Notes from Exile

On July 19th, 1898, Emile Zola arrived in England after fleeing imprisonment in France. He was to spend eleven months in self-imposed exile because of his involvement in the Dreyfus Affair. During this time, the family of his English translator, Ernest Alfred Vizetelly, took care of his everyday needs. While in Britain, Zola wrote a short text entitled ‘Pages d'exil,’ in which he talked about his feelings regarding England, exile, and other matters. An avid photographer, Zola also took pictures of his surroundings that were left with the Vizetelly family when he returned to France.

Dorothy Speirs and Yannick Portebois, in collaboration with Ernest Alfred Vizetelly’s last surviving grandson, have here reproduced those photographs with the first English translation, fully annotated, of ‘Pages d'exil.’ The photographs, of landscapes, churches, and street scenes, have never been published before, and represent a major contribution to the collection of Zola photographs, many of which are today largely inaccessible. Together, the text and photographs will be of great interest to anyone who enjoys Zola’s work, and to scholars of French history and the Dreyfus Affair.