MICHELET, by Roland Barthes; translated by Richard Howard. Hill & Wang. 226 pp. $18.95. Odd, perplexing, brilliant, obtuse, weird, ruminative, daring, outrageous yet masterful, Roland Barthes' first book, "Michelet," published in French 33 years ago but now appearing in a fine English translation by Richard Howard, anticipates the methods of the author in later studies. A compact and highly readable work notwithstanding Barthes' hopscotch methods of inquiry (the "deconstruction" of the text), it assembles fragments of prose into a provocative picture of France's great 19th-century romantic his...
