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Title details for An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris - Available

An Officer and a Spy

A novel

by Robert Harris
David Rintoul
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    January 28, 2014

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780804165709
      • File size: 462941 KB
      • Duration: 16:04:27

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      David Rintoul's smooth, warm voice and expert characterization keep the listener hooked throughout this involving and long novelistic examination of the Dreyfuss Affair. Based on a case that rocked France in the 1890s--the court-martial and solitary imprisonment of Captain Alfred Dreyfuss on false accusations of treason-- the story is told from the point of view of Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquard, who uncovered the conspiracy against Dreyfuss and led the charge to free him. Although the story is well known, Harris builds terrific suspense, and the colorfulness of his writing helps listeners visualize the past. It's a complicated tale, which makes Rintoul's skills invaluable--rhythm, pacing, and, above all, great voicing of individual characters keep everything clear and interesting to the end. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from November 18, 2013
      Harris (Fatherland) provides easily the best fictional treatment of the Dreyfus Affair yet, in this gripping thriller told from the vantage point of French army officer Georges Picquart. Major Picquart is present on the day in 1895 that Alfred Dreyfus is publicly degraded as a traitor to his country, before his exile to Devil’s Island. Soon afterward, Picquart is promoted to colonel, to assume command of the Statistical Section, which is actually the army’s espionage unit. Picquart comes across evidence of another traitor spying for the Germans, and his investigation uncovers something unsettling: the handwriting of the spy, Walsin Esterhazy, is a perfect match for the writing on the letters that the French government claimed were from Dreyfus. Furthermore, review of the classified evidence against the exile reveals nothing of substance. Picquart pursues the truth, at personal and professional risk, in the face of superiors eager to preserve the official version of events. Harris perfectly captures the rampant anti-Semitism that led to Dreyfus’s scapegoating, and effectively uses the present tense to lend intimacy to the narrative. First printing of 100,000. Agent: Michael Carlisle, Inkwell Management.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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