These preludes, True Flabby Preludes for a Dog, were composed after a previous set, Flabby Preludes for a Dog was rejected by two publishers. The Veritables preludes were also initially rejected by Debussy's publisher Durand, who felt that these eccentric, peculiar pieces would not be salable to his customers. Durand later accepted the work for publication.

Satie's second set of preludes (the "True" preludes) comprise three pieces, "Severe reprimande," "Seul a la maison," and "En joue." The second set of preludes, like the first, reflects Satie's studies at the Scuola Cantorum several years earlier, where he earned a diploma in counterpoint. The preludes are, in Alan Gillmor's words, "severely contrapuntal," and exemplify the complete stylistic about-face Satie had made from the non-linear, chordal, harmonically static works from before the turn of the century. They are typically Satiean in terms of their wit (note the titles of the pieces), but are atypical in that they have barlines and time signatures: most of Satie's piano music from this period is barless and without time signatures. The preludes reflect a new esthetic turn for Satie, one in which, as Charles Koechlin noted, "he gets rid of repetitions and redundancies. He prunes, throws out ballast, suppresses held notes, condenses, reduces the musical dialogue to a strict minimum."

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