"In Roland Barthes, the critic has at last turned toward himself as the text to be studied. The result is a highly unconventional 'autobiography' (splendidly translated) which is brilliant and baffling by turns."—Washington Post Book World

"[Barthes] realizes that his greatest achievement is not what he is, nor even what he has done, but rather how he has done it. So his self-portrait is not primarily a recollection of events or earlier works. It is, rightly, a delineation of the method rather than the man. And so persuasive or provocative are its assertions and associations that it is impossible to read this portrait of a style passively."—San Francisco Review of Books

"Barthes is an extraordinary virtuoso. . . . Highly original, extremely fertile and inventive. . . . He continually discovers new ways of writing about writing."—New York Times Book Review