The 7th Function of Language: Laurent Binet

Laurent Binet

ISBN 10: 1910701599 / ISBN 13: 9781910701591

Published by Vintage Publishing, United Kingdom, London, 2017

About this Item

Roland Barthes, one of the twentieth-centurys towering literary figures, is knocked down in a Paris street by a laundry van. Its February 1980 and he has just come from lunch with Francois Mitterrand, who is locked in a battle for the Presidency. Barthes dies soon afterwards. History tells us it was an accident. But what if it were an assassination? What if Barthes was carrying a document of unbelievable, global importance? That document was the key to the seventh function of language an idea so powerful it gives whoever masters it the ability to convince anyone, in any situation, to do anything. Police Captain Jacques Bayard and his reluctant accomplice Simon Herzog set off on a global chase that takes them from the corridors of power and academia to backstreet saunas and midnight rendezvous. What they discover is a global conspiracy involving the President, murderous Bulgarians and a secret international debating society. In the world of intellectuals and politicians, everyone is a suspect. And who can you trust when the idea of truth itself is at stake? The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Seller Inventory # GOR008917482

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The 7th Function of Language: Laurent Binet
• Publisher: Vintage Publishing, United Kingdom, London
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1910701599
• ISBN 13: 9781910701591
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 381 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Paris, 1980. The literary critic Roland Barthes dies struck by a laundry van after lunch with the presidential candidate Francois Mitterand. The world of letters mourns a tragic accident. But what if it wasn t an accident at all? What if Barthes was . . . murdered?

In The Seventh Function of Language, Laurent Binet spins a madcap secret history of the French intelligentsia, starring such luminaries as Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Julia Kristeva as well as the hapless police detective Jacques Bayard, whose new case will plunge him into the depths of literary theory (starting with the French version of Roland Barthes for Dummies). Soon Bayard finds himself in search of a lost manuscript by the linguist Roman Jakobson on the mysterious seventh function of language.

A brilliantly erudite comedy that recalls Flaubert's Parrot and The Name of the Rose with more than a dash of The Da Vinci Code, The Seventh Function of Language takes us from the cafes of Saint-Germain to the corridors of Cornell University, and into the duels and orgies of the Logos Club, a secret philosophical society that dates to the Roman Empire. Binet has written both a send-up and a wildly exuberant celebration of the French intellectual tradition.

About the Author

Laurent Binet lives and works in France. His first novel, HHhH, was an international bestseller which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt du premier roman, among other prizes.