The Dreyfus Affair falls under the category of “the coverup is worse than the crime,” even in the 19th century French Army, which Robert Harris has masterfully captured in An Officer and A Spy. The story is told in first-person narrative by French Army officer Colonel Georges Picquart, a soldier who put duty and integrity ahead of convenience and his personal reputation, while servicing as chief of military counter-intelligence for the French War Ministry.
Alfred Dreyfus was a French Army Captain, a Jew, serving as an artillery officer who fell victim to military judicial conspiracy accusing him of being a German spy.
In pre-WWI France there existed a culture of antisemitism that contributed to the push to convict an innocent man and ignore the evidence against the actual French officer who was a spy. Dreyfus was convicted at court martial, formally degraded, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island in French Guiana. Ultimately, Dreyfus is pardoned and restored to Army service, thanks in large part to Colonel Picquart who was relently in pursuing the truth. The cause of justice is served after regretable delay.
Harris has created a well researched construction of a sad time in French military history and added just enough character develpment that the reader cares about the people involved .