It was published posthumously by François Wahl, Barthes' literary executor.

[1] In the first essay, La Lumiere du Sud-Ouest, first published in L'Humanité in 1977,[2] Roland Barthes reflects on the South West of France, the Adour and Bayonne.

The second essay, Incidents, written in 1969,[3] details Barthes's holiday in Morocco, where he pays men and boys for sex.

The fourth essay, Soirées de Paris, is a diary from August to September 1979, where Roland Barthes admits to using male escorts as all his relationships have been disappointing to him.

Although critics have questioned whether Roland Barthes intended to publish Incidents and Soirées de Paris, it has been argued that they have informed our reading of Barthes's oeuvre because of their explicit revelations of his homosexuality.