastrophic impact on French society and that Dreyfus must be sacrificed for the greater good of the nation:


"Let's face it, dear Picquart: the investigation into Dreyfus was not handled as profesionally as it should have been. Sandherr was a sick man, and du Paty - well, we all know what Armand is like, despite his many fine qualities. But we have to proceed from where we are, and really we can't go back over it all again. It would reopen too many wounds. You've seen the press these past few days, the potential hysteria there is about Dreyfus. It would tear the country apart. We just have to shut it down. You must understand that, surely?'" (6)

Picquart's superiors advise him to drop the entire case and accept the fact that Dreyfus will eventually be forgotten, if no one decides to stir the hornet's nest. This situation is reminiscent of today's world in which scandals about government corruption, gross negligence or great injustice are not infrequent but they often simply fall off the agenda of the day as fatigue sets in and other striking news takes their place:

"He offers me his hand. His grip is dry, hard, calloused. He clamps his other hand around mine, imprisoning it. 'There's nothing easy about power, Georges. One needs the stomach to make hard decisions. But I've seen all this before. Today the press is Dreyfus, Dreyfus, Dreyfus; tomorrow, without some new disclosure, they'll have forgotten all about him, you'll see.'" (7) 

Picquart, however, is a man of honour who is not willing to give up even if all of his superiors are against him. He contemplates taking this matter all the way to the top of the republic's hierarchy but eventually comes to realise that the entire political establishment stands in firm support of the army, which it considers to be the firm foundation on which the nation stands:

"For a few days I consider appealing directly to the President, but then I read his latest speech, delivered in the presence of General Billot - The army is the nation's heart and soul, the mirror in which France perceives the most ideal image of her self-denial and patriotism; the army holds the first place in the thoughts of the government and in the pride of the nation - and I realise that he would never take up arms on behalf of a despised Jew against 'the nation's heart and soul.'" (8) 

Eventually, however, things get out of hand and news is leaked to the press about the particulars of the Dreyfus case. Picquart is hounded by his superiors and he eventually joins forces with some of the most formidable figures of the Republic in the crusade to free Dreyfus:

"There is a moment of silence and then one of the men - bald-headed and with a heavy drooping moustache, whom I recognise as Georges Clemenceau, the left-wing politician and editor of the radical newspaper L'Aurore - starts a round of clapping in which everyone joins. As Louis ushers me into the room, another man, dapper and attractive, calls out cheerfully, 'Bravo Picquart! Vive Picquart!' and I recognise him too, from the surveillance photo that used to cross my desk, as Mathieu Dreyfus. Indeed, as I go round shaking their hands, I find I know all these men by sight or reputation: the publisher Georges Charpentier, whose house this is; the heavily bearded senator for the Seine, Arthur Ranc, the oldest man in the room; Joseph Reinach, a left-wing Jewish member of the Chamber of Deputies; and of course the pudgy figure in pince-nez to whom I am introduced last, Émile Zola." (9)

Although many of you may know how the Dreyfus Affair ends, I nevertheless recommend that you read this novelisation of the case as it offers an exciting story and the opportunity to explore the state of French society at the turn of the 20th century through the viewpoint of an interesting character who makes some very pertinent observations about France, relations between France and Germany, the nature of power and many other matters. Harris has managed to create a plethora of fascinating characters that populate the exciting and, at the same time, frightening world of the Third French Republic and I am confident that anyone, even those with little interest in French history, will enjoy this book. The only minor criticism that I have of the book is that while Harris clearly tells us which historical sources he used in his research, he does not acknowledge any of the liberties that he has taken with the truth. I only realised that Harris had made some significant changes when I read a historical review of the book. However, I suggest that you disregard this issue and allow yourself to be entertained by this magnificent book. After all, if you are interested in the details of the Dreyfus Affair, there are plenty of historical books about it. It's only one of the most notorious cases of injustice in human history.

References
(1) Robert Harris, An Officer and a Spy, London: Arrow Books, 2014, pp. 16-17
(2) Harris, Officer, p. 28
(3) Harris, Officer, pp. 102-03
(4) Harris, Officer, p. 238
(5) Harris, Officer, p. 296
(6) Harris, Officer, p. 307
(7) Harris, Officer, p. 318
(8) Harris, Officer, p. 350
(9) Harris, Officer, p. 452

Image taken from Amazon.co.uk