The Dreyfus Affair and the genesis of the British spy story, 1894–1900

The Affaire Dreyfus (1894 - 1906) played a key role in the genesis of the British spy story. This paper focuses on the years 1894-1900, a period brimming with experiments with the materials, tropes, themes, settings, and characters of spy fiction which precedes and, in a sense, paves the way for the publication of the first spy stories in the 1900s. The years 1894-1900 also coincide with the most intense phase of the Affaire Dreyfus. With its stories of intrigue, espionage and counterespionage, the Affaire Dreyfus brought international espionage to the fore as an integral part of the relationships between modern states. It worked, for the spy story, as an enabler of sorts and produced an appetite for spy fiction. After 1894, several spy stories, for the most part forgotten, appeared in the UK. In them, early authors of spy fiction mixed features of the detective novel, invasion scare stories, war prophecy novel, adventure and imperial novel with a pinch of Dreyfus materials. Since then, the Affaire never lost its appeal or failed to inspire writers, from John Buchan to Graham Green, to Eric Ambler and Robert Ludlum. Why is the Affaire so dear to spy fiction writers? And what does its legacy to the genre consist of?