The introduction to this book was extremely informative, yet very understandable for myself, a lay person where musical notation and form and history are concerned. Once you get into the section that actually includes the compilation of lyrics, this is a very quick read, as most of the lyrics are simple and pertain to love or thwarted love. That said, this is a very dense book if you intend to study the musical notations at length (I did not) or examine the translations. I appreciated that the music was included where available and that the original French was preserved, but I was reading casually so I glossed over much of the more scholarly detail here.