Except for the Tour de France with Henry James and Edith Wharton, these essays from the 1950s are really quite tedious. ( )

I would probably have liked this book much more if I was at all interested in Gustave Flaubert; I would guess 40% of the collected essays touched on him in someway. It would also help it I was much more of a Francophile. Having said that, Julian Barnes is a wonderful, extremely talented writer. Even on topics that don't really catch my interest, I'm still fell compelled to push on, just because of his engaging style ( )

The title is something to declare: essays francs. The essays on France were good but only half the book. The rest was about Flaubert and Madame BOVARY. I found this part went on and on. ( )

Often too detailed and learned to be fun reading. But well written all the same - nice hints of humour all over!

Julian Barnes has with something with France, as the title of his collection of essays published in 2002 states: Something to declare. However, what Barnes has with France is not something superficial, but rather intellectual and deep. Therefore, following titles of essays such as "The land without Brussels sprouts" or "Tour de France 1903" and "Tour de France 2000" are a bit misleading if the reader expects a light, summer holiday read that tells us how peculiar or special the French are. In the Preface, Barnes explains how deep France goes with him; both his parents were teachers of French, they spent all their summer holidays there, Barnes studied French, he lived and worked in France, in a word, Julian Barnes breathes French.

The Preface also states that the seventeen essays collected in Something to declare were written over a period of 20 years. At the back of the book, a list shows the publication dates of the "original" essays. However, with the exception of the two essays about the "Tours de France", the essays in Something to declare are extremely well integrated. Subsequent essays build on previous essays, making the collection remarkably coherent. This tight coherence is probably the effect of some re-writing, which is, unfortunately, detectable at the beginning of the essays. Various essays beging with a type of preamble and then, after about a page or page-and-half suddenly switch to their actual topic. Some of the essays have a confusing beginning.

'Tis true that the essays in Something to declare are about France and French culture, but this could be made more precise by saying that the essays are more specifically about Gustave Flaubert and both literary figures and people around Flaubert. Various essays are about obscure biographers, obscure family relations of Flaubert or obscure details brought to light about the legacy of Flaubert. In fact, the essay collection is rather specialized, presupposing quite a profound interest in and knowledge of the work of Gustave Flaubert, like ..... the author himself. Thus, the essays are rather self-indulgent. They are an intellectual treasure trove if you are interested in Flaubert, but otherwise rather boring and difficult to read. Incidentally, the essay collection sheds some light of overarching nature on French culture, paired with Julian Barnes tongue-in-cheek humour, concluding that France is essentially a very rustic nation, with a deep longing to life in the countryside, as illustrated by "the typical peasant."

Almost all essays in Something to declare are based on reviews Julian Barnes wrote for The New Yorker, the London and New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement. The essays are very well-written, and packed with details: fodder for the intellectual reader with a profound interest in French Nineteenth Centurary literature. ( )