An Officer and a Spy was published by Hutchinson in 2013. The novel retells the Dreyfus Affair — the political scandal that convulsed France from 1894 to 1906 — through the eyes of Colonel Georges Picquart, the head of French military intelligence who discovered that Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer convicted of treason, was innocent. The real traitor was Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, and the evidence proving this was being systematically suppressed by the French military establishment.
Picquart’s story is one of the great moral narratives of modern history: a career officer, a conventional man with conventional prejudices (including antisemitism), who nonetheless chose to tell the truth when every institutional pressure — his superiors, the Army, the government, public opinion — demanded that he remain silent.
Harris’s treatment was scrupulously faithful to the historical record while maintaining the pace and tension of a thriller. The novel won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
The Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus Affair remains one of the most significant political scandals in European history — it split France into Dreyfusards and anti-Dreyfusards, inspired Émile Zola’s famous letter J’accuse, and revealed the depth of antisemitism in French institutions. Harris’s achievement was to make this well-documented history feel urgent and suspenseful even to readers who knew the outcome.
Collecting An Officer and a Spy
First edition (Hutchinson, London, 2013): Boards with dust jacket.
Approximate market values:
- UK first edition, fine in jacket: $25–$50
- US first edition (Knopf): $10–$25
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation. The Walter Scott Prize and the Polanski film adaptation (2019) sustain interest.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the Dreyfus Affair? In 1894, French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer, was falsely convicted of treason for allegedly passing military secrets to Germany. The real traitor was Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. The affair divided France for over a decade and prompted Émile Zola’s famous open letter J’Accuse…!