In the Context of His Times

Alfred Dreyfus's arrest for treason thrust him into a surreal existence, which he termed a phantasmagoria. To maintain his sanity during five years of imprisonment, he engaged in extensive reading, wrote letters to his wife Lucie, and tackled complex intellectual challenges in mathematics and science. Norman Simms delves into Dreyfus's essays, contextualizing them within his time and exploring the influences of his Jewish Alsatian heritage, revealing the profound ways he coped with the psychological turmoil of his situation.