Politics
The book was written and published when France was in the throes of the Dreyfus Affair, Frenchmen were deeply divided over whether or not the Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus was guilty of treason and espionage on behalf of the hated Germany (and over more fundamental issues bound up with the Dreyfus case). Verne is known to have initially supported the right-wing anti-Dreyfusards.
The question whether or not Verne was an anti-semite is hotly debated; while Walter A. McDougall finds "no overt evidence of anti-Semitism on Verne's part," Brian Taves and Jean-Michel Margot note that his Off on a Comet contains "unflattering Shylock-style stereotypes." Be that as it may, Verne certainly was a nationalist caught up in the mindset of revanchism, to whom the idea of a French army officer, Jewish or not, spying for Germany would be the greatest of anathemas; and initially Verne, like most French people, believed Dreyfus to be guilty. However, in 1899 Verne came to support a judicial review of the Dreyfus case.
While Roch cannot be said to represent Dreyfus in any concrete way, the theme of an apparent traitor, who in the end proves to be a self-sacrificing patriot, may be connected to the change of heart which Verne (and many readers) underwent about Dreyfus.
Read more about this topic: Facing The Flag
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Our family talked a lot at table, and only two subjects were taboo: politics and personal troubles. The first was sternly avoided because Father ran a nonpartisan daily in a small town, with some success, and did not wish to express his own opinions in public, even when in private.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)
“The Germans—once they were called the nation of thinkers: do they still think at all? Nowadays the Germans are bored with intellect, the Germans distrust intellect, politics devours all seriousness for really intellectual things—Deutschland, Deutschland Über alles was, I fear, the end of German philosophy.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)