The biography of Roland Barthes (1915–1980), a central figure in French thought of his time, draws on unpublished materials (archives, diaries, notebooks), shedding light on his political positions, beliefs and passions. It describes in detail the themes of his works, the authors he defended, the myths he exposed, the polemics that made him famous - we will see how sensitively he listened to the languages of his time. Barth had an extraordinary gift of foresight: we still read him because he explored territories that we have now mastered. The story of his life helps to understand how consistent Barth's creative path was, where he was guided by desire, an extraordinary sensitivity to the materials from which the world is woven, as well as distrust of any authoritative discourse. Having made fantasy the basis of his thought, he turned it into both art and adventure. Immersion in his life, in the form of his existence allows us to understand how Barth wrote and how literature became life itself for him.