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"Robert Harris returns to the thrilling historical fiction he has so brilliantly made his own. This is the story of the infamous Dreyfus affair told as a chillingly dark, hard-edged novel of conspiracy and espionage. Paris in 1895. Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish officer, has just been convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment at Devil's Island, and stripped of his rank in front of a baying crowd of twenty-thousand. Among the witnesses to his humiliation is Georges Picquart, the ambitious, intellectual, recently promoted head of the counterespionage agency that "proved" Dreyfus had passed secrets to the Germans. At first, Picquart firmly believes in Dreyfus's guilt. But it is not long after Dreyfus is delivered to his desolate prison that Picquart stumbles on information that leads him to suspect that there is still a spy at large in the French military. As evidence of the most malignant deceit mounts and spirals inexorably toward the uppermost levels of government, Picquart is compelled to question not only the case against Dreyfus but also his most deeply held beliefs about his country, and about himself. Bringing to life the scandal that mesmerized the world at the turn of the twentieth century, Robert Harris tells a tale of uncanny timeliness--a witch hunt, secret tribunals, out-of-control intelligence agencies, the fate of a whistle-blower--richly dramatized with the singular storytelling mastery that has marked all of his internationally best-selling novels"--… (more)
I like Robert Harris' books. I like his plain-spoken writing style. I admire his careful research and the way he wears his learning lightly, just casually dropping authentic-sounding details into the narrative, bringing the period in question alive. And so I was looking forward to this book, telling the story of the Dreyfus Affair. This is a pivotal event in recent French history, about which I knew something, and yet I knew nothing. And yet.... it took me almost 300 pages to be drawn into this story. Perhaps Army life didn't grab me. Perhaps this very male world in which Major Picquart moves didn't grab me. But I persisted. And the second 300 pages seized me and forced me to go on page turning. I even woke up at 4.00 a.m. one day and started reading the last 100 pages, not stopping until I'd finally finished the book. This is seriously riveting stuff. And this is an achievement. The way the Dreyfus Affair ended is well-known. But the way that Harris tells the tale of the disintegration of the case, and of the lives that are irrevocably changed as the whole business unravels makes for an electrifying, suspenseful and illuminating read. ( )
Well researched novel based on known facts, but unclear which characters and events are fictional detracting from story. It is also extremely lengthy and rather drawn out. ( )
Took me a while to get into this book, but once I did, there was no stopping. well written, believable characters (probably helped by the fact that this is based on a true story) and gripping drama. ( )
What Mr. Harris cannot do, because of this book’s small-bore details and his obvious need to be comprehensive, is offer an overall sense of what other forces contributed to this outcome of the case. The Dreyfus affair prompted an outpouring of angry voices, but Mr. Harris has filtered all that passion through the eyes of one exceptionally dispassionate and distant man, according Picquart the crucial stature of whistle-blower
"Robert Harris returns to the thrilling historical fiction he has so brilliantly made his own. This is the story of the infamous Dreyfus affair told as a chillingly dark, hard-edged novel of conspiracy and espionage. Paris in 1895. Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish officer, has just been convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment at Devil's Island, and stripped of his rank in front of a baying crowd of twenty-thousand. Among the witnesses to his humiliation is Georges Picquart, the ambitious, intellectual, recently promoted head of the counterespionage agency that "proved" Dreyfus had passed secrets to the Germans. At first, Picquart firmly believes in Dreyfus's guilt. But it is not long after Dreyfus is delivered to his desolate prison that Picquart stumbles on information that leads him to suspect that there is still a spy at large in the French military. As evidence of the most malignant deceit mounts and spirals inexorably toward the uppermost levels of government, Picquart is compelled to question not only the case against Dreyfus but also his most deeply held beliefs about his country, and about himself. Bringing to life the scandal that mesmerized the world at the turn of the twentieth century, Robert Harris tells a tale of uncanny timeliness--a witch hunt, secret tribunals, out-of-control intelligence agencies, the fate of a whistle-blower--richly dramatized with the singular storytelling mastery that has marked all of his internationally best-selling novels"--
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Paris, 1895: an army officer, Georges Picquart, watches a convicted spy, Alfred Dreyfus, being publicly humiliated in front of a baying crowd.
Dreyfus is exiled for life to Devil's Island; Picquart is promoted to run the intelligence unit that tracked him down.
But when Picquart discovers that secrets are still being handed over to the Germans, he is drawn into a dangerous labyrinth of deceit and corruption that threatens not just his honour but his life...
Píše sa rok 1895, je mrazivé januárové ráno a major Georges Picquart dozerá na verejnú degradáciu kapitána Alfreda Dreyfusa, usvedčeného zo špionáže. Zhromaždený dav žiada zradcovu smrť. Ctižiadostivého majora za odmenu povýšia, a tak sa stane najmladším plukovníkom francúzskej armády a šéfom „štatistického oddelenia" - tajnej služby, ktorá „odhalila" špióna. Dreyfusa odsúdia na doživotný pobyt na Diabolskom ostrove, kde sa nesmie s nikým zhovárať. Zdá sa, že jeho prípad je definitívne uzavretý. No Picquart postupne zisťuje, že v srdci francúzskej tajnej služby niečo hnije. V radoch armády odhalí ďalšieho špióna, ale jeho nadriadení akoby to nechceli vziať na vedomie. Picquart napriek hrozbám pokračuje vo vyšetrovaní a čoskoro podstúpi takmer rovnakú tŕnistú cestu ako ten, koho sám dostal do väzenia.
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