What is astrology? Fiction for the bourgeoisie. The Tour de France? An
epic. The brain of Einstein? Knowledge reduced to a formula. Like iconic
images of movie stars or the rhetoric of politicians, they are
fabricated. Once isolated from the events that gave birth to them, these
"mythologies" appear for what they are: the ideology of mass culture.

When Roland Barthes's groundbreaking Mythologies first
appeared in English in 1972, it was immediately recognized as one of
the most significant works in French theory—yet nearly half of the
essays from the original work were missing. This new edition of Mythologies is
the first complete, authoritative English version of the French
classic. It includes the brilliant "Astrology," never published in
English before.

Mythologies is
a lesson in clairvoyance. In a new century where the virtual dominates
social interactions and advertisement defines popular culture, it is
more relevant than ever.