Mourning diary: October 26, 1977-September 15, 1979 (1st American ed.)

The day after his mother's death in October 1977, the influential philosopher Roland Barthes began a diary of mourning.

Taking notes on index cards as was his habit, he reflected on a new solitude, on the ebb and flow of sadness, and on modern society's dismissal of grief.

These 330 cards, published here for the first time, prove a skeleton key to the themes he tackled throughout his work.