[DREYFUS AFFAIR] – Émile ZOLA – “Letter to Madame Alfred Dreyfus”.

[DREYFUS AFFAIR] – Émile ZOLA

Letter to Madame Alfred Dreyfus.

By Émile Zola

Original edition of Zola's article published on the front page of L'Aurore on September 22, 1899

Four large folio pages (64 x 47 cm). Copy 704, complete.

Minor defects, creases and browning.

"Madam, the innocent man, the martyr, is returned to you; his wife, his son, his daughter, the husband and the father are returned to them, and my first thought goes to the family, finally reunited, comforted, happy."

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Published on the front page of L'Aurore, just three days after the presidential pardon granted to Captain Alfred Dreyfus by President Émile Loubet on September 19, 1899, this "Letter to Madame Alfred Dreyfus"constitutes a new milestone in Émile Zola's fight for justice throughout the murky Dreyfus affair.

The article, which naturally echoes the fight initiated by Émile Zola twenty months earlier with his virulent J'Accuse…!,is written with a human touch, tinged with emotion and hope, and directly addressed to the wife of the unjustly condemned captain, Lucie Dreyfus: “ Whatever my grief as a citizen may still be, despite the indignant pain, the revolt in which righteous souls continue to anguish, I live with you this delightful moment, soaked in good tears, the moment when you embraced the resurrected dead man, who emerged alive and free from the tomb.”

Si J'accuse…! remains the text of the denunciation, while the "Letter to Madame Alfred Dreyfus" constitutes the text of the demand for redress. Twenty months separate these two publications. Twenty months during which the Affair saw decisive developments: the trial brought against Zola, his exile in England, the discovery of Colonel Henry's forgeries, the latter's suicide, the quashing of the 1894 judgment, and then the second trial in Rennes.

When the newspaper was published on September 22, 1899, Alfred Dreyfus had just received a presidential pardon. He was free, but remained legally condemned. For Zola, this situation revealed an unbearable contradiction: innocence could not be pardoned; it had to be recognized. This idea underpins his entire letter: “But I say it again […]Madam, you can rely on the good citizens who secured your husband’s freedom and who will restore his honor. Not one will desert the fight; they know they are fighting for the country by fighting for justice […] we sincerely hope that your children will not have much longer to grow up before their name is legally cleared of all stain. ”

This poignant text represents one of Zola's last major public interventions in the Dreyfus Affair. A few months later, the novelist resumed his literary life. He died suddenly on September 29, 1902, without having seen the final outcome of his struggle. It would be necessary to wait until July 12, 1906, for the Court of Cassation to overturn, without referral, the Rennes conviction and definitively proclaim the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus, who was reinstated in the army a few days later.

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This "Letter to Madame Alfred Dreyfus" remains one of Zola's most important texts published during the Dreyfus Affair, appearing on the front page of L'Aurore. Its relative obscurity among bibliophiles is logically explained by the overshadowing of the legendary issue of January 13, 1898, which, since its publication, has attracted almost all attention.

The truth is on the march.

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Bibliography (non-exhaustive):

. Truth on the March, a collection of the main texts devoted to the Dreyfus Affair.

. Henri Mitterrand, Zola, 3 vols.

Vincent Duclert, The Dreyfus Affair.

Philippe Oriol, The Dreyfus Affair: Truths and Legends.

Jean-Denis Bredin, The Affair.