Alphonse Karr

Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr was a French critic, journalist and novelist who became editor of Le Figaro in 1839 and founded the satirical monthly Les Guêpes. In 1855 he moved to Nice, took up floriculture, and practically founded the cut-flower trade on the French Riviera — which is why so many of his best-remembered lines are about gardens. He is the same writer who gave us plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, and, characteristically, he printed the roses-and-thorns verse as if it were somebody else’s.