frlit1-7, Exercise 3: Zola and J'accuse

Model answer:

On 13 January 1898 Zola published an open letter to the president of the Republic in the newspaper L'Aurore, headed J'accuse, naming officers and officials he believed responsible for the injustice done to Alfred Dreyfus. It cost him a prosecution for libel and a conviction, and he left for England to avoid prison. It is part of the history of the writer as public conscience because a famous novelist used his name and a newspaper to challenge the army and the state on behalf of an individual, as Voltaire had done in the Calas case.

Check the date and details against a reference work.