Roland Barthes is one of the very few literary critics in any language of whom it can be said that he has never written a bad or uninteresting page….

Barthes is neither an academic critic, nor a reviewer, but strictly an occasional writer: he produces writing for prefaces, commemoratives, conferences, events, seminars, commissions from publishers, captions for pictures, descriptions of striking objects. Although his Critical Essays and Mythologies collect relatively early work—roughly from 1954 to the early sixties—they illustrate the beautiful generosity of Barthes's progressive interest in the meaning (his word is "signification") of practically everything around him, not only the books and paintings of high art, but also the slogans, trivia, toys, food and popular rituals (cruises, striptease, eating, wrestling matches) of contemporary life. How enjoyable it is for Barthes's readers to be able to choose as their favorite among his books perhaps the analysis of...