ROLAND BARTHES BY ROLAND BARTHES

London, England: MacMillan Press, 1988. First Edition Thus. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. London, England: MacMillan Press, 1988. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition Thus/First Printing. 186 pages. The author's second autobiographical writing. One of the greatest books of the 20th century. The second book in the final and greatest work by Roland Barthes, the trilogy that he began with "A Lover's Discourse: Fragments" (1977) and concluded with "Camera Lucida: Reflections On Photography" (1980, published posthumously in English in 1981). The 1988 First British Expatriate/Overseas Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the Softcover Edition, of which there are several. Published in a tiny print run as a hardcover original only. The British Expatriate/Overseas Edition was issued by MacMillan Press for its foreign/"expatriate" market and was never commercially available in the United Kingdom (or the United States). The edition uses the same papers and boards that were produced for the regular British Edition. The British Overseas Edition is now rare. Presents, in its very rare and historically significant edition in English, Roland Barthes' "Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes" in a felicitous English translation by Richard Howard. Profoundly personal "confessions" about his inner life. The book is by, of, and most important, FOR the author himself. Since that sounds like the "tell-all" memoir (which it is not), it is important to clarify what Barthes' book is: A revelation, in the coolly detached French/Continental intellectual mode, where every (concrete) detail is intimately described in order to amplify a larger (abstract) idea. It is, to borrow Sartre's inimitable phrase, "the observer in the act of observing (himself) ". "Never before has Barthes spoken so freely, so joyously, precisely when he speaks so strictly, so severely about 'him'. Barthes is first and foremost, a writer, a man for whom the imaginative manipulation of language affords the means of life, the justification of his existence, the articulation of his identity" (Richard Howard). Discretion, elegance, and subtlety set Barthes' book apart from the vulgar memoir, especially of the Anglo-American kind: The more Barthes tells us about himself, the more distant he becomes, to himself and to us, his readers. The more Barthes reveals to us, the more we realize how little we can ever really know him (or ourselves). So why bother to write? Answer: To liberate oneself from the limits of formal writing in order to re-invent writing. Therein lies the book's - and his trilogy's - greatness and wisdom. An absolute "must-have" title for Roland Barthes collectors. This title is a great book. This is the only copy of the First British Expatriate/Overseas Edition/First Printing available online and is in fine condition overall: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: There are NO other copies of this most elusive edition available online because it was distributed abroad only, not in the United Kingdom or United States. This is the only one we have found. A rare copy thus. The greatest European culture critic of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ROLAND BARTHES TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0333434706.