MLR, 96.I, 200I MLR, 96.I, 200I Frenchtranslation,he may also be compared to France'shithertofavouriteEnglish commentator on Frenchsociety and culture,Theodore Zeldin. Jack is far more telling and detailed (and up to date) in his analysis of what is wrong with the Frenchstateand Frenchsociety than Ardagh, and he gives a farless comfortable view of the French, or of the French elites at least, than does Zeldin, leaving no room for complacency among his readersoutre-Manche. While he admits to a love-hate relationshipwith France and refersin passing to 'an extraordinary quality of life in France',his stance is more often than not critical:he sees French institutionsas archaic, the state as too influential,producing a freemasonryof elites who too frequentlyend up running big business and industry,whether publicly or privately owned. He admits Franceis changing for the better (by which he means becoming much more of a free-marketsociety),and in theprocessitsexceptionalism is disappearingas it strugglesto freeitselffroma post-warcorporatestraitjacket. There will be those who reject his implicit admiration for the modernization of the Thatcher years as a model againstwhich to compare France,and who may not sharehis view of the huge Frenchpublic sectoras theproblem, resistingchange as it does in the shape of its ubiquitousenarques and Inspecteurs desfinances, elites who (he argues) have too often concentrated on self-perpetuation and self-preservation. However, it will need very cogent argument to refute the detailed evidence of his analysis of the fragility of the French state in the face of public protest, the weaknesses of the French Republican model of integration, the extent of public sectorprivilege,the self-servingcomplicityofitsgrands corps, leadingto scandalssuch as the Credit Lyonnais affair, the centralization and short-termism of decisionmaking , and corruption and complacency regardingthe Corsican problem. He is particularlygood on themedia, dealingwith issuesof privacy,ofpressindependence or lackof it, conflictsof interestin ownership,and the sycophancy of television. He also deals interestingly with the educational system and cultural policy, and economic and technological achievements. The book is certainlya challenging and stimulatingread forthose interestedin Francein the I99os and beyond. UNIVERSITY OFNEWCASTLE UPONTYNE GEOFFREY HARE La Versification. By JEAN-MICHELGOUVARD. (Collection Premier Cycle) Paris: PressesUniversitairesde France. 1999. x + 305 PP. 99F. This book is one of a seriesaimed at Premier Cycle studentsin Frenchuniversities and its aim is to present the theory of French versification from a descriptive viewpoint (p. 2).Itsopening chapterpresentsessentialinformationon syllabification clearly and comprehensively,but the following one on the role of accent in French verse createsdifficultiesforat least thisreaderthat the book never resolves. The ideasproposed reflectthe currentFrenchacademic consensuson accent and metre in French:that is, that the boundary of the metrical unit is markedby nondistinctive group-finalaccent (the only metrical accent) and that it is conservation of syllable-count from unit to unit that is fundamental to perception of metre (pp. 73-89). There is word-accent within the line, but as its distributionis aleatory, it can performno metricalfunction (pp. 86-87). A crucialimplicationof thistheory is that any isosyllabictext will be perceived as verse and a simple experiment may highlightthe weaknessof thishypothesis: (a)Tiens!GrosJeanvientde deciderde seprocurer deuxbonschiens.Toutce qu'onpeut pretendre enfin,c'estqu'iladf y renoncer. (b)Cethommeatoujours delachanc(e). Safemm(e) quil'aimeestbelleetnequitt(e)jamais l'hotelouell(e)vitenpaixdepuissonenfance. Frenchtranslation,he may also be compared to France'shithertofavouriteEnglish commentator on Frenchsociety and culture,Theodore Zeldin. Jack is far more telling and detailed (and up to date) in his analysis of what is wrong with the Frenchstateand Frenchsociety than Ardagh, and he gives a farless comfortable view of the French, or of the French elites at least, than does Zeldin, leaving no room for complacency among his readersoutre-Manche. While he admits to a love-hate relationshipwith France and refersin passing to 'an extraordinary quality of life in France',his stance is more often than not critical:he sees French institutionsas archaic, the state as too influential,producing a freemasonryof elites who too frequentlyend up running big business and industry,whether publicly or privately owned. He admits Franceis changing for the better (by which he means becoming much more of a free-marketsociety),and in theprocessitsexceptionalism is disappearingas it strugglesto freeitselffroma post-warcorporatestraitjacket. There will be those who reject his implicit admiration for the modernization of...