Emile Zola and the act of engagement

Zola progress to comfort.
Dreyfus on devils island.
I accuse you of racism
and declare class war.
No longer comfortable ( nice house in Surrey)
Had to seek exile.

'Hankering after apostleship was one
of Zola's most marked characteristics.'

"and it was I alone of my own free will
who chose you, you who are the loftiest
and most immediate emanation of French justice".
July in London.


I was reading a lot of Zola books back then and enjoying them immensely. I was obsessed with Paris, the old streets of Paris, the Paris of the 1930's. Mostly through the books of Zola, Maupassant, Henry Miller and the photography of Brassai. I had a street map on my bedroom wall and would spend hours studying it.Years later I spent a month there visiting a friend, by the end of my stay I realized I had reached the perfect closure to my love affair with Paris- it was just another city and 'great art' could be created anywhere and by anyone, at anytime. I am still impressed by Zola's willingness to get involved at the level he did.

www.wfu.edu/~sinclair/dreyfus.htm