Product Description

The language we use when we are in love is not a language we speak, for it is addressed to ourselves and to our imaginary beloved. It is a language of solitude, of mythology, of what Barthes calls an 'image repertoire'. This book revives beyond the psychological or clinical enterprises which have characterised such researches in our culture - the notion of the amorous subject. It will be enjoyed and understood by two groups of readers: those who have been in love (Or think they have, which is the same thing), and those who have never been in love (or think they have not, which is the same thing). This book might be considered, in its restless search for authorities and examples, which range from Nietzsche to Zen, from Ruysbroek to Debussy, an encyclopaedia of that affirmative discourse which is the lover's.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77735 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-04
• Original language: French
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
'A kind of mercurial elegy...Some extraordinary passion leaks through Barthes' lucid prose' Peter Ackroyd, Spectator; 'A Lover's Discourse...may be the most detailed, painstaking anatomy of desire that we are ever likely to see or need again...The mini-topics range over the whole known gamut of love and beyond: jealousy, waiting, letters, being in love with love itself, the meaning of "I love you" (his reflection on these three words will make the reader hesitate before ever using them again), quarrels, the threat of suicide, love at first sigh, and on and on...All readers will find something they recognize in Barthes' recreation of the lover's fevered consciousness: The book is an ecstatic celebration of love and language and...readers interested in either or both...will enjoy savouring its rich and dark delights' Washington Post Book World

Customer Reviews

Worth the Experience
This book was fabulous, and it has changed me in a way few, if any, other books ever have. Barthes' insight is eerie sometimes, as you find yourself reading a passage and thinking, "How did he know exactly the way I feel?" The style is a bit unusual, and some people may find it difficult, but the sheer weight of his observations can't help but touch you. I recommend it to anyone who ever has been in love or has been loved - after reading it, you will never be the same.

It deserves...
As a learner of Semiotics, my attention was attacted by Barthes.R.
Among the books written by him, such as Mythology, A Lover's Discourse, Semiotics, Critics and Truth and so on, this one is quite unique in representing his theoretical ideas on Cultural study and Linguistics.
Apart from the insightful feeling and analysis he makes, one could know more as involved in love.
Enjoy yourself with these worthful lines!
I bet u'll consider that it deserves~

If you love your semiotic jargon...
I once read this book a few years back. I remember then thinking that it was a very witty and cynically refined book full of kind-of interesting observations. I would guffaw at it with the self-satisfaction that comes with studying 1st year art history. I was accustomed to the jargon of semiotics and postmodernism at that stage so I could follow the thrust of Barthes' "logic".

I bought this book last week for a lady friend, and thought I would quickly flick through it again to see what it was all about as I'd largely forgotten. It's pretty awful... The references, if not Goethe, are to obsolete films or pappy music hall... so what ? Of course it's easy to criticise - it's light entertainment. There isn't a line that goes by without painful discussion of the "signifier", to the extent that you realise that at base, postmodern jargon is comprised of euphemisms for nonsense.

A joyless, thankless, vacuous read. Buying this as a present for a loved-one is like bringing a charcuterie to a bar mitzvah.