Zola Emile

1898 · réf. ZolaDreyfusAffair1 — AFFAIRE DREYFUS ZOLA Émile 1840-1902 Autograph letter signed " Z " to Alice Mirbeau N.p Addlestone Tuesday 30th August 1898 4 p. in-8° on laid paper Central fold reinforced with Japan paper light browning lower margin stain on second folio see scans Letter from exile testifying to the writer's unwavering commitment to the Dreyfus affair " Je vous remercie de votre bonne lettre chère madame et amie et surtout je vous remercie de l'affection dont vous entourez ma chère femme qui a grand besoin d'être aimée dans les cruelles circonstances qu'elle traverse. Vous me parlez avec un grand bon sens et une parfaite amitié de mon séjour ici. Moi aussi je pense depuis longtemps que je pourrais sans danger y faire connaître ma présence et y prendre une attitude que je saurais rendre utile et digne. Mais il y a aussi l'autre parti celui de rentrer en France et d'y faire mon devoir jusqu'au bout. Je ne puis donc encore me prononcer j'attends l'avis de nos amis et j'attends aussi les évènements. De toutes façons d'ailleurs je ne puis guère rentrer avant la fin d'octobre car je désire que la chambre soit réunie et qu'on ait liquidé toutes les autres affaires pendantes. Vous me touchez infiniment en m'offrant vos services dévoués ici et même à Paris. Ici le mieux est que je vive encore ignoré travaillant en paix dans une solitude dont personne le connaît le chemin. Mon travail que j'ai repris régulièrement m'est un grand repos. À Paris certes si j'avais besoin de vous je serais fort heureux de me confier à votre dévouement et à votre discrétion. Les infamies s'entassent cela devait être. C'est avec un serrement douloureux de cœur que je songe à la pure victime qu'ils vont encore condamner ; et cela ne me donne qu'une passion celle du sacrifice la volonté de m'immoler moi-même. Embrassez bien tendrement votre cher mari. Je sais tout ce qu'il fait pour vous et j'en suis profondément ému. Merci encore chère madame et amie et mille bonnes affections. Z " Convicted definitively on appeal on July 18 1898 by the Versailles court Zola left France to return to England. His open letter "J'accuse…!" published in L'Aurore on January 13 1898 earned the writer a fine of 3000 francs and 1 year of imprisonment. Committed body and soul to the defense of Captain Dreyfus Zola was forced into exile by Clemenceau and Labori and at the same time into silence. Kept away from the Parisian furnace prey to all the passions surrounding the affair Zola sometimes lets glimpse from England like this letter a share of frustration at no longer being at the center of the chessboard. Regarding the support he received from his close friends the writer could count on that of Octave Mirbeau a Dreyfusard from the very beginning. The latter whose role has long been underestimated was one of the most influential defenders of Captain Dreyfus and Zola. After taking a public stand for the first time in an article in the Journal of 28 November 1897 two days after Zola's first article it was Mirbeau who in July 1898 paid out of his own pocket the entire fine to which Zola was sentenced on appeal in Versailles. Two weeks after Zola's conviction he wrote in L'Aurore on 2 August 1898: " Will not professors philosophers scholars writers artists all those in whom truth resides from all parts of France finally free their souls from the terrible weight that oppresses them Faced with these daily challenges to their genius their humanity their spirit of justice their courage will they not finally understand that they have a great duty… that of defending the heritage of ideas of science of glorious discoveries of beauty with which they have enriched the country of which they are the guardians… " We know the letter of support that Alice Mirbeau committed to her husband sent to Zola on August 24 and to which the writer replied above: " Despite the pain I feel in knowing how much you suffer from your isolation I persist in believing that you must find the strength to wait and that at no cost should the end be hastened. Certainly prison where all those who love you could come and embrace you would be sweeter for you and for your friends but you must not abandon everything especially now that there is a new victim on the eve of being so harshly struck. … I am very happy that you have resumed your work it will console you a little because you must persist … If I can do you any pleasure soften your captivity a little by a few steps for anything that you would like to be done use me I beg you I put my tenderness at your service and I will be happy to use myself to be agreeable to you…" At the time he wrote this letter Zola did not yet know it but the affair was about to change on this August 30. After having completed the Dreyfus file with a piece that he himself had forged Commander Henry confessed after his forgery was discovered by Captain Cuignet military attaché to Minister Cavaignac. Taken immediately to detention at Mont Valérien Henry committed suicide the next day in his cell his throat slit with a razor. Already imprisoned at La Santé in July 1898 Picquart was again imprisoned at Cherche-Midi prison on September 22 proving Zola's prediction right. Provenance: Collection particulière Bibliography: Correspondance éd. Maurice et Denise Leblond Bernouard 1929 t. II p. 811 Correspondance t. IX éd. du CNRS p. 285-286 n°186