Product Description

In this appealing and luminous collection of essays, Roland Barthes examines the mundane and exposes hidden texts, causing the reader to look afresh at the famous landmark and symbol of Paris, and also at the Tour de France, the visit to Paris of Billy Graham, the flooding of the Seine--and other shared events and aspects of everyday experience.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #482362 in Books
• Published on: 1997-03-04
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .30 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 152 pages

Review
"In the long title essay of this book of varied reflections and observations, Roland Barthes writes lovingly about one of the world's most celebrated structures: 'Just as there is no Parisian glance which is not compelled to encounter it, there is no fantasy which fails, sooner or later, to acknowledge its form and to be nourished by it.'. . . The essay stays at this splendid level throughout, extraordinarily fresh, full of exact revelation. All of Barthes' sometimes scattered virtues come together in it: his learning, his prowess as an observer, his lyric gift."--Richard Gilman, "The New York Times Book Review

About the Author
Roland Barthes was born in 1915 and studied French literature and classics at the University of Paris. After teaching French at universities in Rumania and Egypt, he joined the Centre de Recherche Scientifique, where he devoted himself to research in sociology and lexicology. He was a professor at the Collège de France until his death in 1980.