{"product_id":"2940169911466","title":"The Seventh Function of Language: A Novel","description":"From the prizewinning author of \u003ci\u003eHHhH\u003c\/i\u003e comes \u003ci\u003eThe Seventh Function of Language\u003c\/i\u003e, a romp through the French intelligentsia of the twentieth century.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eParis, 1980. The literary critic Roland Barthes dies-struck by a laundry van-after lunch with the presidential candidate François Mitterand. The world of letters mourns a tragic accident. But what if it wasn¿t an accident at all? What if Barthes was murdered?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Seventh Function of Language\u003c\/i\u003e, Laurent Binet spins a madcap secret history of the French intelligentsia, starring such luminaries as Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, and Julia Kristeva-as well as the hapless police detective Jacques Bayard, whose new case will plunge him into the depths of literary theory. Soon Bayard finds himself in search of a lost manuscript by the linguist Roman Jakobson on the mysterious ¿seventh function of language.¿\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA brilliantly erudite comedy that recalls \u003ci\u003eFlaubert¿s Parrot\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Name of the Rose\u003c\/i\u003e-with more than a dash of \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eDa Vinci Code\u003c\/i\u003e-\u003ci\u003eThe Seventh Function of Language\u003c\/i\u003e takes us from the cafés of Paris  to the corridors of Cornell University and into the duels and orgies of the Logos Club, a secret philosophical society that dates to the era of the Roman Empire. Binet has written both a send-up and a wildly exuberant celebration of the French intellectual tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blackstone Audio, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47104714604784,"sku":"2940169911466","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169911466_p0.jpg?v=1769902590","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169911466","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}