Abstract
S/Z is the only book by Barthes to concentrate exclusively on one text. It deals with ‘Sarrasine’, a short story by Balzac originally published in La Revue de Paris in November 1830 and later incorporated in the section of La Comédie Humaine entitled Scènes de la vie parisienne. The anonymous narrator is at a ball in the household of the Comte and Comtesse de Lanty. He sees a mysterious old man come and talk to the daughter of the house, Marianina, and give her a rich jewel before she spirits him away. The woman who is with the narrator, the Marquise de Rochefide, is anxious to know who he is. She implies that she will sleep with the narrator if he tells her.
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© 1977 Philip Thody
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Thody, P. (1977). Balzac, fiction and Japan. In: Roland Barthes. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03391-1_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03391-1_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-03393-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-03391-1
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