Vers De Societe Selected From Recent Authors

Step into a candlelit salon where a single couplet can topple a pose. Wit, style, and a sting. Vers De Societe gathers a French poetry anthology, a society verse anthology selected from recent authors, celebrating the quicksilver pleasures of conversation set to metre. Here are epigram and rondeau verse, teasing compliments, elegant put-downs, and the nimble turns of urbane humour in verse. Dip in at random, or read straight through, and you hear how social performance becomes art: poised, mischievous, and surprisingly tender at times. Light on its feet yet sharp in its observations, this light verse collection offers manners and social commentary in miniature, with the flavour of fin-de-siecle France and nineteenth-century Paris. Compiled by Charles H. Jones, this classic European light poetry brings together the kind of salon wit and satire that helped define modern literary sociability, when poetry was as much performed as printed. It is a portable sparkling survey of social tone, perfect for the desk, the train, or an after-dinner circle today. It remains ideal for French literature students tracing form and tone, and for anyone seeking poetry recitation pieces that land cleanly in the ear. Collectors of belles lettres will relish its period sensibility and its place within the longer story of French verse between Romantic grandeur and modernist experiment. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today -- a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike.