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Summary: His best book ?
Review: A personal favourite. Captures admirably the absurdity of it all. Contains gems like 'Even as he obsessively asks himself why he is not loved, the amorous subject lives in the belief that the loved object does love him but does not tell him so.' Also has what is probably the best paragraph ever written on jealousy: 'As a jealous man, I suffer four times over: because I am jealous, because I blame myself for being so, because I fear my jealousy will wound the other, because I allow myself to be subject to a banality: I suffer from being excluded, from being aggressive, from being crazy and from being common.'
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Summary: makes you wonder about Love complicated issues
Review: A personal favourite. Captures admirably the absurdity of it all. Contains gems like `Even as he obsessively asks himself why he is not loved, the amorous subject lives in the belief that the loved object does love him but does not tell him so.' Also has what is probably the best paragraph ever written on jealousy: `As a jealous man, I suffer four times over: because I am jealous, because I blame myself for being so, because I fear my jealousy will wound the other, because I allow myself to be subject to a banality: I suffer from being excluded, from being aggressive, from being crazy and from being common.'
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Summary: A manifesto for nerds...
Review: All academic works should be modeled after this one. To make literature speak: to make the text yearn, cry, fear, love, and affirm. The pleasure of the text? Is this a book about human love? Or is it also a book about loving the word? Does the lover love a beloved? Or is the beloved really the word? This book is for those of us who cannot participate in reality as it is, but who are always filtering the lived moment through the books that we have read. This book which seeks to affirm at a time of discontent and irony, affirms us in the end.
Rating:
Summary: A manifesto for nerds...
Review: All academic works should be modeled after this one. To make literature speak: to make the text yearn, cry, fear, love, and affirm. The pleasure of the text? Is this a book about human love? Or is it also a book about loving the word? Does the lover love a beloved? Or is the beloved really the word? This book is for those of us who cannot participate in reality as it is, but who are always filtering the lived moment through the books that we have read. This book which seeks to affirm at a time of discontent and irony, affirms us in the end.
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Summary: Anatomy of a feeling
Review: Barthes dissects Love,analyzing it whit the painstaking precision of a skilled forensic.Here you see what one feels when Love,the very hope of it,is like a fallen leaf in a cold winter morning.This is a very sad book,but illuminating,even amusing,in some parts;but alas,fragments are all that remains,when one loves too long in vain.
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Summary: makes you wonder about Love complicated issues
Review: I LOVE this book - it made me reflect deeply about love - what is and what it involves. There are sad statements with it but there are also some parts that make you smile!
Love complicates things and suffering is a great part of it as most of us either know already or will eventually (hopefully!)
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Summary: Heart-breaking
Review: if you have ever suffered from the feeling of love, desire to know more about whom you love and lack of discourse with her/him, you should read this, which'll help you understand where you are, why you are suffering from it, and realize your situation more objectively. Another virtue of this book is its delicate and adequate style in every phrase and detail. Please try it. And I hope perfect accomplishment of your beautiful love, whether it is one-sided or not. Lastly, be faithful to yourself, your lover and your love.
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Summary: PARIS REVIEWER HAS CAPTURED IT EXACTLY
Review: Some readers may find this book difficult. Barthes never attempts to give us a uniform narrative about love. Instead, as the title implies, he provides us with fragments--some of which come from literature and some from his own philisophical musings--of a lover's point of view. Since childhood, we are taught to think of love as a singualar entity. Whether it is God's love, marriage, passion, or patriotism, we are taught to think of love as a unique, and exclusive prize. But as Barthes' points out, love is built upon fragments, many of which are mundane. The most compelling part of "Lover's Discourse" is Barthe's dissection of the phrase, "I love you". Drawing upon literary examples and common sense, Barthes asks us what we mean when we state that we love someone. Do we love what they do for us? Do we love how they make us feel? Do we love the idea of them? Are we in love with love itself? This concept is born out by the protagonist Merseault, in Camus' novel, "A Happy Death". The first thing Merseault says to his lover when she wakes up in the morning is, "hello image". "Lover's Discourse" extracts love from ideology and examines it under a microscope. We may be confused by what we see, and we may not like it, but the view contains more than a glimmer of reality.
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Summary: PARIS REVIEWER HAS CAPTURED IT EXACTLY
Review: This book is not an easily accessible checklist,rapidly readable, of the manifestations and anguishes of being 'in love.' The ordinary reader has to set him/herself to the Herculean task of understanding Barthes and picking each amazing fragment apart until recognition cuts through, like a dagger in the heart (if one reads while in the throes). The acute perception of the Parisian review is immediately recognizable to anyone caught on the sharp tines of love who has read "A Lover's Discourse," reached for it in moments of desperation, and found it a sort of lifeline. The book is "punishing," as was said, but solace will be afforded just by seeing the relentless torments and wretched states of being put into precise words - having it all dissected and explained, if not ameliorated. An enamoured person could find exquisite (if temporary) relief in that alone.
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Summary: great!!
Review: This book is not only about 'love' or 'lovers',but also about life and being. With sentences down to earth, and easy to understand, Barthes displays the essence of postmodern thoughts. By reading these fragments, you will be able to understand difficult philosophical terms not as pedantic knowledge, but as the maxim that you'd be relied upon for your own contemplation.
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