First published in 1950, The Labyrinth of Solitude addresses issues that are both seemingly eternal and resoundingly contemporary: the nature of political power in post-conquest Mexico, the relation of Native Americans to Europeans, the ubiquity of official corruption. Noting these matters earned Paz no small amount of trouble from the Mexican leadership, but it also brought him renown as a social critic. Paz, who went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, later voiced his disillusionment with all political systems--as the Mexican proverb has it, "all revolutions degenerate into governments"--but his call for democracy in this book has lately been reverberating throughout Mexico, making it timely once again.
From Library Journal
Originally issued in 1962, The Labyrinth of Solitude (Grove Weidenfeld. (ISBN 0-8021-5042-X. pap. $10.95; reprint) "contains nine beautifully written, deeply felt essays . . . whose concern is the Mexican's solitariness and quest for identity" ( LJ 4/15/62). The expanded volume contains additional essays written in the spirit of Labyrinth and other important works.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Language Notes
Text: English, Spanish (translation)
The Labyrinth of Solitude FROM THE PUBLISHER
Octavio Paz has long been acknowledged as Mexico's foremost writer and critic. In this international classic, Paz has written one of the most enduring and powerful works ever created on Mexico and its people, character, and culture. Compared to Ortega y Gasset's The Revolt of the Masses for its trenchant analysis, this collection contains his most famous work, "The Labyrinth of Solitude," a beautifully written and deeply felt discourse on Mexico's quest for identity that gives us an unequaled look at the country hidden behind "the mask." Also included are "The Other Mexico," "Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude," "Mexico and the United States," and "The Philanthropic Ogre," all of which develop the themes of the title essay and extend his penetrating commentary to the United States and Latin America. Winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature, and past recipient of the Jerusalem Prize, the Frankfurt Peace Prize, and the Neustadt Prize, Octavio Paz is the author of more than twenty-five books of poetry and prose. In addition to being a poet, essayist, playwright, social philosopher, and critic, he has also served as a Mexican diplomat in France and Japan, and as Mexican ambassador to India.
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