Anyone who loves France (or just feels strongly about it), or has succumbed to the spell of Julian Barness previous books, will be enraptured by this collection of essays on the country and its culture. Barness appreciation extends from Frances vanishing peasantry to its hyper-literate pop singers, from the gleeful iconoclasm of nouvelle vague cinema to the orgy of drugs and suffering that is the Tour de France. Above all, Barnes is an unparalleled connoisseur of French writing and writers. Here are the prolific and priapic Simenon, Baudelaire, Sand and Sartre, and several dazzling excursions on the prickly genius of Flaubert. Lively yet discriminating in its enthusiasm, seemingly infinite in its range of reference, and written in prose as stylish as haute couture, Something to Declare is an unadulterated joy.About the Author:Born in Leicester, England, in 1946, Julian Barnes is the author of nine novels, a book of stories, and a previous collection of essays. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages. In France he is the only writer to have won both the Prix M dicis and the Prix F mina, and in 1988 he was made a Chevalier de lOrdre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in London.