Everybody has heard of “J’accuse”–but ….

Eleanor Levieux begins her 1996 translation of Émile Zola’s writings on the Dreyfus Affair (largely translated from the collection edited by Alain Pagès: L’affaire Dreyfus:  Lettres et entretiens inédits) thus:

Everybody has heard of “J’accuse” – but how many people have actually read it?

That is a good question. 

“J’accuse” is so well known that the phrase has become a cliché, and yet I cannot recall having ever come across the letter itself in English translation before I read this book.  How many of us actually know the arguments – much less the powerful prose – that Zola actually used? 

It is a pity that Zola’s polemical work is not more read – especially considering that Zola was forced into exile by an unjust libel conviction.

While I have not read the original French letters, I found Leviuex’s translation to be a powerful work, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

(Here is a review of the original French collection of letters, and here are two reviews (1, 2) of Levieux’s translation)